On Prophets, Godfathers, Rebels, and Prostitutes: Distributed Agency in the Irish Language Revival of Northern Ireland

The Irish language has recently experienced a remarkable revival in Northern Ireland that has coincided with the violent conflict unfolding throughout the second half of the twentieth century. While being widely attributed, both within and outside the language scene, to the crucial agency of Irish Republicans, this article argues that the revival should rather be seen as based on agency that has been distributed across various sets of actors and been beyond the control of any one of them. Focussing on Catholic West Belfast that has been at the heart of the revival, four distinct types of agency are shown to have co-produced this language revival in path-dependent and often unintended ways. Following local parlance, these types of agency are metaphorically identified with the roles of "prophet", "godfather", "rebel", and "prostitute".