Tiocfaidh ár lá
Template:EngvarB Template:Use dmy dates {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:IPA|main}} Template:Respell) is an Irish language sentence which translates as "our day will come". It is a slogan of Irish republicanism. "Our day" is the date hoped for by Irish nationalists on which a united Ireland is achieved.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Wilson20211214">Template:Cite news</ref> The slogan was coined in the 1970s during the Troubles in Northern Ireland and variously credited to Bobby Sands or Gerry Adams.
It has been used by Sinn Féin representatives,<ref name="demo1984">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> appeared on graffiti and political murals,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and been shouted by IRA defendants being convicted in British and Irish courts,<ref name="demo1984" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and by their supporters in the public gallery.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> For Timothy Shanahan, the slogan "captures [a] confident sense of historical destiny".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Derek Lundy comments, "Its meaning is ambiguous. It promises a new day for a hitherto repressed community, but it is also redolent of payback and reprisal."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Some Irish-language speakers claim that the slogan is ungrammatical, unidiomatic, or "deviant".<ref name="jailtacht2012p52" /><ref name="carson" /><ref name="macgc2011p202" /><ref name=":0" /> It is familiar enough to have spawned various parodies. Alternative slogans include "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}" ("the day will be with us") and "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}" ("Power will have another day!").
Origins
The literal English phrase "our day will come" has been used in unrelated contexts, for example as the title of a 1963 pop song by Ruby & the Romantics. A foreshadowing of the republican slogan is in James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, when the nationalist Michael Davin (based on George Clancy) says Irish republicans "died for their ideals, Stevie. Our day will come yet, believe me."<ref>Template:Cite book; Template:Cite book</ref>
The Irish phrase {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is attributed to Bobby Sands, a prisoner held at Maze Prison and member of the Provisional IRA – an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reunification and the establishment of an independent republic.<ref>Template:Cite book; Template:Cite book; Template:Cite book; Template:Cite book</ref> He uses the phrase in several writings smuggled out of the Maze Prison.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It is the last sentence of the diary he kept of the 1981 hunger strike in which he died, published in 1983 as One Day in my Life.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> However, Diarmait Mac Giolla Chríost has antedated the slogan to a pamphlet published in Template:Circa 1975–77 by Gerry Adams of his experiences in the Maze.<ref name="jailtacht2012p52"/> Adams himself has ascribed the slogan to Republican prisoners generally, both men in the Maze and women in Armagh Prison.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Many republicans learned Irish in prison (a phenomenon known as "Jailtacht", a pun on {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}),<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and conversed regularly with each other through Irish, both for cultural reasons and to keep secrets from the wardens.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Irish language revival movement has often overlapped with Irish nationalism, particularly in Northern Ireland.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} has been called "the battle cry of the blanketmen".<ref name="jailtacht2012p63">Mac Giolla Chríost 2012 p.63</ref> Republican consciousness raising around the hunger strikes increased awareness of the Irish language in Northern Ireland's nationalist community.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Some Irish-language speakers, including Ciarán Carson, contend that {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is ungrammatical or at least unidiomatic, reflecting L1 interference from English, a phenomenon dubbed {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.<ref name="jailtacht2012p52"/><ref name="carson"/><ref name="macgc2011p202"/><ref name=":0">De Brún 2006 p.174; Template:Cite journal</ref> Mac Giolla Chríost is less categorical, on the basis that {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ('the day will come') is standard Irish;<ref name="jailtacht2012p52">Mac Giolla Chríost 2012, p.52</ref> on the other hand, he says {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} typifies the "deviant" nature of Jailtacht Irish.<ref name="macgc2011p202">Template:Cite book</ref>
Instances
Patrick Magee said {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} after being sentenced in 1986 for the 1984 Brighton hotel bombing,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> while his wife in the gallery wore a Katharine Hamnett-style T-shirt with the slogan.<ref>Template:Cite news; {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Loyalist paramilitary Michael Stone got past the Republican security cordon to commit the 1988 Milltown Cemetery attack by saying {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.<ref name="carson" /><ref name="Stone2004">Template:Cite book</ref> One of four loyalist paramilitaries shouted the phrase at a court sentencing in 2002.<ref>De Brún 2006 p.156; Template:Cite news</ref> At the 2018 Sinn Féin ard fheis, new party leader Mary Lou McDonald concluded her speech with {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.<ref name="McQuinn2018">Template:Cite news</ref> The phrase, which was not on the script circulated in advance, was criticised by politicians from Fianna Fáil ("hark back to a very dark time"), Fine Gael ("irresponsible"), and the Ulster Unionist Party ("stale rhetoric").<ref name="McQuinn2018"/>
{{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (TÁL) is the name of a fanzine for Celtic F.C.'s Irish republican ultras.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It was established in 1991, at which time Celtic were enduring a period of prolonged inferiority to Rangers F.C., their Old Firm rivals, giving "our day will come" an extra resonance.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Irish-American folk-rock band LeperKhanz released a 2005 album named Tiocfaidh Ár Lá.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The 1992 and 1993 editions of Macmillan's The Student Book: The Indispensable Applicant's Guide to UK Colleges, Polytechnics and Universities advised potential University of Ulster students that "Tiocfaioh ar la" [sic] was a common greeting on campus and meant "pleased to meet you". This error, suspected to be the result of a prank, was expunged from the 1994 edition.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In A Reality Tour, a 2003 concert filmed at the Point Depot in Dublin, David Bowie says {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} during the applause after "Rebel Rebel". Gerry Leonard claims to have suggested it to Bowie.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
In 2019, Una Mullally commented about an upsurge in the appropriation of Troubles-era slogans by young Irish people on both sides of the border: "There's a tacit understanding that a lot of the mindless repetition of IRA slogans such as 'Tiocfaidh ár lá', 'Up the RA' and 'Brits out' is purposefully goofy – even if the latter two at least are offensive."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A performance the same year in University College Dublin by Kneecap, an Irish-language hip hop trio from West Belfast, was terminated when they led the audience in a chant of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, breaching the university's policies for "Dignity", "Respect", and "Equality, Diversity & Inclusion".<ref>Template:Cite news; Template:Cite news</ref> JD Sports apologised in 2020 when its online catalogue depicted a branded kit for the Northern Ireland football team worn by a model with a visible tattoo reading "ticofaidh ár lá" Template:Sic.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2021, a Derry charity video Christmas card was withdrawn after protests of its depiction of Gerry Adams singing "Deck the Halls" with "Fa, la, la, la, la, la ..." changed to "tiocfaidh ár lá, lá, lá ...".<ref name="Wilson20211214"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Legal cases
The 2007 arrest of Irish-language activist Máire Nic an Bhaird in Belfast was allegedly in part for saying {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} to Police Service of Northern Ireland officers, although she claimed to have said {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("your day will come").<ref name="convicted">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She was acquitted on appeal in September 2007.<ref name="acquitted">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 2014, a man who shouted the phrase outside a McDonald's in Belfast was convicted of disorderly behaviour when his defence of freedom of expression was rejected.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2017, the Fair Employment Tribunal awarded damages to a Catholic employee who had been dismissed after taking sick leave in response to a Protestant manager shouting {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} at her.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Allusions
IRA
Sinéad Morrissey's 2002 poem "Tourism", describing the economic boom that followed the peace process, states ironically "Our day has come."<ref>Template:Cite book; Template:Cite book; Template:Cite journal</ref> Gearóid Mac Lochlainn, a Belfast-born Irish-language poet, uses the phrase in a 2002 poem, "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}" ("Shopping"), characterised by Mac Giolla Chríost as "the voice of youthful rebellion, ... of hip-hop".<ref name="jailtacht2012p79">Mac Giolla Chríost 2012 p.79</ref> In Mac Lochlainn's own English translation of his poem, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is left untranslated.<ref name="jailtacht2012p79" /> Paul Muldoon's 2011 poem "Barrage Balloons, Buck Alec, Bird Flu and You", dedicated to Dermot Seymour, contains the lines "Even Christ's checking us out from his observation post. / Even he can't quite bend Tiocfaidh Ár Lá to the tune of 'Ghost / Riders in the Sky.'"<ref>Template:Cite book; Template:Cite journal</ref> Kevin Higgins' 2019 English-language poem "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}" ["your day will come"] is a satire directed at a unionist who will be forced to learn Irish.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Other
Margo Harkin's Derry-set 1990 film Hush-A-Bye Baby has "a witty scene which nevertheless offended many nationalists":<ref name="Cullingford">Template:Cite book</ref> a republican youth confronts a British soldier with a disjointed mishmash of Irish-language names and phrases, ending with {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, only for the soldier to challenge him in fluent Irish.<ref name="Cullingford"/> In 1993 Desmond Fennell charged the Dublin 4 establishment with neoliberalism and cultural cringe, ends with a call for a "deprovincialised, deimperialised world ... Tiocfaidh ár lá."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Gerald Dawe said this "reads like the old 'Irish-Ireland' cultural missal".<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The introduction, by Stephen Brown of Ulster University, to a 2006 survey of "Celtic marketing" was titled "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}".<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Commenting on unionist Peter Robinson's impending retirement at a 2015 meeting of the North/South Ministerial Council, Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness said, "my day too will come at some stage", at which Robinson sparked laughter by responding, "It's Tiocfaidh ár Lá isn't it."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Bookmaker Paddy Power advertised its odds for the outcome of Ireland's 2015 same-sex marriage referendum using a photo of kissing men wearing paramilitary-style balaclavas and the tagline {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.<ref>Template:Cite news; {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The Irish rebel song 'SAM song' contains the chorus "Tiocfaidh Ar Lá, sing Up the 'Ra, SAM missiles in the sky".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In October 2021, former UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage unwittingly used republican slogans in several scripted video clips ordered via Cameo, including a putative birthday message to "Gerard" from "Con and Maggie" at "Chucky Arlaw's in Brighton".<ref>Template:Multiref</ref>
Variants
Similar slogans include:
- {{#invoke
- Lang|lang}} : ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}) literally translates as "the day will be with us".<ref name="carson">Template:Cite book</ref> Ciarán Carson says it is more idiomatic Irish than {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.<ref name="carson"/> The hybrid form {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}; "our day will be with us") is also found among republicans.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- {{#invoke
- Lang|lang}} : ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}; "Power will have another day!") were the last words from the gallows of Edmund Power of Dungarvan, executed for his part in the Wexford Rebellion of 1798. The phrase was often cited by Éamon de Valera.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It occurs in the play {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, by Brendan Behan; his English translation, The Hostage, renders it "we'll have another day". It is echoed in There will be another day, the title of republican Peadar O'Donnell's 1963 memoir.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The slogan is not exclusively a political slogan, and may simply mean "another chance will come".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Parodies of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} include:
- Chucky
- an English-language pronunciation spelling of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, it is pejorative for an Irish republican (sometimes shortened to Chuck).<ref name=":1">Template:Cite news</ref>
- {{#invoke
- Lang|lang}}: mocking Sinn Féin's move towards respectability from the peace process<ref name=":2">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":3">Template:Cite news</ref>
- "Tiocfaidh Ar La La"
- on T-shirts depicting the eponymous Teletubby as an IRA member.<ref name=":4">Template:Cite news</ref>
- "Tiocfaidh Arlene"
- various jokes about Arlene Foster, former leader of the Democratic Unionist Party and First Minister of Northern Ireland.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}; Template:Cite news; Template:Cite news</ref>
See also
- Irish language in Northern Ireland
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, "safe [journey] homeward", ironic republican farewell to British Army forces
- Siege of Derry, origin of the loyalist slogan "No Surrender"
References
Sources
Citations
External links
- {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}