15,000 petition against FG plan to end compulsory Irish
February 15, 2011
SOME 15,000 people have signed a petition opposing Fine Gael’s pledge to end compulsory Irish at Leaving Certificate if handed power.
The Union of Students in Ireland, which organised an estimated 250-strong march on the party’s headquarters, warned of a backlash by angry voters in the election. Aodhan O’Dea, USI Irish language officer, claimed the plan would kill the language. “I think it will definitely cost the party votes,” he said. “We’re seeing in all areas, Gaeltacht areas, where people are very angry with this. We’re seeing young people who are angry about this. “The petition we have today is 15,000 signatures, that’s a lot of people who are against this policy and a lot of people who will not vote for Fine Gael if they continue with this policy,” Mr O’Dea said.
Students from universities across the country and a small number of secondary schools marched the short distance from the Dáil to nearby Fine Gael headquarters, where they handed in the petition. Gardaí put the number of protesters at 250. Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, a fluent Irish speaker, last week said the language as a compulsory class subject had failed.
Irish Examiner – Colm Kelpie
Protest over FG language strategy
February 15, 2011
Several hundred students marched on Fine Gael headquarters at lunchtime today in protest at Enda Kenny’s proposal to make the Irish language optional for the Leaving Certificate.
Demonstrators staged a silent sit-down protest at Dáil Éireann before making their way to the party’s headquarters on Upper Mount Street. The Fine Gael language strategy, announced earlier this month, will make Irish optional after the Junior Certificate following a period of consultation with stakeholders. A petition signed by more than 15,000 people opposed to the measure was handed in by Aodhán Ó Déa, Irish language officer with the Union of Students in Ireland (USI). Mr Ó Déa said “We are angry about this and we won’t vote for Fine Gael if they continue with this policy.”
“Enda Kenny is not happy to meet with us and we’re telling him that if you’re not happy to meet us Enda, we’re going to come and meet you and that is why we are handing in this petition to Fine Gael headquarters today”, Mr Ó Déa said. Today’s demonstration is the first stage of a new campaign against the new Fine Gael strategy. Many demonstrators covered their mouths with tape in a symbolic protest against the proposal. One protester said Mr Kenny’s move was a “lazy solution to a problem that has been brewing for years.” Acknowledging problems with the current curriculum, TCD student Jen Ní Mhathúna said by getting rid of compulsory Irish, Fine Gael was avoiding the issue. “It’s a lot easier in the short term to just do away with it and not have to deal with what the difficulties in teaching Irish are.”
“In the long term it is absolutely detrimental to the language and the future of the language”, she said. Another TCD student, Mr Cillian Hanaphy said the move was an attempt to reduce the language’s social status. “There’s no evidence anywhere in the world that says you can restore a language by reducing its social status. It’s an absolute cop-out”, he insisted. “The language will die out eventually if this happens because students won’t pick it. The curriculum needs to be changed – you can’t just get rid of a language”, he added. The Fine Gael leader’s proposal has been criticised by language and Gaeltacht community groups. A number of Fine Gael election candidates have also expressed their disquiet at the plan.
Describing the measure as “a regressive step in the development of the language”, Cllr. Brendan Griffin is the latest Fine Gael election candidate to state his concern. Mr Kenny’s proposal has caused “great worry, upset and annoyance” to many of his constituents and would have “negative cultural and economic implications on a local and national level”, the Kerry South candidate candidate said.
The Irish Times – Éanna Ó Caollaí
Comhsheimineár Gaelscoileanna Teo. agus Forbairt Naíonraí Teo.
February 14, 2011
Silent protest over FG Irish language policy
February 14, 2011
STUDENTS will gather outside the Dáil today for a “silent protest” against Fine Gael’s policy on the Irish language.
Party leader Enda Kenny last week reiterated his vow to abolish Irish as a compulsory subject at Leaving Certificate level if returned to power. Mr Kenny, himself a fluent Irish speaker, told Raidió na Gaeltachta that Irish as a compulsory subject had clearly failed. Instead, Fine Gael believes that if it is made optional at Leaving Cert, students fond of the language would be drawn towards it, thus helping Irish survive. But an online petition organised by Irish teachers calling for Fine Gael to reconsider its stance has so far attracted 15,000 signatures.
And the Union of Students of Ireland is today organising the “silent protest” outside the Dáil to make clear its opposition to the Fine Gael proposal. The organisers of the protest argue that making Irish optional “will cause irreparable damage to the future of our native tongue”. They claim that if it is optional, students will not choose Irish as a subject because languages are harder subjects to study in the Leaving Cert and it would no longer be available in every school. Fianna Fáil leader Micheal Martin reiterated his own opposition to the Fine Gael proposal yesterday. “I disagree with it and I’ve made that clear that I support the retention of Irish as a compulsory Leaving Certificate subject, because to remove it now I think would spell the death knell to the language,” Mr Martin said.
“I feel there’s been a tremendous renaissance in recent times, particularly in the cities, with young people in gaelscoileanna, who have transformed the attitude towards the Irish language across the country and outside the Gaeltachtaí. “I think the policy would have very negative impacts on the Gaeltachtaí and the economies of those areas in terms of summer colleges and the income that goes into those areas. “So many of those summer colleges that we’re all familiar with serve more than just a function in relation to language; I think they open up people to another world that’s important in terms of our cultural heritage.” Last week, Mr Kenny said his party’s manifesto would propose a period of consultation and review of the current curriculum before ultimately making Irish an optional subject for students after the Junior Certificate examination.
Irish Examiner – Paul O’Brien & Niall Murray
Scrap maths too if Irish is useless
February 14, 2011
I READ Derek Ross’s letter in yesterday’s paper (Letters, February 11) with regard to the FG policy on the Irish language with some dismay. I was glad to read that he accepted the benefits of learning another language can give but unfortunately this doesn’t apply to Irish. If such a letter had been written with regard to maths on the curriculum there would be uproar. Let me put it like this. For the benefit I get from maths on a daily basis, I should have stopped learning after sixth class (or rang a sé in my case). By then I knew my tables and had been introduced to the wonders of percentages. Instead I had to stick it out for another six years, by the end of which I had any amount of theorems and formulas in my head, but only for a while, and due to a lack of use they were soon forgotten. A shocking indictment of our system isn’t it?
Twelve years of maths but all I really knew were my tables and my percentages. Therefore, compulsory maths should be scrapped. Those that continue with maths, do so as “a hobby”. Or so Mr Ross’s theory goes. And so presumably does the FG theory go. Mr Ross and the FG theory can also be applied elsewhere to great effect. Can we also scrap funding for swimming, athletics, hockey and the GAA? Surely money would be better spent on professional sports like soccer and rugby where the participants will pick up skills “that will prove more beneficial to them than to join the dwindling ranks of those that” play a sport “that has essentially become little more than a hobby”? Somehow I can’t see Mr Ross (or FG) backing either of the above.
Marcus O Buachalla
Cill Mochuda, Co Ath Cliath
Irish Independent – Litireacha chuig an Eagarthóir
Future of Irish to be made key issue for election
February 14, 2011
DEBATE: With just days to go before the first election television debate in Irish, on Wednesday, between the three party leaders, language organisations have stepped up their campaign to defend Irish as a core subject for the Leaving Certificate.
Conradh na Gaeilge says it is canvassing all candidates in the election on this issue, and on full implementation of the new 20-year strategy for the Irish language. Some 300 people from Irish colleges in Gaeltacht regions attended a meeting on the issue last week in Furbo, Co Galway. Last week, two Fine Gael candidates in Galway West distanced themselves from their party leader’s proposal to drop Irish as a compulsory Leaving Certificate subject. Galway county councillor Sean Kyne and Senator Fidelma Healy Eames have acknowledged there should be a review before any such decision.
The Labour Party has denied a claim by Minister for Social Protection Eamon Ó Cuív last week that it supported Fine Gael’s proposal. Labour leader Eamon Gilmore says his party is committed to the retention of Irish as one of the three core compulsory subjects for the Leaving Certificate. He believes the teaching of Irish “needed significant reform”. “An objective of language policy should be to ensure that students leaving school should be able to conduct a conversation in Irish with their peers. “This is not always the case at present,” he said. He will take part with Fianna Fáíl leader Micheál Martin and Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny in TG4’s three-way debate on Wednesday – the first such televised debate outside Dublin. The 50-minute debate may be prerecorded, to allow for English subtitles, and will be broadcast from TG4’s Baile na hAbhann headquarters, Co Galway, after the 7pm news.
The Irish Times – Lorna Siggins
FG Leaving Cert plan will hurt Irish
February 14, 2011
ENDA KENNY has again insisted that Irish should be removed as a compulsory subject from the Leaving Certificate.
Does he also propose to take this route with Maths? Irish students have been shown to struggle with Maths yet the consensus is that the curriculum should be reformed, not that the subject be made optional.
With 40% of marks in the Leaving Cert going on the oral Irish exam next year, I would like to see this reform given a chance. The Ukrainian writer Pavlychko warned in 1989 that “where a language disappears there you have the disappearance also of the national structure and the national spirit. In trying to save the Ukrainian language we are saying that we are trying to save a nation’s memory and a nation’s future”.
I hope Enda Kenny has given the most serious consideration to this election promise as the impact on our language may lead to its demise.
Róisín Lawless
Áth Buí
Co na Mí
Irish Examiner – Litir chuig an Eagarthóir
Ashamed of FG’s policy on Irish
February 14, 2011
It may be Valentine’s Day today but the leader of Fine Gael will not be winning the hearts of those who support the Irish language.
While loved-up couples across Ireland will be exchanging chocolates and teddy bears, the Union of Students in Ireland will be holding a silent protest outside an empty Dail against a political party which is deaf to the concerns of students. As a member of that party, I hang my head in shame. In his new book, Dr John Walsh critically examines the social and economic development of Irish in recent times.
He recently stated that making Irish an optional subject for the Leaving Certificate would have dire consequences for the language. As a renowned scholar of socio-linguistics, surely his word carries more weight than a party-political policy that came to life without any substantial research worth mentioning. As an active member of Young Fine Gael, I too will be outside the Dail today. The question of the Irish language is bigger than party politics and so long as Fine Gael remains determined to make Irish an optional Leaving Certificate subject, then I will have no choice but to remain ashamed of our policy on the Irish language.
MICHAEL CLANCY
DEPUTY-INTERNATIONAL SECRETARY, YFG, TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN
Irish Independent – Litir chuig an Eagarthóir
Don’t force Irish on us
February 14, 2011
Forcing everyone to learn a language for the purposes of cultural enlightenment is a rather blunt tactic that breeds indifference.
Encouraging pupils to voluntarily pick it up, instead of an obligation, is a far more honest policy than insisting every government publication and road sign is as Gaeilge. Whoever wants to learn it, should be encouraged and rewarded. However, those who have no interest should not be flogged with it.
Mark Lonergan
Dublin 11
Irish Examiner – Litir chuig an Eagarthóir
GAELSCOILEANNA TEO. DEMANDS of the 2011 IRISH GOVERNMENT
February 14, 2011
GAELSCOILEANNA TEO. DEMANDS of the 2011 IRISH GOVERNMENT
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