Tiocfaidh ár lá
Encyclopedia
Tiocfaidh ár lá (ˈtʲʊki aːɾˠ ˈl̪ˠaː) is an Irish language
phrase which translates as "our day will come", the hoped-for day being that of a united Ireland
. It became a popular slogan
with militant Irish republicans
in the 1980s.
, a pop song about love, was a 1963 hit for Ruby & the Romantics
. In the context of Irish politics, in James Joyce
's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
, the nationalist Michael Davin (based on George Clancy
) says "They [Irish freedom fighters] died for their ideals, Stevie
. Our day will come yet, believe me."
The Irish phrase tiocfaidh ár lá is attributed to Provisional IRA
prisoner Bobby Sands
, who uses it in several writings smuggled out of the Maze Prison. It is the last sentence of the diary he kept of the 1981 hunger strike
in which he died. Many Republicans learned Irish in prison, (a phenomenon known as "Jailtacht", a pun on Gaeltacht
) and conversed regularly with each other through Irish, both for cultural reasons and to keep secrets from the wardens. The Irish language revival movement
has often overlapped with Irish Republicanism, particularly in Northern Ireland
. The upsurge in Republican consciousness in the wake of the hunger strikes also increased awareness of the Irish language in Republican areas.
representatives, appeared on graffiti
and political murals
, and been shouted by IRA defendants being convicted in British and Irish courts, and their supporters in the public gallery. Patrick Magee said it after being sentenced in 1986 for the 1984 Brighton hotel bombing
.
An apocryphal story claims that Michael Stone
got past the Republican security cordon to commit the 1988 Milltown Cemetery attack
by saying tiocfaidh ár lá.
The 1992 and 1993 editions of Macmillan
's The Student Book: The Indispensible 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.
The 2007 arrest of Irish-language activist Máire Nic an Bhaird
in Belfast was allegedly partly for saying tiocfaidh ár lá to PSNI
officers, although she claimed to have said tiocfaidh bhúr lá ("your day will come").
Tiocfaidh Ár Lá (TÁL) is the name of a fanzine
for Celtic F.C.
's Irish Republican ultras
. It was established in 1991, at which time Celtic was enduring a period of prolonged inferiority to Rangers F.C.
, their Old Firm
rivals, giving the sense of "our day will come" an extra resonance.
Beidh an lá linn : (bʲɛj ən ˈl̪ˠaː lʲɪnʲ) literally translates as "the day will be with us". Some Irish-language speakers, including Ciarán Carson
, contend that tiocfaidh ár lá is a less idiomatic expression, reflecting English-language conventions (see Béarlachas
). The hybrid form beidh ár lá linn (bʲɛj aːɾˠ ˈl̪ˠaː lʲɪnʲ "our day will be with us") is also found among Republicans.
Beidh lá eile ag an bPaorach! : (bʲɛj ˈl̪ˠaː ɛlʲə ɡə bˠiːɾˠəx, "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
. It occurs in the play An Giall, by Brendan Behan
; his English translation, The Hostage
, renders it "we'll have another day". It is not exclusively a political slogan, and may simply mean "another chance will come".
Parodies of tiocfaidh ár lá include:
Chucky: an English-language
pronunciation spelling
of tiocfaidh, it is slang for an Irish Republican (sometimes shortened to Chuck).
"Tiocfaidh Armani": mocking Sinn Féin's move towards respectability from the peace process
"Tiocfaidh Ar La La": on T-shirts depicting the eponymous Teletubby as an IRA member.
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
phrase which translates as "our day will come", the hoped-for day being that of a united Ireland
United Ireland
A united Ireland is the term used to refer to the idea of a sovereign state which covers all of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. The island of Ireland includes the territory of two independent sovereign states: the Republic of Ireland, which covers 26 counties of the island, and the...
. It became a popular slogan
Slogan
A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a political, commercial, religious and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm . Slogans vary from the written and the...
with militant Irish republicans
Physical force Irish republicanism
Physical force Irish republicanism, is a term used to describe the recurring appearance of non-parliamentary violent insurrection in Ireland between 1798 and the present...
in the 1980s.
Origins
The English phrase "our day will come" has been used in various contexts. Our Day Will ComeOur Day Will Come
"Our Day Will Come" is a popular song composed by Bob Hilliard and Mort Garson which was a #1 hit in 1963 for Ruby & The Romantics.-Ruby & the Romantics:...
, a pop song about love, was a 1963 hit for Ruby & the Romantics
Ruby & the Romantics
Ruby & the Romantics was an American R&B group in the 1960s. They had several pop and R&B hit records, but are sometimes considered as a one-hit wonder for topping the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1963 with their first recording, "Our Day Will Come", written by Mort Garson and Bob Hilliard...
. In the context of Irish politics, in James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a semi-autobiographical novel by James Joyce, first serialised in the magazine The Egoist from 1914 to 1915, and published first in book format in 1916 by B. W. Huebsch, New York. The first English edition was published by the Egoist Press in February 1917...
, the nationalist Michael Davin (based on George Clancy
George Clancy
George Clancy was an Irish nationalist politician and Mayor of Limerick. He was shot dead by the Auxiliary Police in 1921 during the Anglo-Irish conflict . The previous Mayor, Michael O'Callaghan, was murdered on the same night by the same group.Clancy was born at Grange, County Limerick...
) says "They [Irish freedom fighters] died for their ideals, Stevie
Stephen Dedalus
Stephen Dedalus is James Joyce's literary alter ego, appearing as the protagonist and antihero of his first, semi-autobiographical novel of artistic existence A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and an important character in Joyce's Ulysses...
. Our day will come yet, believe me."
The Irish phrase tiocfaidh ár lá is attributed to Provisional IRA
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
prisoner Bobby Sands
Bobby Sands
Robert Gerard "Bobby" Sands was an Irish volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and member of the United Kingdom Parliament who died on hunger strike while imprisoned in HM Prison Maze....
, who uses it in several writings smuggled out of the Maze Prison. It is the last sentence of the diary he kept of the 1981 hunger strike
1981 Irish hunger strike
The 1981 Irish hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest during The Troubles by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. The protest began as the blanket protest in 1976, when the British government withdrew Special Category Status for convicted paramilitary prisoners...
in which he died. Many Republicans learned Irish in prison, (a phenomenon known as "Jailtacht", a pun on Gaeltacht
Gaeltacht
is the Irish language word meaning an Irish-speaking region. In Ireland, the Gaeltacht, or an Ghaeltacht, refers individually to any, or collectively to all, of the districts where the government recognises that the Irish language is the predominant language, that is, the vernacular spoken at home...
) and conversed regularly with each other through Irish, both for cultural reasons and to keep secrets from the wardens. The Irish language revival movement
Gaelic Revival
The Gaelic revival was the late-nineteenth-century national revival of interest in the Irish language and Irish Gaelic culture...
has often overlapped with Irish Republicanism, particularly in Northern Ireland
Irish language in Northern Ireland
The Irish language is a minority language in Northern Ireland. The dialect spoken there is known as Ulster Irish....
. The upsurge in Republican consciousness in the wake of the hunger strikes also increased awareness of the Irish language in Republican areas.
Occurrences
The slogan has been used by Sinn FéinSinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
representatives, appeared on graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
and political murals
Northern Irish murals
Murals in Northern Ireland have become symbols of Northern Ireland, depicting the region's past and present political and religious divisions.Northern Ireland contains arguably the most famous political murals. Almost 2,000 murals have been documented in Northern Ireland since the 1970s...
, and been shouted by IRA defendants being convicted in British and Irish courts, and their supporters in the public gallery. Patrick Magee said it after being sentenced in 1986 for the 1984 Brighton hotel bombing
Brighton hotel bombing
The Brighton hotel bombing happened on 12 October 1984 at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England. The bomb was planted by Provisional Irish Republican Army member Patrick Magee, with the intention of assassinating Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet who were staying at the hotel for the...
.
An apocryphal story claims that Michael Stone
Michael Stone (loyalist paramilitary)
Michael Stone is a Northern Irish loyalist who was a volunteer in the Ulster Defence Association . Stone was born in England but raised in the Braniel estate in East Belfast, Northern Ireland. Convicted of killing three people and injuring more than sixty in an attack on mourners at Milltown...
got past the Republican security cordon to commit the 1988 Milltown Cemetery attack
Milltown Cemetery attack
The Milltown Cemetery attack The Milltown Cemetery attack The Milltown Cemetery attack (also known as the Milltown Cemetery killings or Milltown Massacre took place on 16 March 1988 in Belfast's Milltown Cemetery...
by saying tiocfaidh ár lá.
The 1992 and 1993 editions of Macmillan
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...
's The Student Book: The Indispensible Applicant's Guide to UK Colleges, Polytechnics and Universities advised potential University of Ulster
University of Ulster
The University of Ulster is a multi-campus, co-educational university located in Northern Ireland. It is the largest single university in Ireland, discounting the federal National University of Ireland...
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.
The 2007 arrest of Irish-language activist Máire Nic an Bhaird
Máire Nic an Bhaird
Máire Nic an Bhaird is a secondary school teacher and Irish language activist from Dunmurry, County Antrim in Northern Ireland. On February 26 2007 she was found guilty of disorderly conduct and fined UK£100, arising from an incident in May 2006 in south Belfast...
in Belfast was allegedly partly for saying tiocfaidh ár lá to PSNI
Police Service of Northern Ireland
The Police Service of Northern Ireland is the police force that serves Northern Ireland. It is the successor to the Royal Ulster Constabulary which, in turn, was the successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary in Northern Ireland....
officers, although she claimed to have said tiocfaidh bhúr lá ("your day will come").
Tiocfaidh Ár Lá (TÁL) is the name of a fanzine
Fanzine
A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...
for Celtic F.C.
Celtic F.C.
Celtic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, which currently plays in the Scottish Premier League. The club was established in 1887, and played its first game in 1888. Celtic have won the Scottish League Championship on 42 occasions, most recently in the...
's Irish Republican ultras
Ultras
Ultras are a type of sports fans renowned for their fanatical support and elaborate displays. They are predominantly European followers of football teams...
. It was established in 1991, at which time Celtic was enduring a period of prolonged inferiority to Rangers F.C.
Rangers F.C.
Rangers Football Club are an association football club based in Glasgow, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Premier League. The club are nicknamed the Gers, Teddy Bears and the Light Blues, and the fans are known to each other as bluenoses...
, their Old Firm
Old Firm
The Old Firm is a common collective name for the association football clubs Celtic and Rangers, both based in Glasgow, Scotland.The origin of the term is unclear. One theory has it that the expression derives from Celtic's first game in 1888, which was played against Rangers. However, author,...
rivals, giving the sense of "our day will come" an extra resonance.
Variants
Similar slogans include:Beidh an lá linn : (bʲɛj ən ˈl̪ˠaː lʲɪnʲ) literally translates as "the day will be with us". Some Irish-language speakers, including Ciarán Carson
Ciaran Carson
Ciaran Gerard Carson is a Belfast, Northern Ireland-born poet and novelist.-Early years:Ciaran Carson was born in Belfast into an Irish-speaking family...
, contend that tiocfaidh ár lá is a less idiomatic expression, reflecting English-language conventions (see Béarlachas
Béarlachas
Béarlachas is an Irish term for a variety of words and phrases used in the language that are perceived to be either excessively influenced by English or to be English. This influence may vary between simple anglicisms to a process of interlanguage forms...
). The hybrid form beidh ár lá linn (bʲɛj aːɾˠ ˈl̪ˠaː lʲɪnʲ "our day will be with us") is also found among Republicans.
Beidh lá eile ag an bPaorach! : (bʲɛj ˈl̪ˠaː ɛlʲə ɡə bˠiːɾˠəx, "Power will have another day!") were the last words from the gallows of Edmund Power of Dungarvan
Dungarvan
Dungarvan is a town and harbour on the south coast of Ireland in the province of Munster. Dungarvan is the county town and administrative centre of County Waterford. The town's Irish name means "Garbhan's fort", referring to Saint Garbhan who founded a church there in the seventh century...
, executed for his part in the Wexford Rebellion
Wexford Rebellion
The Wexford Rebellion refers to the outbreak in County Wexford, Ireland in May 1798 of a United Irishmen rebellion against the English domination of Ireland. It was the most successful and most destructive of all the uprisings that occurred throughout Ireland during the Irish Rebellion of 1798,...
of 1798. The phrase was often cited by Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera was one of the dominant political figures in twentieth century Ireland, serving as head of government of the Irish Free State and head of government and head of state of Ireland...
. It occurs in the play An Giall, by Brendan Behan
Brendan Behan
Brendan Francis Behan was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, and playwright who wrote in both Irish and English. He was also an Irish republican and a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army.-Early life:...
; his English translation, The Hostage
The Hostage (play)
The Hostage is a loose 1958 English version, with songs, adapted in a much longer text from a one-act Irish language play An Giall, by its author, Brendan Behan.-Plot:...
, renders it "we'll have another day". It is not exclusively a political slogan, and may simply mean "another chance will come".
Parodies of tiocfaidh ár lá include:
Chucky: an English-language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
pronunciation spelling
Pronunciation spelling
A pronunciation spelling of a word is a spelling different from the standard spelling, used to emphasize a particular pronunciation of the word. The spelling uses the regular spelling rules of the language. Most are nonce coinages, but some have become standardised, e.g...
of tiocfaidh, it is slang for an Irish Republican (sometimes shortened to Chuck).
"Tiocfaidh Armani": mocking Sinn Féin's move towards respectability from the peace process
Northern Ireland peace process
The peace process, when discussing the history of Northern Ireland, is often considered to cover the events leading up to the 1994 Provisional Irish Republican Army ceasefire, the end of most of the violence of the Troubles, the Belfast Agreement, and subsequent political developments.-Towards a...
"Tiocfaidh Ar La La": on T-shirts depicting the eponymous Teletubby as an IRA member.
See also
- Irish language in Northern IrelandIrish language in Northern IrelandThe Irish language is a minority language in Northern Ireland. The dialect spoken there is known as Ulster Irish....
- Slán AbhaileSlán Abhaile"Slán abhaile" is an Irish phrase used to bid goodbye to someone who is travelling home. A literal translation is 'Safe Home', which is used in the same way in Hiberno-English...
, "safe home", ironic Republican farewell to British Army forces - Siege of DerrySiege of DerryThe Siege of Derry took place in Ireland from 18 April to 28 July 1689, during the Williamite War in Ireland. The city, a Williamite stronghold, was besieged by a Jacobite army until it was relieved by Royal Navy ships...
, origin of the loyalist slogan "No Surrender"