Saving the Irish language is easy
February 24, 2014
In three years we could have as many Irish speakers as Iceland’s population. If the 800,000 Irish school kids had a choice, more than half would go to a Gaelscoil – voluntarily.
Demand is simply not met. There are toddlers picking up the language in three years. It won’t take long to turn this around.
Irish immersion schools, Gaelscoils, get top grades, because bilingual education is good for the brain. The waiting lists are a mile long.
Once we recognize how easy it is to save the language, through the successful Gaelscoils, we can all get behind them. Learning Irish may be daunting to some of us adults, but there’s no reason we can’t be wise and embrace our language and ensure the next generation has their right to an Irish-medium education.
Nasty anti-Irish talk is a symptom of an unhealthy complex. We need to get over it. No one should be guilty or made feel guilty for the historical circumstances that beat Irish up to give us English. That’s no excuse though for glib talk about how their spoken, living and literary native language is dead. We can be European for real, and love our language.
Ireland gained independence to be a sanctuary for Irish. It makes some of us anxious to think we have to learn Irish. To do our bit, we just have to be positive, and put pressure on the government in Dublin to support what most of us want – a thriving culture. We may not become Irish speakers, but our children can be. That means we tell politicians we want our Irish-medium schools supported. There’s no better way to assert our future, or ensure our rights to Ireland as our homeland.
Irish is waiting on the rest of us: in our names; our genes; in the landscape.
Despite the school day blues, Irish is an ironically popular and sexy language.
Gaelscoils have 45,000 students right now. The waiting lists are a mile long. If only half the Irish school kids got the access they want, Ireland would have an unquestionably strong 500,000 daily speakers. It already has more speakers than cold statistics convey.
Icelandic has only 330,000 speakers, but none of the unhealthy bickering about the language’s death.
If Dublin let the schools happen, we could feel a little more secure in the world about the future of the Irish people. What does it cost? Irish teachers speaking Irish instead of English is not expensive. No big deal. No big cost.
There is nothing dead about Irish. To say so is a willfully ignorant meme that gets curmudgeons excited. The fact of the matter, however, is that dead people don’t talk.
Death talk is just a tactic, or philosophical-orientation, to kill it. Irish has great, globally popular support. It just needs more kids to have proper access to it.
Irish kids having immersion schools is a right. The Irish state was founded to assure that right, and other rights too, but that one is pretty clear. Ireland is a sanctuary for Irish. Duh. (Is that an Irish word?)
We all wish the old educational system hadn’t had its mean teaching monopoly for so long. Hebrew was luckier and went from a few rabbis speaking it to 9,000,000 in a generation.
Irish is getting it right now. It just needs Dublin to meet demand and let kids go to Gaelscoils.
If Ireland is not a sanctuary for the Irish language, then it will become culturally assimilated like Idaho. There are very few Irish people who really want that fate.
If you can’t learn Irish then help the kids who do to do so. There should be no Gaelscoil waiting lists. If an adult doesn’t have time to learn the language, he or she does have time to support Irish-medium schools, the highly successful – but wrongly curtailed – Gaelscoileanna.
www.irishcentral.com
Obair pháirtaimseartha do mhúinteoirí Gaeilge
February 20, 2014
Stiúrthóir Naíonra
February 20, 2014
Lá Mór ar shráideanna Átha Cliath
February 20, 2014
Slán leis an gcoimisinéir teanga
February 20, 2014
Receive an internationally recognised Irish language qualification
February 20, 2014
Would you like to have your level of Irish formally acknowledged? Take the opportunity to sit one of exams for Teastas Eorpach na Gaeilge (TEG), The European Certificate in Irish.
TEG is an examination system for adult learners of Irish that is linked to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
There is a strong demand for the TEG qualification among adult learners of Irish and their teachers which has been recognised by the Department of Education and Skills for those wishing to pursue a career in primary teaching, by Forbairt Naíonraí Teoranta, the all-Ireland body which supports education in Irish for children and by the Fulbright Commission in Ireland and An Garda Síochána among others.
The Language Centre at NUI Maynooth has announced that TEG exams for adult learners will take place in nine centres throughout Ireland and in others abroad including New York, Prague, Paris and Ottawa.
Partial certification is available and candidates have the option of taking the oral exam only. This will give a focus to those who wish to have certification of their oral skills in particular.
As well as being beneficial to adult learners, this new system will appeal to secondary school students who are preparing for Irish oral exams.
Exams will be held in April, May and June. The closing date for secondary school applications is the 21 February 2014 and the 14 March 2014 for all other applications.
Visit www.teg.ie for further information or call 01 708 3737.
Foilsithe ar Gaelport.com
Irish language under threat
February 19, 2014
A chara, – I congratulate Rónán Ó Domhnaill on his nomination to the post of Language Commissioner (Pól Ó Muirí, February 11th). But I do not envy him.
Although the language and the Gaeltacht are cultural and economic resources which can, and do, benefit all on this island, and belong to all, both are under threat. The Gaeltacht is a rural area, and contact with the State is pervasive and frequently intrusive. The outgoing commissioner has documented and demonstrated that, despite the rhetoric, the State has long imposed compulsory English on the Gaeltacht for those who must avail of its services to live.
The Official Languages Act was intended to stem that erosion. However, it has been undermined by a niggardly implementation or by being ignored. The Act has been under review for two years now – and is likely to be further weakened when amended. Indeed, the Government has already announced the dismantling of the language commissioner’s independence by subsuming the office into that of the Ombudsman – one of the offices subject to oversight by the commissioner, and an important one at that as it deals with the public. As I believe the Gaeltacht and the language are important to the future of this country and State, and are part of all our heritage which deserves to be invested in to the benefit of all, I took part in Lá na Gaeilge on Saturday to urge the Government to reconsider and invest in rather than further erode the Gaeltacht.
I was heartened to find myself in a crowd of thousands, which I see as encouragement for the incoming language commissioner in his task of vindicating the rights of Irish speakers, by ensuring that government departments meet their legislative commitments generously and sensibly. I hope too that the Government will also take heed, and implement its promises in the 20-year strategy in a sensible and effective manner. – Is mise, le meas
AONGHUS Ó hALMHAIN,
Páirc na Seilbhe,
Baile an Chinnéidigh,
Co Chill Mhantáin.
www.irishtimes.com
‘Slán le Seán’ public march in Conamara
February 19, 2014
A march titled ‘Slán le Seán’ will take place in Conamara this coming Sunday 23rd February 2014 from the offices of the Irish language Commissioner in An Sídheán, An Spidéal, Co. Galway as far as Roinn na Gaeltachta Office’s in Na Forbacha. This march will coincide with the last day in office by Irish language commissioner Seán Ó Cuirreáin who has spent 10 years in this role. The campaign was established following the announcement by the Language Commissioner, Seán Ó Cuirreáin in December that he would be resigning as a result of the Government’s failure to implement language legislation at the level of the State. According the to campaign organisers: “This campaign has been inspired by, and we have been motivated to seek the support of the wider community throughout the island for our rights following:
- the announcement by Seán Ó Cuirreáin, the Language Commissioner, that he is to resign on the 23 February 2014 because of a lack of Government support in the south for the language rights of the Irish language and Gaeltacht community
- the report by the Council of Europe that the promotion and development of the Irish language in the north is being blocked by hostile attitudes in Stormont, and a lack of support for its use in the courts and in education.”
A letter of appreciation will be handed to Mr Ó Cuirreáin on the day while a letter voicing the public’s dismay and anger will be delivered to Minister of State at the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Dinny McGinley T.D. The march will begin at the Irish Language Commissioner office in An Sídheán, An Spidéal, Co. Galway at 2:00pm and the route covers about 6km. After the walk the crowd will proceed to Tigh Phádhraicín Bar & restaurant in Na Forbacha for light refreshments and entertainment.
For further information contact: 091 593185 / 086 4048881.
Foilsithe ar Gaelport.com
Moltar an mórshiúl
February 19, 2014
Cúrsa sa Saibhreas Teanga
February 19, 2014
