Daeltacht

The term Daeltacht is used in Messenian linguistic and political studies to refer to the area of northern and western Messenia where Dael is the principal spoken language. In the period since the Long War (and intermittently in earlier years) it has been expanded to cover areas where Dael-speakers form a substantial minority; no hard-and-fast figure has been used to define “substantial”, and the more extreme views consider a figure of as low as 15% Daelophones to be sufficient. Current consensus views regard the Daeltacht as covering the countries of Fiobha, Laora, Nation 59, Nation 60 and Odann in their entirety, along with roughly half of Brolangouan, most of northern Elland, and smaller parts of Emilia, Vettermark and Tvåriken. Through Odann’s overseas possessions it also extends to parts of southern Serania, southern Lestria and the island of Diothún to the north of Ascesia.

The Daeltacht as terra irredenta

The idea that the Daeltacht represents a “common Daelic homeland” and perforce should be under the rule of a single entity has rarely been far from the surface of intellectual discourse in the region, and has been a particular aim – at times stated outright – by the monarchy and government of Odann, the pre-eminent political force in the region and the only Dael-speaking great power; the idea of such resubmission to a central rule is sufficiently widespread as to have a name, an filleadh or “the return”. Successive governments in Ráth have rarely been slow to use discrimination or oppression (real or imagined) of Daelophone minorities as a wedge to achieve particular political ends, with the most visible expression of this principle in modern times being the Autumn War, in which Odann captured and annexed a large wedge of northern Elland extending as far south as the Gaste and the Ellish capital at Etherley, assimilating it into the Odannach body politic as the province of Trasmardúinn between 1868 and 1958.

At present this terra irredenta theory is widely believed amongst the general public in the states of the Arcedian littoral (Brolangouan, Nation 59 and Nation 60), where the Sacred Kingdom already exerts substantial economic influence, to be a guiding principle of current Odannach foreign policy, and this theory may be seen to have some objective support given statements hinting very strongly along these lines by the present Defender, Ultan II, although no active steps have been taken in support of these. It arguably carries even greater weight in Laora and Fiobha, which were part of Odann prior to the end of the Gaste War in 1958 and where some residual support for reunification with their larger neighbour persists into the present.