Irish speakers
December 11, 2013
Why do quite a number of Englishlanguage journalists think it is so smart and witty of them to show their ignorance of what it involves to be an Irish speaker?
It is not a hobby, it is not something I wish to practise twice a week for the craic, but it is every bit as intrinsic to my being as the colour of my skin. In this wonderfully diverse world of ours, a world where people are commended for defending their rights, are these totally unenlightened comments by Ian O’Doherty ( Irish Independent, December 9) acceptable?
Aine Nic Niallais, Indreabhan, Co na Gaillimhe
www.independent.ie
Tireless worker for the Irish language
December 11, 2013
I was disappointed to hear that Seán Ó Curreáin, Language Commissioner, is to resign. Séan worked tirelessly for the Irish language and Gaeltacht communities for the past eight years in his role.
He has told us that little headway was made regarding the Irish language in our state institutions in 2012 — legislated language plans were left languishing and more plans were out of date for more than three years. This is along with the other setbacks that the language has received ie the reduced status of COGG, the Council for Education, in Irish language medium schools. We are well aware of the Gaeltacht community’s language rights under the Official Languages Act. These rights are being denied inside our offices of state. State employees must be happy to serve us in Irish and it must be certified that public administration systems have enough staff with a working knowledge of Irish. The exemplary work by Ó Cuirreáin must be continued to ensure that we have a strong Gaeltacht community in the years to come.
Máire Uí Shíthigh
Baile an Fheirtéaraigh
Trá Lí
Co Chiarraí
www.irishexaminer.com
Comhordaitheoir ar Thionscadal Oidhreachta
December 10, 2013
Cúntóir Naíonra, Biorra
December 10, 2013
An Taoiseach Enda Kenny i mbun cainte le Raidió na Life ar ‘20 Bliain’ Dé Céadaoin 11ú Nollaig, 12:00 – 13:00
December 10, 2013
Merry Christmas from Coláiste na hÉireann/Gaelchultúr
December 10, 2013
Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year from Gaelchultúr.
As 2013 draws to a close, we would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who participated in our courses over the last 12 months.
2013 has been an important year for Gaelchultúr. We were awarded status as a third level institution during the summer and began a course at level 9 on the NFQ, Dioplóma Iarchéime san Aistriúchán (Postgraduate Diploma in Translation), in September. We offered the Certificate in Professional Irish at three different levels – Levels 3, 4 and 5 – and awarded that qualification to employees from a wide range of public sector bodies. We published the third edition of our Irish grammar book, Gramadach gan Stró!, as well as three new Irish language resources for primary school teachers: Gníomhaíochtaí Gasta, Póstaer Pearsan and Réalta an Ranga. Over a thousand primary teachers participated in our online summer courses – the most registrations we’ve had to date. We also redesigned our online shop, siopa.ie, and added substantially to the number and range of products we sell.
Competition
We have two pairs of tickets to give away for Kíla’s Christmas gig, as well as five copies of Rónán Ó Snodaigh’s brand new album, Sos. The gig will begin at 8.00pm on Wednesday, 18 December 2013, in Whelan’s, 25 Wexford Street, Dublin 2.
If you want to be in with a chance to win, send an email with the title “Comórtas” to eolas@gaelchultur.com by 5.00pm on Friday, 13 December 2013. You must answer the following question in your email:
Rónán Ó Snodaigh is a member of the band Kíla, but what is the name of his latest solo album?
All correct answers will be entered into a draw. The first two people selected will win the tickets and the next five names drawn will win a copy of the album.
Cúrsaí an Earraigh Gaelchultúr
Irish language policy is deluded
December 10, 2013
With all due respect to Julian de Spáinn of Conradh na Gaeilge, his recent letter (Dec 6) is a good illustration of the scale of the delusion that exists in the Irish language lobby about how best to preserve the national language.
Mr de Spáinn says that the status of Irish as an official EU language makes Irish “our bridge to Europe”. In reality, however, the only concrete effect of this status is that reams of obscure official documents are required to be translated into Irish costing European taxpayers a staggering €800m annually. Given that, according to the most recent census, just 1.8% of the population use Irish as part of their daily lives, it is clear that only a tiny number of people in Ireland (let alone in Europe) benefit from this enormous expenditure. So what exactly does this “official status” achieve in terms of preserving the language, when the only people who derive any benefit from it are the tiny number of people who already speak Irish?
So here’s a radical idea. How about we seek to revoke the status of Irish as an official language, and request that this €800m be redirected from translating endless documents and reports, to the direct teaching of Irish to schoolchildren. This would effectively double the amount being spent on the teaching of Irish, and could literally bring about a revolution in how we teach the language. For example, with such vast money at our disposal we could send every child in the country with an interest in the language to the Gaeltacht for a couple of weeks a year. Surely that would do more for the language than the translation of dust-gathering EU reports?
Mr de Spáinn goes on to mention the 180 jobs as translators and says, quite outrageously, that “there is no other way to dramatically increase the number or Irish people working with the EU”. This is an extraordinarily blinkered point of view. In Germany alone, there is a massive shortage of skilled engineers, with an estimated 70,000 vacancies in this sector which cannot be filled. So how about instead of spending €800m to create 180 jobs translating documents into Irish, we spend this money on teaching some of the thousands of skilled construction workers who lost their jobs in the crash to speak German, and take up these well-paid jobs just a two-hour flight away? Irish language groups tend to froth at the mouth at the thought of continental languages being taught to Irish people, but this is hardly surprising given that they seem not to want any Irish people to learn Irish either.
The status of Irish as an official EU language does nothing to preserve the language. All it does is effectively put Irish on a pedestal in a museum, like some kind of stuffed dodo, to be admired by a tiny number of people at a cost of €800m per annum. Only a truly radical shift in our attitudes will prevent our language from going the way of the dodo.
Barry Walsh
Clontarf
Dublin 3
www.irishexaminer.com
Gaeilge is not a Hobby
December 10, 2013
Further to Ian O’Doherty’s column yesterday where he refers to the Irish language as a hobby in the context of Sean O Cuirreain’s resignation as language commissioner, I would like to speak for Irish speakers.
Mr O’Doherty has grown up in a world where all the services that he deals with to conduct his life are offered in his first language. Not so the thousands and thousands of people who have grown up with Irish as their first language. Imagine going to the doctor, to the bank, to a garda, to a counsellor and they don’t speak your first language. Not only do they not speak your language, but if you try to obtain the service in your own language you’re labelled as awkward, a ‘Gaeilgeoiri Grenadier’ to quote Mr O’Doherty.
We are not from another country, we are from Ireland, believe it or not, and the fact that we are being marginalised does not change the fact that we have a right to be here. Mr O’Doherty forgets that millions upon millions in state money is being invested in supporting the infrastructure of the English language — every government service in the country. Because it’s for the majority it’s okay. He forgets that we have a right to exist as well. It isn’t a hobby. It isn’t a cash cow. It’s who we are and we have a right to be here.
BRIDGET BHREATHNACH
TURLOCH BEAG, ROS MUC, CO NA GAILLIMHE
www.independent.ie
Comórtas Griangrafadóireachta ‘An Timire’
December 9, 2013
Aimsir – a new Irish language app
December 9, 2013
Detailed weather forecasts in Irish for the iPhone
Aimsir is a new initiative from Moonswing, a company based in Athlone, that provides users with an outlook of the weather through Irish.
Data from the OpenWeatherMap is used to provide accurate and detailed current and seven day forecasts through Irish.
As well as general weather forecasts, Aimsir also provides information on wind strength and direction, atmospheric pressure and humidity.
The app also aims to present the user with as wide range of much Irish language vocabulary as possible.
A large amount of the data is provided in text format and words and terms are translated in the glossary section of the app as well as several other tools which allow learners to become accustomed to working with numbers and dates through Irish.
Moonswing plans to add many more features to Aimsir in forthcoming releases, including audio clips for the Irish vocabulary.
Aimsir is available to download worldwide from the iTunes App Store https://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/aimsir-irish-language-weather/id764362817?mt=8
Foilsithe ar Gaelport.com
