As it gained its independence from the United Kingdom, Ireland tasked its state with a unique language mission. Irish (Gaeilge), is recognized as the national language and first official language of Ireland. To this end, Irish language is compulsory in most schools. And most Irish people will have had some memory, as part of their education, of being sent out West to a Gaeltacht, one of the various regions where Irish is still the primary day-to-day language. Irish-language speakers have had a unique and sometimes quite radical political role in Ireland.

Irish continues to decline as a daily spoken language, but in some ways it is institutionally healthier than ever. In recent decades, Irish-language broadcasts have become a true feature of the media landscape. And there is a dramatic expansion in demand for the state to provide Gailscoileanna — Irish-medium schools that teach all subjects through the Irish language. It is never quite acknowledged, but one reason for the demand for these schools is the number of Irish people who are keeping their kids out of immigrant-dominated schools. Rare exceptions aside, immigrants come to Ireland wanting to learn English, not Irish.

But now, immigration policy is colliding directly with the mission of preservation that the Irish government has established for itself. Aris Roussinos, writing in UnHerd, visits tiny Carna (pop. 180), an Irish-speaking village west of Galway. The government has chosen the town’s only hotel as a suitable International Protection Accommodation Services site for up to 87 asylum seekers. The hotel had traditionally been used to house language-seeking tourists, and also by the town residents as a community center at which birthdays, first communions, and weddings were celebrated.

Although the government has admitted that upwards of 80 percent of asylum seekers have no legal claim to asylum and are instead economic migrants, IPAS centers fill up quickly; their residents are provided with room, board, and a weekly stipend. While there is no significant representation of anti-immigration sentiment in mainstream Irish politics, popular anger is boiling over, and some sites designated as IPAS centers have been burned before the government can begin using them. Roussinos’s portrait of the town’s residents moves from angry to despairing. Essential reading.