Scots Gaelic and Welsh language Broadcasting in the Cultural Contexts: a Comparative Analysis

This paper will be a presentation and comparative analysis of the experiences of Welsh and Scots Gaelic broadcasting. The intention is to draw conclusions regarding broadcasting strategies in those languages and to identify the implications of those conclusions for Irish language broadcasting strategy. It was decided that a brief discussion of a wider range of lesser used languages would be superficial in nature, and of little real benefit to understanding the Irish situation. Instead, a more detailed presentation will be given of the Welsh and Scots Gaelic cases on the basis that their cultural and historical experience has most similarity to the Irish situation, especially With regard to their relationship to the English language and their historical position within the United Kingdom. The presentations will not be subjected to a tightly defmed theoretical or comparative framework, (i.e. the 'minority language' model) because these methods have led to relevant features being ignored in previous research. The only conscious bias will be an attempt to identify features In the Welsh and Scottish situations which are relevant to the comparative analysis and to the Irish situation