Celtic language radio on the web

Photo by El Conde!

July 16, 7:42 PM

The 20th century witnessed an epidemic decrease in the number of people who spoke Celtic languages as their mother tongue. Particularly in the case of Ireland and the United Kingdom, centuries of attempts to linguistically homogenize the people of the British Isles under one speech (English) broke the link between older and younger generations of passing down languages like Gaelic or Welsh. This, combined with the recent global saturation of English-language media, has threatened the extinction of these ancient tongues. Scholars and census-takers have warned of the grim prospect that conversational Celtic languages will never be heard again outside the academic world.

But recent years have seen resurgence in the use of Celtic languages. The desire for stronger cultural identity amongst the peoples of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, and Cornwall (as well as their continental Celtic cousins, Brittany and Galicia) has lead to radio, television, news and music being increasingly conducted in native regional tongues. These have by no means superseded English, but are a strong step towards reversing the decline that Celtic languages have suffered.

The digital age has helped make this even more possible. Even if you live on the other side of the globe, you can still tune into radio programs online in the following Celtic languages:

Irish (Gaeilge) RTÉ (Radio Telefís Éireann) is the Public Service Broadcaster of Ireland (similar to the American NPR and PBS). RTÉ offers a number of Irish-language radio programs. On the “Ceol” (music) section of their Raidió na Gaeltachta, just click on a show title to the right of the host’s headshot, where you will find a bilingual description of the individual program. Then click the option, “Éist leis an gclár/Listen to the show”.

Gaelic (Gáidhlig) Scotland’s BBC Radio nan Gáidheal plays folk, contemporary, classical, even Gaelic-language country music. Browse the English descriptions for these shows hosted in Scottish Gaelic, and click “listen now.”

Welsh (Cymraeg) Wales’ BBC Radio Cymru offers contemporary and classical music programs (as well as a variety of talk shows) in Welsh. Mouse over the host pictures to see a brief bilingual description of each show, then click the audio symbol to listen to archived episodes.

Manx (Gaelg) Claare ny Gael is broadcast each Sunday by Manx Radio on the Isle of Man. This is a bilingual show featuring music, storytelling, and discussions about traditional Manx culture. Click here to listen to the most recent episode.

Cornish (Kernewek) Radyo an Gernewegva is a Cornish-language music and talk podcast, issued between two and five times per month. You can listen to it directly on the website (click either the word "Goslowes" or "Iskarga" on each episode) or download it for free on iTunes.

Breton (Brezhoneg) Radio Kerne broadcasts a variety of Breton and bilingual (Breton and French) programming. Tune in by clicking here.

Galician (Galega) Although their language technically falls into the Romance category, the Galicians of northwestern Spain are culturally and genetically a branch on the Celtic family tree. Radio Galega Música streams Galician folk music, which is Celtic with a distinctively Mediterranean/Arabic flavor to it. Simply launch the page and the player will begin streaming on its own.

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