Irish and ‘language snobs’
Márta 25, 2014
Sir, – Brian Ó Broin (Letters, March 22nd) suggests that the target of 250,000 Irish speakers by 2030 is an achievable one, but only “if non-Gaeltacht Irish speakers begin to shoulder the burden that Gaeltacht people have been predominantly carrying since the foundation of the State – using the language at home”.
How strange to think that speaking to one’s family in what is considered to be one’s native tongue should be termed a burden. Communicating in either one’s first or second language at home should be (largely) a pleasure, not a burden; and I would imagine that for the vast majority of Irish-speakers it is.
If indeed the Irish language is such a heavy load to carry, then it should be ditched without delay. A language that is a burden is worthless.
Yours, etc,
JEREMY CASTLE,
Ballinderry,
Nenagh,
Co Tipperary
Sir, – An Coimisinéir Teanga, Rónán Ó Domhnaill, does not advance his cause by using the slur “linguistic Darwinists” (Opinion & Analysis, March 24th). The survival of the 2,000-year-old Irish language is a tribute to its evolution, not a refutation of it.
Yours, etc,
DR JOHN DOHERTY,
Cnoc an Stollaire,
Gaoth Dobhair,
Co Donegal
www.Irishtimes.com
Deontais ar fáil – Scoileanna Domhanda WorldWise
Márta 24, 2014
Tá deontais ar fáil ó Scoileanna Domhanda WorldWise (mar chuid de Chúnamh Éireann) le hoideachas forbartha a chur chun cinn i scoileanna iarbhunleibhéil, dírithe ar an tréimhse Meán Fómhair 2014 – Bealtaine 2015.
Cad is Oideachas Forbartha ann?
Próiseas oideachais atá san oideachas forbartha a dhíríonn ar feasacht a ardú ar chomh inathraitheach, idirspleách agus éagothrom is a bhfuil an domhain ina bhfuil muid. Tá Scoileanna Domhanda WorldWise ag iarraidh daltaí agus múinteoirí a spreagadh i dtreo an oideachas forbartha trí maoiniú agus tacaíocht a chur ar fáil d’iarbhunscoileanna, gréasáin scoileanna agus eagraíochtaí neamhrialtasacha atá ag obair le scoileanna, le go mbeidh ceartas agus forbairt domhanda mar ghné de ghníomhaíochtaí curaclaim agus seach-churaclaim. Tá sonraí maidir leis an gclár le fáil ar www.worldwiseschools.ie agus tá tacaíocht i nGaeilge ar fáil do rannpháirtithe an chláir.
Deontais 2014
Más suim le do scoil nó eagraíocht iarratas a dhéanamh ar deontas don scoilbhliain 2014-2015, cláraigh linn ar www.worldwiseschools.ie/funding. Is féidir clárú chomh maith trí teagmháil a dhéanamh linn ar 01 6852078 nó info@worldwiseschools.ie. Is é an 16 Aibreán 2014 an spriocdháta le haghaidh iarratais.
Gael Champa 2014
Márta 24, 2014
Is campa spóirt samhraidh í Gael-Champa a chuireann imeachtaí cultúrtha, oideachasúla agus spóirtiúla ar fáil do phaistí trí meán na Gaeilge!
Freastlóidh an campa ar pháistí ó scoileanna lán-Bhéarla chomh maith le Gaelscoileanna. I measc na n-imeachtaí beidh peil Ghaelach, iomanaíocht, rugbaí, eitpheil, sacar, cispheil, snámh, dráma, rince céilí agus tuilleadh leis.
Tá Gael-Champa ar ais an samhradh seo! Déan cinnte áit a fháil ar;
Seachtain na Gaeilge spraíúil i gCultúrlann Uí Chanáin
Márta 24, 2014
Bhí Seachtain na Gaeilge ar dóigh againn i mbliana sa Chultúrlann don phobal uilig idir óg is Sean agus idir Foghlaimeoirí is Gaeilgeoirí. Chun tús samhlaíoch a chur leis na himeachtaí, bhí Féile Bheag na Leabhar ar ais againn i mbliana ar Lá Domhanda an Leabhair. D’eagraigh muid seo i gcomhair le Comhairle Cathrach Dhoire. Tháinig páistí ó na 3 Gaelscoileanna le chéile sa Chultúrlann chun an Leabhar Gaeilge a cheiliúradh. Bhí Lúrapóg Larapóg i láthair agus chuir siad seó le páistí do pháistí os ár gcomhair. Bhí sé lán de shaibhreas teanga, teannas, grinn, craic agus diabhlaíocht! Chomh maith leis sin tháinig an tSeanchaí Iomráiteach Conallach, Gearóidin Bhreathnach chun scéalta nuachumtha is seanbhunaithe a insint do na páistí. Tá sé de rún againn ócáid bliantúil a dhéanamh den Fhéile seo.
Bhí éacht déanta ag Club óige Setanta, ag Triax ach go háirithe ag Gaelscoláirí áitiúla agus ag na Sollus Highland Dancers nuair a d’ullmhaigh siad tobshlua mór Gaeilge le linn Seachtain na Gaeilge. Rinne siad tobshlua mór spraíúil i Foyleside ina raibh Damhsa Gaelach, Damhsa Hip Hop agus Damhsa na Garbhchríoch. Chomh maith leis sin, cheol siad leagan Gaeilge den amhrán clúiteach sin “Wake me up.” Chuir an taispeántas spreagthach seo iontas agus gliondar ar an phobal a bhí amuigh ag siopadóireacht agus is cinnte gur dúisíodh meon Gaelach iontu uilig.
Thug Linda Irvine, Oifigeach Forbartha Gaeilge ag Misean Oirthear Bhéal Feirste, thug sí cuairt ar an Chultúrlann arís chun léacht agus plé a dhéanamh ar Protastúnaigh agus an Ghaeilge agus an stair folaithe atá acu leis an teanga. Ag an ócáid céanna, seoladh taispeántas darb ainm “An Teanga Bheo” a chuireann síos ar an ábhar céanna agus atá curtha le chéile ag an Chultúrlann. Thug an léacht seo deis d’fhoghlaimeoirí agus do Ghaeilgeoirí léargas a fháil ar ghné den Ghaeilge nach bhfuil eolas ag an mhórphobal air agus bhí deis acu fadhbanna agus féidearthachtaí a phlé le Linda í féin.
Chuir muid deireadh taitneamhach le Seachtain na Gaeilge ar Lá Fhéile Pádraig nuair a bhí lá iomlán imeachtaí ar fáil saor in aisce sa Chultúrlann. Bhí an áit plódaithe le teaghlaigh ag baint sult as an Scéalaíocht, as an Mhúnlú Balún, as an Phéintéireacht aghaidhe, as na Seisiúin Cheoil agus go háirithe as na Fanzini Bros, a thug a seó sorcais go Doire. Bhí an léiriúchán Gaeilge seo lán de geáitsí iontacha ón bheirt Ciarraíoch agus bhain na páistí mar aon leis na daoine fásta sult as.
Bhí neart imeachtaí eile ann chomh maith agus níl anseo ach blaiseadh beag. Caithfidh muid tosú anois ar phleanáil don bhliain seo chugainn
Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin
37 Mórshráid Shéamais
Doire
BT48 7DF
Why minding our language is a priority
Márta 24, 2014
Opinion: Irish speakers assert the right to conduct business with the State in Irish because it is key to survival of the language
The thousands of Irish speakers who marched in Dublin last month for their rights weren’t looking for any special treatment.
The rights of Irish speakers are recognised in article eight of the Constitution and in the Official Languages Act 2003, while the rights of linguistic minorities are provided for in a number of important international documents including the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Unesco’s Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights.
Increasingly, it is accepted that the rights of linguistic minorities are basic human rights.
As someone who was raised through Irish in the Gaeltacht and is now trying to raise his own children through Irish, I understand the difficulties faced by Irish speakers.
While many bodies fulfil their obligations willingly and conscientiously, the reality is that basic services in Irish are often made available as the exception rather than the rule.
Indeed, the notion that Irish speakers are somehow arguing for their rights from a position of privilege is one of the many absurdities that feature in the debate about our national language. Speaking Irish or raising a family through Irish is not an easy option.
Irish speakers live, after all, in a country where the majority speak English, and in the battle to save a minority language, the odds are always stacked in favour of the majority language, especially when the majority language is one of the world’s dominant means of communication.
The provision of language rights helps make the fight for the survival of a vulnerable or endangered language that little bit fairer, as languages often live or die depending on their perceived status and the level of prestige they are accorded.
Powerful message
When the rights of a linguistic minority to interact with the State in their own language are recognised, it sends a powerful message from the powerful.
In a review of Nicholas Ostler’s Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World a number of years ago, the author Jane Stevenson suggested it might be time to adapt the old joke that a language is a dialect with an army, when “the real key to survival is for a language to be a dialect with a civil service”.
Stevenson wrote: “A class of bureaucrats with the power to defend its monopoly can keep a language going for centuries, as can a set of scriptures, while conquerors come and go.”
This is why Irish speakers, including my predecessor as Coimisinéir Teanga, Seán Ó Cuirreáin, have been calling for the recruitment of more civil servants with Irish.
Irish speakers are asking for the right to conduct their business with the State in Irish because the provision of such services is key to the survival of the language, and not because they take a perverse joy in ringing up public bodies only to be put on hold and then told that “the Irish speaker is on holidays”.
These demands are being made by parents struggling against the odds to pass a 2,000-year-old language onto their children in order to preserve what is an important part of both our cultural identity and global linguistic diversity.
Is it too much to ask that children in the Gaeltacht should enjoy the right to basic services, such as healthcare, in their first language, which also happens to be the first official language of the State, according to the Constitution?
While governments since 1922 have made more positive interventions on behalf of Irish than is sometimes acknowledged, official language policy has sometimes consisted of no more than pieties and plámás.
By indulging in empty rhetoric about the importance of Irish, while failing to grant it anything like the status promised by all the lip service, the Irish State, since its foundation, has sent out mixed messages about the value of the language.
The Official Languages Act 2003 and the establishment of Oifig an Choimisinéara Teanga, were important milestones in that they marked a break from the tokenism of the past by giving practical effect to the rights of Irish speakers. The full implementation of this legislation and the continued independence of the Office of the Language Commissioner are crucial to the future of Irish.
There will always be those who view all Irish speakers as fanatics, and there will always be, as the current President of Ireland once put it, “people for whom Irish is not half-dead enough”. These negative views about Irish don’t represent the attitude of the vast majority of the people of Ireland.
On the contrary, research shows that more than 90 per cent of Irish people have a favourable attitude to the promotion and protection of Irish. This continued support is cause for hope, as is the success of our Gaelscoileanna, the vibrancy of TG4 and RTÉ RnaG, and the modest increase in the number of daily Irish speakers outside the education system reported in the last census.
Increasingly vulnerable
Irish, however, is in an increasingly vulnerable position in the Gaeltacht, and experts predict that its days as the main language of the home and community are numbered unless radical remedial action is taken.
Such radical action will require a will that has not always been apparent in the State’s approach to Irish.
In the meantime, only linguistic Darwinists would regard as radical the call for basic rights made by those who marched in Dublin last month.
Rónán Ó Domhnaill is An Coimisinéir Teanga
From Belfast to Belfearg
Márta 24, 2014
Irish speakers in Belfast are to follow Dublin’s lead and hold their own “Lá Dearg” (“Red Day”) march to highlight their concerns over the language.
Spokeswoman, Miss Caoimhe Ní Chathail, said that Irish speakers in the North had decided to build on the “energy that grew from the Irish-language day in Dublin. The Irish language community, North and South, are “red with anger” about the current circumstances in which our limited resources are being put in danger by state cut-backs and our language rights are being denied to us on a systemic level”.
She said that the European Commission had shown that the Northern Ireland Executive was failing Irish and that some politicians had a “hostile outlook”. In addition, there was “a lack of support for the use of the language in the courts, in the media, in public signage and in the education sector”.
The event was to highlight three demands: a comprehensive rights-based Irish Language Act for the North; the need to develop a comprehensive Irish-medium education system and to ensure that adequate resources be provided for the language.
The march will leave Cultúrlann MacAdam-Ó Fiaich, Falls Road, Saturday 12 April at 2pm and go to Belfast city centre.
www.Irishtimes.com
Líofa 2015 ag druidim Sheachtain na Gaeilge
Márta 24, 2014
Tháinig deireadh le Seachtain na Gaeilge i bhfoirm cheolmhar i Stormont le hoíche cheoil agus siamsaíochta, eagraithe ag Líofa 2015.
Chuir an tAire Carál Ní Chuilín fáilte roimh an tslua, agus i measc na gceoltóirí bhí Nodlaig Brolly agus Scoil Ruaidhrí Dall, Brian Mullen agus JJ Ó Dochartaigh le hamhrán a scríobh sé go speisialta do Líofa.
D’fhreastail Meon Eile ar an ócáid chun cuid den atmasféar a bhlaiseadh…
Tá Líofa ag dul ó neart go neart ó bunaíodh í 2011 í. Baineadh an chéad sprioc de 1,000 duine a chlárú amach, agus ardaíodh go 2,015 duine é.
Táthar anois ag meas go bhfuil beagnach 6,000 duine cláraithe le Líofa, agus tá an sprioc anois ardaithe acu go 10,000.
Is féidir cur leis seo go fóíll agus clárú ar shuíomh Líofa chun “gealltanas pearsanta a thabhairt go gcuirfidh tú snas ar do chuid Gaeilge agus go mbainfidh tú úsáid aisti le dul i dtreo na líofachta faoin bhliain 2015.”
Féach an físeán ar www.meoneile.ie
Aip nua do lucht na hArdteiste
Márta 24, 2014
Cúnamh breise ar fáil dóibh siúd a bheas ag tabhairt faoin mBéaltriail ag deireadh na míosa
Agus 40% de mharcanna na Gaeilge ag dul don bhéaltriail, tá áis shuimiúil nua seolta ag www.clevercourses.ie mar chabhair do dhaltaí na hArdteistiméireachta.
Is aip idirghníomhach é Sraith Pictiúr 2014 a chuireann síos ar na fiche pictiúr a scrúdaítear mar chuid den bhéaltriail. Taobh istigh de gach scéal tá fuaimrianta, foclóir cuí, frásaí úsáideacha chomh maith le haistriúcháin Bhéarla agus tá 120 fuaimrian ó chainteoirí dúchasacha le feabhas a chur ar fhoghraíocht na ndaltaí.
Is áis iontach úsáideach í Sraith Pictiúr don ullmhúchán agus an dul siar atá ar siúl ag daltaí i láthair na huaire in am don bhéaltriail a bheas ag tarlú ag deireadh mhí an Mhárta.
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Foilsithe ar Gaelport.com
Cúntóirí Gaeilge 2014-2015
Márta 21, 2014
Tugann bliain mar chúntóir Gaeilge deis iontach;
– Taithí a fháil
– Do ghairm bheatha a fheabhsú
– Bunscileanna inaistrithe a fhorbairt
Is é an ráta (bunaithe ar thuarastal 2013-2014) £16.90 san uair.
Gabh chuig ár suíomh gréasáin, le do thoil, faoi choinne tuilleadh eolais faoin dóigh le hiarratas a chur isteach.
I: www.britishcouncil.org/nireland
R: laura.miskelly@britishcouncil.org
Feighlí linbh le Gaeilge
Márta 21, 2014
Feighlí linbh le Gaeilge á lorg le haire a thabhairt do bheirt pháistí ó 8-2 Luan go Déardaoin inár dteach (i dTír an Iúir) nó i dteach an fheighlí ó Lúnasa/Mheán Fómhair.
Beidh cáilín (dhá bhliain d’aois) ann ó 8am-2pm agus buachaill (ceithre bliana d’aois) le bailiú ón naíonra (Raghnallagh) ag 11.15am.
Fáilte roimh cheisteanna – fionnuala.cloke@gmail.com.
Foilsithe ar Gaelport.com
