Seanscéalta Éireannacha á n-athinsint do ghlúin úr – Leabhair chlóite agus ríomhleabhair arna bhfoilsiú
October 4, 2013
Nursery unit ‘good news’ for Irish language
October 4, 2013
Cúntóir Naíonra – CE
October 3, 2013
New leaflet published – Support for Parents
October 1, 2013
GAELSCOILEANNA TEO. have published a new leaflet on the support the organisation offers to parents. You can order printed copies to be sent to you free of charge by emailing oifig@gaelscoileanna.ie. Further information and answers to some of the questions most frequently asked by parents are available here, and the leaflets can be downloaded as PDFs below.
BBnaG visits Galway and Leitrim
October 1, 2013
Irish language seminar for postprimary students, ‘Buntáiste Breise na Gaeilge’, to visit Galway and Leitrim.
In two weeks time, Comhdháil Náisiúnta na Gaeilge will begin the autumn series of Irish language careers seminars, ‘Buntáiste Breise na Gaeilge’ in four different locations across Ireland for students in fourth, fi¬fth and sixth year in secondary schools. In recent years Comhdháil Náisiúnta na Gaeilge have organised over twenty five such seminars with 7,000 students from 201 post-primary schools from all over the country having attended the seminars nationwide.During the seminar, the advantages which the Irish language may afford you in your chosen career will be discussed. Guest speakers will give lively accounts of their own experiences, and will encourage students to consider Irish as they choose their own career-paths in the future.
On 16th October, the Landmark Hotel in Carrick-on-Shannon will host the first of this series of seminars, with a similar seminar taking place the very next day at the Salthill Hotel in Galway. Longford native Ciarán Mac an Bhaird, a lecturer in Business in Fiontar DCU will take to the stage in Carrick-on-Shannon alongside broadcaster Barbara Nic Dhonnacha who will speak about her role as a bilingual broadcaster on iRadio. Barra Mac Thiarnáin a native of Kiltubrid in Co. Leitrim who works as a Youth Officer with Coláiste na bhFiann will give an insight into the advantages that Irish gave him in carrying out his daily work with young people. Seán Ó Súilleabháin who originally hails from Longford but who has settled in Co. Leitrim for many years will speak about the role the Irish language played in his post as a County Librarian for over thirty years.
The Salthill Hotel in Galway will host the seminar on Thursday morning 17th October 2013. The former Galway hurler and GAA icon, Joe Connolly will give an account of the advantages the Irish language afforded him personally. Connolly’s 1980 speech as he raised the Liam McCarthy Cup in Croke Park is remembered in the history books as one of the most memorable speeches of all times. Actor Lochlann Ó Mearáin who plays Dara in the TG4 soap Ros na Rún will give an account of the doors the Irish language opened for him while RTÉ newsreader Siún Nic Gearailt and TG4 Jig Gig presenter Róisín Ní Thomáin will give an insight into their work within the media sector.
In November the seminar will take to the road again, with seminars to be held in the Silversprings Hotel in Cork on 13th November 2013 and the Malton Hotel in Killarney on 14th November. Among the panels of guests at these seminars are GAA legends Seán Óg Ó hAilpín and Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh. Questions from students will be welcomed during the seminars, and students will be encouraged to take an active role in the discussion, and will have a chance to ask questions of the speakers, and to take part in what promises to be a lively debate.
If you are a secondary school teacher or an individual who would like to attend any of the upcoming seminar which may be taking place in your region please contact Brígíd at Comhdháil Náisiúnta na Gaeilge, 01 679 4780 / brighid@comhdhail.ie
As spaces are limited all schools must be registered before attending these events.
Foilsithe ar Gaelport.com
Help is at hand
October 1, 2013
Learning Irish was very difficult in the old days. You had a boring old textbook and perhaps a boring old teacher also, in a gloomy classroom. But things changed. There is a wide range of textbooks available now – they are attractive and have a modern look about them. But the perfect textbook has not been published yet – I haven’t had the time! But besides textbooks, back-up resources are available – internet resources in particular. Internet material is improving all the time, so it does no harm to mention to mention some of the sites again. There is no longer a printed version of Foinse, but Foinse is continuing with its daily news service on the Web. The service has learners in mind, and a summary of each story is given in English. It is an excellent resource – foinse.ie Nuacht1.com publishes pieces in Irish from the newspapers. There are windows on the site and you can get access to other sites through them, including Beo, Foinse, Gaelport, Meon eile, Nós, Nuacht24 and Treibh. Go to the bottom of the home page and you will get more than one hundred songs of every kind – traditional songs, children’s songs, sean-nós, pop music, Google RTE Gaeilge for details of Raidió na Gaeltachta, RTÉ and TG4 programmes.
Google BBC Irish, and you will get all sorts of information on material for everyone from the absolute beginner to the fluent speaker. It has simple lessons by a local teacher, Fearghal Mag Uiginn. And the computer games are great! I am a big child at heart. Gaelport’s news and information service is very important at this time, especially when Foinse is no longer with us. And if we don’t use the Internet sites, we will lose many of them too. Finally, a booklet with a list of Internet resources would be very useful. A little project for Foras na Gaeilge?
Classes: Classes will be held in St. Mary’s Hall, Muff every Tuesday from 5.30 till 7.00. All are welcome. Further information: Muff Resource Centre: (00353) 74 93 84572.
www.derryjournal.com
ESG to be dissolved
October 1, 2013
At an extraordinary meeting held last Saturday a decision was made by the Bord of Directors of Eagraíocht na Scoileanna Gaeltachta (ESG) to wind up the company.
ESG, based in Baile Bhuirne, Co. Cork was established in 2006 as an umbrella body for primary and secondary schools in the Gaeltacht areas. The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has announced it will not provide funding to the organisation from the beginning of next year. Since 2007, funding of €780,000 has been approved by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht for the organisation to employ a CEO and an administrator and to cover operating costs. .
The Bord contend ESG has an important role which is central to the implementation of the 20 Year Strategy for the Irish Language and that the organisation should be available to represent and lobby on issues pertaining to Gaeltacht education.
ESG and Gaelscoileanna Teoranta have been in talks towards amalgamating the two organisations for over two years, but while certain progress was made in this regard, the failure of both funders – Foras na Gaeilge and the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht – to come to a solution in relation to future funding caused an insurmountable obstacle to the progression of the merge. The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht claim it would have been inappropriate to get involved in talks relating to the amalgamation of two voluntary organisations while this process was still underway.
At the end of May, speaking at a conference held by An Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaíochta (COGG) Seán Ó Foghlú, General Secretary of the Department of Education and Skills announced his department is to undertake a full review of the provision of Irish medium education in Gaeltacht schools.
Ó Foghlú explained the objective of this review was to recognise the different choices in the provision of the Irish medium education which suit the needs of the Gaeltacht area planning according to The Gaeltacht Act 2012. It would seem strange that the recently announced decision by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to pull the plug on ESG funding should come in advance of the results of the review.
Mairéad Ní Chualáin, Chairperson of ESG said this is “a critical time for Gaeltacht education given the review intended by the Department of Education and Skills as well as the changes to curriculum being implemented in the next year. Now, the Gaeltacht schools will have no input in either of these processes”.
Foilsithe ar Gaelport.com
New Irish language newspaper for students
October 1, 2013
Irish Independent launched a new service to replace ‘Foinse’.
Dáithí Ó Sé and Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh will provide regular content for the new publication, and last week’s edition featured articles written by journalists Tomaí Ó Conghaile and Ciarán Dunbar. This eight-page supplement which will appear as an insert with the Irish Independent will be part of a pair as Independent Media also aim to launch a second Irish language publication ‘Ar Fheabhas’ which will be distributed through schools.
It came as a shock to readers that ‘Foinse’ did not return to our shelves at the beginning of the school year as expected as a supplement in the Irish Independent. ‘Foinse’ was established in 1996, and a weekly Irish language newspaper was available nationally until summer 2009, subsidised with funding from Foras na Gaeilge. When the funding from Foras na Gaeilge came to an end, ‘Foinse’ was relaunched in autumn of 2009, with a new look and a new distribution system.
At the beginning of the year, Foras na Gaeilge announced a decision to cut all funding for the weekly Irish language newspaper ‘Gaelscéal’ before the contract was due to end officially. A low sales rate was the main reason given by Foras na Gaeilge for this action, with an average amount of 1,300/1,400 hard copies sold in shops weekly.
In a statement last February, CEO of Foras na Gaeilge stated: “There are difficulties with sales and distribution of newspapers worldwide. The Board and the Committee will now be looking at these questions as we move towards founding a new news service for the Irish Language community.” While Foras na Gaeilge has been researching this area since last spring, and have held focus groups and public meetings on the matter there does not seem to be much movement on finding or funding a successor to ‘Gaelscéal’.
Gaelport.com requested a statement from Foras na Gaeilge on this matter and were told that “the issue of Irish language news services will be discussed again by the Board of Foras na Gaeilge at their next meeting on 1st November 2013”.
While Independent Media have launched a new service for school students, those wishing to read their news through Irish on a regular basis are being ignored. It remains to be seen how long it will take to replace ‘Gaelscéal’ with a new publication funded by Foras na Gaeilge, whatever form that might take. While a Board decision is not forthcoming, the 1,400 regular readers which ‘Gaelscéal’ had built up are sure to be reading their news elsewhere. As ever, procrastination is the thief of time, and for a language under threat, time is not on our side.
Foilsithe ar Gaelport.com
Oifigeach Forbartha Náisiúnta
September 30, 2013
TEG Newsletter (Autumn 2013)
September 30, 2013
Information on 2014 Exams, TEG certificates presented to member of An Garda Síochána and Irish language preschool workers, new Teaching resources and much more!
