This is an abridged and translated version of Ciarán Mackel's speech from this year's Cothaigh Dinner in An Chultúrlann, where he outlined the vision for An Spás Dín....
AN Spás Dín is envisaged as a state-of-the art facility that will tell the remarkable history of the contemporary Irish language revival and lift the sites of Gaeilgeoirí across this city, both literally and figuratively.
The architects of this linguistic and cultural revival set out with a simple but ambitious vision. They determined to create a small community at Bóthar Seoighe where the Irish language – still languishing under the weight of sectarian and colonial policy – would eventually flourish.
Schooled in the people’s university of An Cumann Chluain Ard, they learned the language in a hall on Hawthorne Street which was built by the members themselves. Muintir Bóthar Seoighe carried this legacy forward when they built their own homes and much else.
Cumann Chluain Ard was also a place of intense discussion and activity, where its early contributors declared that the Irish language revival “must be aligned with the growing economic consciousness of the Irish worker”. Naturally, Irish language activists railed against the cultural, economic, and social oppression of those around them, and created history in the process.
It is against this background that we should read the famous quip by Seán Mac Seáin: “Na habair é, deán é. (Don’t say it, do it.” In one sense, this statement can be read as a common sense, can-do attitude. Talking shops don’t change the world. We should carry that attitude with us today. But there is another, far more revolutionary reading that we should not lose sight of either.
“Na habair é, deán é,” was also a rallying cry against the quiescent, Free State gradualism that had become the hallmark of organisations like Conradh na Gaeilge – not only a can-do attitude, therefore, but a philosophical moment that heralded the arrival of a new way of thinking and doing in the Irish language community.
These pioneers founded an experimental Irish language Gaeltacht, they built Bunscoil Phobail Feirste and Meanscoil Feirste and set An Ghaeilge on the course it finds itself today.
But as with the founders of Cumann Chluain Ard, their vision of language revival was a revolutionary one, encompassing new forms of economic organisation and participatory democracy.
They launched incredible acts of social solidarity, including the rebuilding of Bombay Street following the sectarian pogroms on 1969. They took ideas seriously, expounding them through their own publications like Scéal Úr, Iris Ghaeltacht Bhéal Feirste. They created worker-led enterprises like Siopa an Phobail, Garáiste an Phobail, and Ballymurphy Enterprises, giving glimpses of what a new Ireland might look like.
When you consider the radical potential of these efforts, it is unsurprising that this history is not to be found in the museums and archives of the state. A bare fact that inspired us to conceive of An Spás Dín.
For this, we too have a simple but ambitious vision: to tip the scale on the stark legacy imbalance in our city, so that the history of our community can finally be told.
The Irish language community doesn’t have docklands, shipyards, or the Titanic. Its existence and its social weight aren’t imposed through buildings like Stormont or City Hall. Its history has been all but ignored in the academy and by an overly cautious and unambitious tourism industry, which try to deny our history or blunt its radical character.
Perched atop Spórtlann na hÉireann, An Spás Dín will provide the space necessary for the conservation and celebration of this people’s history; a history that been painstakingly conserved in the photographs, documents, tapes and testimonies of its members.
An Spás Dín will both archive and display this heritage, this previously hidden history, which has been locked away in the the attics, cupboards, and memories of our cultural forebears.
As an educational facility, An Spás Dín will foster a sense of pride amongst the pupils of Coláiste Feirste, connecting them with their own history, revealing its role in shaping our city, and imparting the important lessons this history contains.
An Spás Dín will seek to raise the consciousness of the Irish language community, providing space for exhibitions, research, debate and discussion. We hope to realise the potential of the Irish language community – with its overwhelmingly working-class composition – as a social force; one which can overcome the real obstacles before them.
An Spás Dín will allow us to share our history in a way that is on a par with the visionary aspirations of the pioneers of Gaeltacht Bóthar Seoighe, who laid the foundations for all that surrounds us today.
