The barbarian and the cart: law, citizenship and linguistic identity in Irish macaronic verse

Abstract

This article focuses on the Irish language macaronic song 'An Trucailín Donn' (ATD) as a piece that is representative of the broader Irish/English macaronic tradition in exposing the identity conflicts that minority language speakers must internalize to resolve themselves as citizens. The article focuses, in particular, on how such songs expose the dilemma faced by Irish language speakersto either constitute themselves as Anglophone citizens within the institutional structures of the State, or Irish speaking citizens outside it.