Gaeltarra Éireann

Gaeltarra Éireann was an Irish state industrial development agency set up in 1957 specifically for the Gaeltacht, the Irish speaking areas of Ireland. Gaeltarra Éireann followed on from the dedicated government department that had been initiated to coordinate Gaeltacht affairs when the new boundaries were drawn up for the reduced size Gaeltacht in 1956. [ [http://www.coimisineir.ie/index.php?page=faoin_teanga&lang=english&tid=23 An Coimisinéir Teanga, "Protecting language rights"] (retrieved 11 October 2006)]

Gaeltarra's approach to the task at hand was centred on the believe that there had to be some sort of an urban focus in the Gaeltacht. Something that would attract inward industrial investment and keep young people in the area. It created two major industrial estates, one at Na Doirí Beaga in northwestern County Donegal, and another around An Spidéal in southwestern County Galway. Initially, this was controversial, as Croithlí (Donegal) and Tuar Mhic Éadaigh (Mayo) already had successful industries, and were established economic bases. Gaeltarra Éireann stated that it picked these two locations as they were, according to the census, the stronest districts linguistically (in terms of Irish), and they sought to "raise the flag" as it were and possibly encourage other people in slightly weaker Gaeltacht areas to continue to speak the language. In terms of creating jobs these schemes were relatively successful. They attracted business into small rural communities on the western fringes of Europe, in areas that had previously been suffering from a long-term economic decline and depopulation.

However, it is now viewed that despite all this Gaeltarra Éireann failed in perhaps its most fundamental objective - to saveguard the use of the Irish language as the main community language in the Gaeltacht. Many of the investers saw Irish as useless and working environments were almost exclusively English-dominanted. It therefore undermined the native language and subsequently added to its demise. The organisation did not see the language as a potential tourist attraction, and did not at any time seek to arrest the decline in order to exploit the language's unique character internationally (to both the language's and the local people's detriment); a mistake that the current Údarás na Gaeltachta has not made to date.

Údarás na Gaeltachta was established in 1980 to take over the business of Gaeltarra Éireann.

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