This talk was first delivered as part of Glór na Móna’s Féile na gCloigíní Gorma at the West Belfast home of Caitríona, Lisa and three-year-old Cillian McCrudden just weeks after their violent eviction by the Housing Executive and the PSNI.

As members of CATU, the Community Action Tenants Union – with branches and ties all over the island -- it is critical that we consider the housing crisis in its wider context, and the current precarity of the Irish-language in the material context in which it exists. One oft-cited quote about the decline of Irish implies that it could not be stemmed because “the conflicts and complicities that define the process work themselves out in the kitchen and in the bedroom... Such private places” (McCloskey, 2008). But what, then, of the fact that people sa Ghaeltacht are increasingly struggling to find their own home, their own kitchen, bedroom and “private places”? What impact is the housing crisis having on Irish?

In early 2026, Conradh na Gaeilge published research with CATU that showed an 88% increase in the number of Gaeltacht homes listed on Airbnb since 2019. There are now over 2,000 houses available for short-term rental on Airbnb alone sa Ghaeltacht. As young people in particular increasingly struggle with limited housing availability and the unaffordability of what is available, the impact on the Irish language is palpable:

“the proportion [of people] who could speak Irish in the Gaeltacht areas fell from 69% in 2011 to 66% in 2022... 20,261 [people] or 31% spoke the language daily. This was a fall of 2% compared with 2016 (Central Statistics Office, 2023).”

Of the roughly 66,000 Gaeltacht residents who said they could speak Irish, 28% reported that they did not speak Irish well, and another survey found just 23% of families sa Ghaeltacht raising their children with Irish. Our language remains in a precarious position, one which we cannot separate from the precarity of housing for so many people in Ireland today, as young people describe how “the Gaeltacht is being choked by Airbnb” (The Ditch, 2025). As the President of Conradh na Gaeilge stated: “If families cannot build or buy homes in their own areas, the Gaeltacht cannot survive. And without the Gaeltacht, there is no future for the Irish language as a community language”. That is, we cannot, as Irish-speakers, ensure the transmission and continuation of our language, its use in “the kitchen and in the bedroom” of McCloskey’s writings without considering, with equal concern, whether each of us has our most basic housing needs met.

The full transcript of the May 2026 talk can be found here.

Information about Caitríona, Lisa and Cillian’s eviction can be found here. 

CATU is Ireland’s nationwide tenants union and can be joined here.