Language and Occupational Status: Linguistic Elitism in the Irish Labour Market

This paper, using data from the 2006 Irish Census, provides evidence of the structural advantage of Irish speaking, relative to non-speaking workers in Ireland’s labour market with advantage and disadvantage being defined in terms of occupational outcomes. To the best of our knowledge there has been no systematic investigation of any advantage enjoyed by Irish speakers in Ireland and allegations of the comfortable middle class ambience of the Gaelscoileanna have remained at the level of anecdote. Since linguistic elitism is a feature of many societies and since Irish enjoys the constitutional status of the national and first official language of Ireland, such an investigation was, arguably, overdue. This is then compared to the structural advantage of Irish speaking workers in Northern Ireland and of Welsh speaking workers in Wales. Our conclusion is that after controlling for as many relevant factors as the data permitted, a considerable part of the difference between Irish speakers and non-speakers in Ireland, in their proportionate presence in the upper reaches of occupational class, was due to structural advantage. The major contribution of this paper is to lift the debate about the economic position of Irish speakers in Ireland above the level of hearsay: dúirt bean liom go ndúirt bean léi.

Irish services: the industrial relations dimensions of a rapidly growing sector

"Dieser Beitrag setzt an der Expansion des Dienstleistungssektors an, die Irland in der letzten Dekade erfahren hat. Der erste Abschnitt gibt einen Überblick über den allgemeinen Wandel des irischen Dienstleistungssektors seit 1987. Der zweite Abschnitt beschreibt überblicksartig das irische System industrieller Beziehungen und präsentiert Fallstudien aus vier Dienstleistungsindustrien (Bankwesen, Einzelhandel, Reinigungsdienste und Tourismus) zu zentralen Fragen der Lohnentwicklung und der industriellen Beziehungen. Der Beitrag schließt mit einer Analyse der Entwicklungen innerhalb des irischen Systems industrieller Beziehungen im Allgemeinen und innerhalb des Dienstleistungssektors im Besonderen. Insgesamt zeigt der Beitrag, dass das Wachstum des irischen Dienstleistungssektors eher durch Makrofaktoren denn durch gezielte Initiativen getrieben ist. Die Entwicklung eines Industrial Relations-Modells sozialer Partnerschaft wird oft als wichtige Erklärungsgröße des irischen Erfolges angeführt. Dies ist jedoch nur eine Erklärungsgröße, deren Bedeutung zudem noch umstritten ist. Wichtiger ist, dass sich das irische Modell sozialer Partnerschaft mit seinen großen Unterschieden in der Einkommensverteilung sowie niedrigen Personen- und Unternehmenssteuern signifikant vom neokorporatistischen Modell der skandinavischen Länder in den 50er und 70er unterscheidet. Ergebnis sind deutliche Einschränkungen des irischen Partnerschaftsmodells." (Autorenreferat)"This paper sets out to sketch the main elements of the services sector expansion, which Ireland has experienced over the last decade or more. The first section of the paper contains a review of the general changes to the Irish services sector, which have taken place since 1987. The second section gives an overview of the Irish industrial relations system, followed by a set of case studies focusing on wages and key industrial relations issues in four subsectors of services; banking, retailing, contract cleaning and tourism. The paper concludes with an analytical examination of developments within the Irish industrial relations system in general, and the services sector in particular. The paper demonstrates that services sector growth has largely been driven by macroeconomic developments rather than targeted initiatives. The development of a social partnership model of industrial relations is often cited as the main contribution to Irish economic success, however, this is only one of the contributory factors and the extent of its contribution is a matter for debate. More importantly the Irish model of social partnership, characterised, as it is by high variance in income distribution, low personal and corporate tax rates, is distinctly different from the neo-corporatist model, which is associated with Scandinavia in the 1950s to 1970s. This has led to severe strains in the Irish model of social partnership." (author's abstract

Ireland: The Emerald Isle: Management Research in a Changing European Context

No abstract available

Language and occupational status: linguistic elitism in the Irish labour market

This paper, using data from the 2006 Irish Census, provides evidence of the structural advantage of Irish speaking, relative to non-speaking workers in Ireland’s labour market with advantage and disadvantage being defined in terms of occupational outcomes. To the best of our knowledge there has been no systematic investigation of any advantage enjoyed by Irish speakers in Ireland and allegations of the comfortable middle class ambience of the Gaelscoileanna have remained at the level of anecdote. Since linguistic elitism is a feature of many societies and since Irish enjoys the constitutional status of the national and first official language of Ireland, such an investigation was, arguably, overdue. This is then compared to the structural advantage of Irish speaking workers in Northern Ireland and of Welsh speaking workers in Wales. Our conclusion is that after controlling for as many relevant factors as the data permitted, a considerable part of the difference between Irish speakers and non-speakers in Ireland, in their proportionate presence in the upper reaches of occupational class, was due to structural advantage. The major contribution of this paper is to lift the debate about the economic position of Irish speakers in Ireland above the level of hearsay: dúirt bean liom go ndúirt bean léi