The National Language and Article 4 of the 1922 Constitution

The 1922 Constitution mentions Irish only twice—grouping language and flag together in Article 4 and Article 42 elevating the language to a first and official tongue but providing little practical support for the language’s continued use or revival in public spaces. The result of this framing of Irish was, apparently, to relegate the language to a position of demonstrative symbolism. It was a position which, whether it was intentional or not, continued to characterise the official view of the language for much of the jurisdiction’s first 100 years. The constitutional status of Irish, from the outset, was as a language whose existence was both highly visible and under-determined. This chapter examines the drafting and development of the language protections in the 1922 text and how they came to frame national commitments through judicial interpretation in the first decades of the new State—and the twentieth century.