Cúrsa Gaeilge d’Iarratasóirí Hibernia
January 7, 2013
Dianchúrsa i mBéal Feirste
January 7, 2013
New study of how Gaelic affects brain functions
January 2, 2013
Scientists are to investigate changes in brain functions among people who are fluent in English and Gaelic.
The study involving Glasgow and Edinburgh universities will require its test subjects to speak Gaelic exclusively for about 40 days.
The research aims to add new scientific evidence to suggestions that people who are bilingual have enhanced problem-solving skills and flexible thinking.
The study will include MRI scans to help detect changes in brain functions.
Scientists from Scotland, Belgium and Germany leading the research said the experiments would be entirely non-invasive.
They will be carried out at University of Glasgow’s Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, with approval of the College of Science and Engineering’s ethics committee.
Dr Meike Ramon, of the University of Glasgow and Belgium’s Universite catholique de Louvain, said brain functions changed when people performed specific tasks.
She said it should be possible to identify changes before and after someone has spoken Gaelic over a long period.
Physical tasks
Research published in August suggested bilingual children outperform children who speak only one language in problem-solving skills and creative thinking.
Researchers set lingual, arithmetical and physical tasks for 121 children, aged about nine, in Scotland and Sardinia, Italy.
They found that the 62 bilingual children were “significantly more successful in the tasks set for them”.
The study was published in the International Journal of Bilingualism.
The Glasgow-based children spoke English and Gaelic, or English only, while the Sardinian cohort spoke either Italian only, or Italian and Sardinian.
They were asked to reproduce patterns of coloured blocks, to repeat orally a series of numbers, to give clear definitions of words and to resolve mentally a set of arithmetic problems.
The tasks were all set in English or Italian.
Researchers found that the bilingual children were “significantly more successful in the tasks set for them”.
Family members
Last month, research published by the University of the Highlands and Islands suggested that generations of families that speak Gaelic use the language in different ways.
Gaelic dominates the conversations of family members aged between 53 and 71.
Second and third generations, family aged 16-37 and three to seven, mostly use English.
But the research also found adults spoke Gaelic when talking to children, who in turn would reply in the language.
bbc.co.uk
Dráma raidió dhaltaí Choláiste Feirste
January 2, 2013
Head of first Gaelscoil in Waterford city with passion for Irish language, music
January 2, 2013
Treasa Ní Eachthighearnn’s lasting memorial is that education through Irish is firmly established in Waterford city.
She was first head of Gaelscoil Phort Láirge, the first Gaelscoil in the city. It began in 1985 with 20 pupils in a basement. Classes were often interrupted by rain flooding the accommodation. The Gaelscoil is now housed in a purpose-built school with 224 pupils.
After retiring, she continued to train the school choirs.
She was passionate about the Irish language and music. Her instrument of choice was the flute, she was organist in her local church and she was a more than useful fiddle player. At the time of her death she was learning the concertina.
Her passion for music sent her up and down the country to traditional music events. She collected tunes and loved finding rare verses of songs.
Her passion for music was infectious, being passed on to her pupils. The choir of Gaelscoil Phort Láirge has always had a high standard, winning several major competitions.
She followed Waterford hurlers; to her, John Mullane was one of the all-time greats.
Treasa was born Teresa Hearne in 1943 in Clogheen, Co Tipperary, the third child and only daughter to teacher William Hearne, a Wexford man, and his wife Kathleen (Sheehan), from Cork city.
Having attended the secondary school in the Convent of Mercy in Wexford, she spent over a decade as a Mercy nun, including teaching science in Carrick-on-Suir for a period. During that time, she studied for a degree in Irish at UCC.
In the 1970s, she took the difficult decision to leave religious life. Training as a primary teacher, she taught in Stradbally, Co Waterford, then Duncannon, Co Wexford, before helping to establish the Gaelscoil.
Treasa is survived by her brothers Thomas, Billy, Eugene, Martin and Colum.
http://www.irishtimes.com/
