‘New speakers’ on Irish language community radio: new understandings of linguistic variation on Raidió na Life

Abstract

This article examines the use of Irish on the community radio station Raidió na Life which has broadcast to Dublin since 1993. By admitting and indirectly valorising a variety of linguistic styles, Raidió na Life can be seen to function as a space for 'new speakers' of Irish, fluent and regular users who were not raised with Irish as their language of primary socialisation in childhood. Based on interviews and focus group research, the article analyses the influence of Raidió na Life on the use of Irish among volunteer broadcasters. Furthermore, it discusses their ideologies in relation to linguistic variation and to how the station uses Irish and other languages. The article concludes that the volunteer broadcasters of Raidió na Life are more relaxed about linguistic prescriptivism than management but still adhere to an ideology of Irish as the backbone of the station. They are accepting of those who have little or no Irish but are adamant that Irish, in some form, must be the working language of Raidió na Life and of its broadcasts. For the broadcasters, diversity and quality of content, particularly underserved musical genres, is more important than ensuring a high linguistic standard of Irish.