James Pritchett

Interview
Christy Evans

How long have you spoken the language for?
CE : All my life, so 52 years 

Why is it important to you to be able to speak Irish?
CE : Irish has no legal status at all in the six counties, and I’m not happy about that at all, so a language that the state wants dead, is a language I’m very lucky and happy to speak.  

How do you feel when you speak in Irish?
CE : Well, when I speak it, I am speaking it to family or to friends, therefore it’s a positive language, it a language of parties and concerts, nights out in the pub, running around having fun, so it’s a positive language. English is a work language; English is grey and Irish is multi coloured.   

How does the future look for the language?
CE : Well having been scraping along the bottom for decades there is now an increase, it's very slow, it’s quite a fragile increase, but the fact that so many young people now have the language. The demand from parents that want their kids to have all their education through the language, that demand is going up and up and up, the language has become normalised and it's not unusual to hear kids on the bus in Dublin yakking away about music or whatever in the language. Whereas in the past it was very much a sect or minority, so I am positive about the language, every reason to be positive.