‘Irish … It's the native language … it represents who you are in a way’ Understanding the Lives of Irish-English-speaking children in Ireland

Understanding children's experiences of being multilingual is an important contribution to culturally sensitive clinical practice in speech and language therapy. Irish is simultaneously an official, minority, endangered language and little is known about children's experiences of being bilingual in this context. This study explores the perspectives of five Irish-English-speaking children aged 8–11 years, using Language Portraits (LPs) (a visual method of data collection) and semi-structured interviews about the LPs. The most frequent patterns of colour choices and placement in the LP were summarised. The most common colour choices were based on national symbols, such as flags, and the most common language placement choices were based on body part function and associated languages. Interview data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Themes developed were: (1) the value of English for communication, (2) the value of Irish, (3) Irish outside the academic context, and (4) language abilities. This study shows that a language questionnaire, LPs and semi-structured interviews can be employed to understand Irish-English-speaking children's multilingual experiences and promote cultural competence among speech and language therapists working with this community. This research recognises children as valuable sources for understanding their experiences of being multilingual Irish-English speakers and their right to be heard.