2026/06/25 by Fionnghuala Nic Roibeaird, Sean Haughey · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Irish and British Studies #Multilingual Education and Policy #Political Systems and Governance
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/13537113.2026.2687269
openalex publication_date 2026/06/25 · openalex created_date 2026/06/26 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/27
This article examines Irish language activism in Northern Ireland, an understudied yet successful case of grassroots mobilization in the context of a post-conflict consociational democracy. Drawing on in-depth semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis, it analyses how language campaigners navigated and ultimately overcame a range of challenges—civic malaise, consocational vetoes, and elite-driven political culture—to achieve official recognition of their language via historic legislation in 2022. We show how a group of activists developed community spaces and language reclamation infrastructure to cultivate an independent political ecosystem prepared to upset norms of top-down consociational politics. This strategy enabled the movement to decouple from dominant ethnonational elites, broaden support beyond traditional communal boundaries, and exploit the UK’s multi-level governance system through strategic venue-shopping during periods of consociational collapse. By foregrounding the interaction between civic activism, ethnonational identity politics, and power-sharing institutions, the article contributes to scholarship on mobilization in divided societies and offers wider insights for minority language campaigners operating in similar political environments.