The emergence of the nineteenth-century Gaelic column alongside pre-Revival and Revival periodicals ensured a new presence for the Irish language as part of an emerging popular culture. The inclusion of these forums for publishing the Irish language was mainly directed by prominent Revivalists and intellectuals, as a result of a combination of practical initiatives and the implementation of a new ideology. Book surveys and studies on periodicals are particularly insightful in demonstrating how print culture paved the way for the Irish language to feature in mainstream print media, providing a channel that helped to create a bridge between cultural change and media events within specific timeframes (Larkin and O’Brien 2014; Ó Ciosáin 2004–6; Sharpe 2016a). This approach was pivotal in the success of the implementation of the aims of the Language Revival to preserve and extend the use of the Irish language, to study existing Gaelic literature and to cultivate a modern literature.

The periodical press supported the development of a specifically Irish literary culture, by becoming spaces in which ground-breaking Irish literature, whether short stories, prose or fiction, was serialised and read by emerging literary audiences (Mac Congáil 2011; Nic Pháidín 1998; Uí Chollatáin 2004). This essay will focus mainly on how press and periodical spaces became significant vehicles for Irish language and culture to flourish and develop. Much as in the case of Welsh and Scots Gaelic culture, such development took place in spaces that juxtaposed and juggled Irish- and English-language usage within confined societal structures (Mac Mathúna 2007; Mac Mathúna and Uí Chollatáin 2016; Uí Chollatáin 2016a, 2012a). It is worth noting, however, that, although the main focus was of a literary and cultural nature, the Gaelic column in English language newspapers from the mid-nineteenth century onwards developed into a forum for the Irish Ireland movement in the local and national press (Uí Chollatáin 2004; Uí Fhaoláin 2014). In this regard this chapter will also offer insights into the significant role the press played in the formal structures that early in the century sought to banish the Irish language from the cultural sphere. Much Irish-language print material of the early nineteenth century was linked to religious organisations, and it is not until the latter half of the nineteenth century that Irish emerges in public discourse forums (O Ciosain 2004–6: 73–106).