Irish language court interpreting 1801-1922

Research on court interpreting for Irish to date is based on mentions in contemporaneous accounts, articles, anecdotes and literature, and is fragmentary in nature. While it is known that interpreters were provided, the extent of provision in different courts, and in geographical and historical terms, is unclear. \ud This thesis draws on digitised newspaper archives, parliamentary debates, and the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers database and hard-copy grand jury presentment books, and registered papers and country letter books from the Chief Secretary’s Office, Dublin Castle, to develop a more systematic picture of court interpreter provision. It focuses in particular on the key dates 1807, 1843 and 1898 for which grand jury accounts are available. The information is analysed using Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of field, capital and symbolic power. \ud The main findings are that salaried interpreters, whose maximum salary was laid down by law, were provided at assizes and quarter sessions, but not at petty sessions. In 1807, of 40 grand juries, at least 28 employed salaried court interpreters. In 1843, the figure had fallen to 18, and in 1898 to at least nine. Despite the presence of interpreters, there was pressure on defendants and witnesses to use English in some courts. The study also considers the appointments process, the role and remuneration of interpreters and the careers of three individual interpreters