'Translation in Progress': Centralizing and Peripheralizing Tensions in the Practices of Commerical Actors in Minority Language Sites

Abstract

The Irish language can be seen as a privileged minoritized language; as something that is both central and peripheral to everyday life in Ireland. The designated Irish-speaking/bilingual Gaeltacht regions illustrate well this periphery-centre complexity: they are geographically peripheral, yet central to the conception of Irish as a ‘living’ language and act as a core resource for the rest of the country. ‘Balanced’ Irish-English bilingualism has been rewarded since the foundation of the state in educational and official domains. However, in recent years, there has been a valorization of a more ‘unbalanced’ bilingualism (cf. Jaffe 2006) in domains which were previously the preserve of English only. Peripheral multilingualism as practised by the tourism and crafts sector in Gaeltacht regions is both part of these wider trends and evidence of individual acts of sign-making. This chapter explores the tensions that emerge in such practices between centralizing and peripheralizing norms and ideologies.