Report on news tonight, the influx of East Europeans people to Inishmore off the west coast has effectively saved the island community, mostly Polish people. The Gaelic (Irish)speaking natives were slowly dwindling away but the population is now increasing and prospects are good!
Even to the extent that local Irish speaking children are learning Polish too!
But, my guess is that traditionally the Celts took the low paid work on the UK mainland, however with the influx of cheaper labour from Poland most Celts have been pushed out of lower paid work, and so no longer make the trip to English cities for work, this has happened concurrently with the EU funded growth in the Celtic countries of the UK- so the simple answer is that Irish people stay/ return home because there’s no incentive for them to work in England, the Poles have replaced the Irish as the low paid workers in the UK.
So the Poles are the new Celts, and that will change when the Bulgarians turn up next year, Poles who haven’t found a secure foot hold in the UK will move on- it’s just an economic effect really.
The language uptake is because if people have no incentive to move they will more likely speak their native language, even if it means relearning it.
In my experience the whole Celtic/Anglo divide is very confusing for most Poles, they were brought up thinking we are all English
A certain flawed logic there....so canadians who only speak English are English...or French speaking Canadians are french....fraid not!
They are Canadians but you see people's of Austria are Austrians, but only citizenship, Austrian's blood is German, They all are German, one man called Hitler fought he was German not Austrian so he went to Germany
Perhaps yes in that instance.........but aren't Austrians still Austrian even if they speak german..............Ireland was always a nation........just happened to be occupied by a then later world power..........Irish was largely spoken by all Irish until late 19th century...
The name Prussia derives from the Old Prussians, a Baltic people related to the Lithuanians and Latvians; Prussia was later conquered by the Teutonic Knights and thereafter slowly Germanized.
So now tell me that Prussians (Germans) can identify with Baltic Prussians (sic!), so in yours: Yes cuz Prussians always were a nation, oh no! fu****en Germans killed and germanized all Prussians, so maybe now there could be real state Prussia with "real" Prussians, but not only Germans and thanks to Stalin (sic!) now there is no (German) Prussians (i wish there can be Baltic Prussian).
Its difficult to say that there is no difference between irish-speaking Irish (that doesn't know one english word) and english-speaking Irish (that doesn't know one irish word)
But I have a lot of admiration for Irishmen 800 years of captivity and their native LANGUAGE still can be RENEWED, I hope that Irish will win and there will be more irish-speaking Irishmen, In my opinion Yes Canadians are Canadians but that doesn't mean they are a native ethnic group!
well as a EXCEPTION in my opinion Brazilians are "ethnic" and are not Portugals, well see Ronaldinho, Romario, Ronaldo they do DISTINGUISH from Portugal (but it's only my view)
LMAO, to apply this logic, then the world is either English or chinese. And there are no Polish, only Russian.
Surprised to see a welshman ignorantly saying "the celtic countries of the UK". Last time I checked, there was an uprising in 1916 and a free state since 1921, republic since 1923.
The british love to act like they still have an empire, lol.
Babylon, if the English are not germanic, then please explain to me who is. The english royalty are German in origin, go have a free history lesson over at wikipedia.
As regards the English language, why not check out French, half the English language is derived from French (given the French influence over England since 1066)
Also, ever noticed the similarities between Russian and Polish (I sure have, by learning Polish, I've learned well over half the Russian language)
'In my experience the whole Celtic/Anglo divide is very confusing for most Poles, they were brought up thinking we are all English' You must have been drinking hemlock or something mate. In my experience, Polish peope are not only among the best educated people in Europe, they are fully aware of the political divide, and also extremely sensitive to it.
Poland has similar issues with GDANSK (free city of danzig) or LWOW, KIEV, and a whole lot more to boot.
Last but not least, I'm always a little surprised that people find it such a big deal that Irish people speak English. I'm proud and extremely grateful that English is my first language, it means that I can go get a job in nearly any country in the world faster than a non-native speaker.
Polish people would not suffer the trials and tribulations they have to suffer today if they spoke English as a first language. I can communicate with "somebody" in any country I travel in the world. I speak the language of business, the lingua franca. I also speak and like Irish, but its a non-essential language. I love to learn and speak Polish, but I know apart from speaking to my inlaws and some of my friends,its just a hobby.
I don't remember French and German very well but I enjoyed speaking those also, but again they're non essential.
