Abstract

This article examines the fortunes of the Irish language during the life of the Northern Ireland Parliament 1921-72, generally referred to as Stormont (although the Stormont building itself was not opened until 1932). Within its discussion of Unionist and Nationalist attitudes towards the Irish language, this article traces the increasing provincial bias of the Irish language movement in Northern Ireland under Partition and places this in the broader context of competing polarities within nationalism and unionism: national/ provincial and United Kingdom/regional.