Tá an Neamhchomhfhiosach Struchtúrtha mar Theanga: If the unconscious is structured like a language, how might speaking in tongues indicate something singular in the structurings of an Irish Gaelic unconscious?

Multilinguals appreciate that the language they choose expresses themselves differently; thus, we should never delude ourselves we are the same person in another language. Although Irish Gaelic is legally and constitutionally the bun-teanga – the foundational national language of Ireland – because of un/conscious historical determinations it has not been the daily spoken language for 150 years. This paper explores how the Irish Gaelic language might yet in/form an Irish unconscious differently, not only in terms of linguistic theories but through un/conscious relationships with fantasmic ideals, mythologies, and independence, and also, in Lacanian terms, an all too Real traumatic legacy of starvation and death. As such, it is argued, Irish Gaelic is a true object of a desire never really apprehended.