ABSTRACT
This chapter explores in more depth some of the themes that emerged in the analysis of historical and theoretical literature. New speakers of Irish align themselves with what are perceived to be pre-existing linguistic groups or forge new categories of self-identification based on their newspeakerness. A smaller number of new speakers, often with a heritage connection to the Gaeltacht through their family, attempt to reclaim their ancestral dialect as a fundamental part of their linguistic identity. Many of the new speakers interviewed expressed ambiguity about the importance of Irish to their identity or said that they felt distanced from it in some way. The new speakers in the study also included people who were raised in Irish-speaking or bilingual homes outside the Gaeltacht but who nonetheless consider themselves distinct from Gaeltacht speakers. A feature of discourse surrounding minoritised languages such as Irish is their perceived suitability for diverse urban settings far removed from their ‘core’ rural communities.
