Berkley Center

"Dia Duit!" (Classic Irish greeting). The translation is "May God be with you." The appropriate response is "Dia is Muire duit—May God and Mary be with you." The first thought running through my head is wow, that is a lot like the Hindi/Sanskrit greeting of namaste—I bow to the God within you.

I signed up for a voluntary "Beginner Irish Language Class" at my university. The very first day of class we went around the room, and the professor asked us why we had decided to learn Irish. The most common response was, "I have Irish heritage and want to be able to communicate with some of my distant relatives when we visit the countryside." When she came to me, I just smiled and said, "Out of curiosity and just for fun." I am embarrassed to admit that before coming to Ireland, I did not even know that Irish existed as its own language. When I had the opportunity to join the class, I thought, "Sure, why not?"

I am quite sure I perplexed my professor from the start. She struggled to pronounce my name. Then, when she asked where I was from, I answered America, and she again looked confused. Initially, I was a little bit nervous about coming to Ireland because I thought I’'d stick out being a random, Indian, non-Catholic person in a country of “redheads. However, I have been pleasantly surprised at how diverse and open-minded Dubliners are.

I decided to research the actual demographic breakdown of Dublin, and found the following:

White (Irish) 83.1 percent, White (Other) 8.06 percent, Asian 2.63 percent (0.9 percent Chinese), Black 1.81 percent, Mixed Race and Other 1.46 percent, Irish Traveller 0.4 percent.

Just for a reference point, I wanted to compare it to the United States as a whole:

White 79.96 percent, Black 12.85 percent, Asian 4.43 percent.

Although the percentages of non-whites in Ireland seem minimal, the presence of immigrant groups is quite apparent. I live on a street where there is a vegetarian restaurant run by Hare Krishnas, an Oriental grocery, and quite a few middle-eastern kebab shops. Dublin used to be a city from where people emigrated from, but during the rise of the Celtic Tiger, it became the place of immigration and employment to many Eastern Europeans. Once business started booming, Ireland began looking to foreign countries for employees. In 1993, 1,103 non-EU work permits were issued, but by then end of 2001, that number stood at 36,431. I witnessed this first hand, when I went to immigration to register with Garda. The place was teeming with people of many nationalities looking to extend their visas or apply for new ones. Sadly, the Celtic Tiger is coming to an end, and Ireland is in a deep recession. My worry is how the immigrant groups will fare during these times. It seems they will face backlash as jobs become more scarce, and more local Irish feel displaced from the workforce. A local taxi driver commented very openly one night that he can not believe all of the kebab shops in the city. "They are run with those people with bin Laden beards."

The potential hostility the Irish may feel towards these immigrant groups seems like a natural response from a people who have faced much invasion and colonization. One common characteristic I have discovered is that the Irish are proud, and much of that pride stems from being Catholic. Eighty-six percent of the population identifies as Catholic, so naturally the Irish culture and Catholicism go hand-in-hand. On my street, amidst the immigrant shops, is the Mary Immaculate Refuge of Sinners Church, where church bells ring every day. Cathedrals and churches are some of Ireland’'s major attractions, and the Catholic identity is embedded into the Irish culture. Abortion is still illegal, and divorce only became legal in 1995.

The continued use of the Irish language itself is also a source of pride. The language is considered the first official language and the language of the government, which represents another way the Irish like to prove their independence from the English. The language originated in the fourth century as a means for Irish scribes to annotate Latin religious manuscripts in their own language. In general, language is often imbibed with the religion of the people, and Irish is a prime example.

According to the 2006 Statement on the Irish Language, 42 percent of the population has the ability to speak the language, but only 3 percent converse in it on a daily basis. Although all of the signs are written in Irish and English in Dublin, I have yet to hear a casual conversation in Irish. The desire to speak the language is dwindling, and I think religiosity is facing a similar trend. Church attendance in Ireland, though still among the highest in Western Europe, has fallen from about 85 percent to 60 percent from 1975 to 2004, according to the Dublin Archdiocese. I asked some Irish students in my classes if they attend Mass, and surprisingly very few answered yes. The decline in church attendance mirrors the rise in commercialization. As business started booming, more people started flooding the country; Dublin started transforming into a secular city. Amidst the thousands of shops, offices, and pubs, there still exist beautiful churches and cathedrals. However, it seems the two worlds are now competing for the attention of Dublin’'s vibrant youth.

I look forward to investigating this trend more in the next two months, and await my trip to northern Ireland, where I can explore the battleground for religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics.