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Libraries celebrate as Gaeilge

February 28, 2014

Libraries around the county have a full programme of events line-up to mark this year’s Seachtain na Gaeilge (Irish week) in the first two weeks of March.

They are inviting anyone with an interest in Irish, whether as a fluent speaker or just thinking about learning a little, to view the programme, which has juggling workshops, storytelling, puppet shows, music, and more. Visit www.mayolibrary.ie for further information.

www.advertiser.ie/galway

Seachtain na Gaeilge – Gaelfest

February 28, 2014

Seachtain na Gaeilge – Gaelfest celebrates the language that St Patrick had to learn to make himself understood to the Gaels and gives the green light to events organized in the Mid-Ulster area for Ireland’s national day.

There will be opportunities throughout Seachtain na Gaeilge – Gaelfest for anyone with no knowledge of the language to become familiar with basic phrases and structures.

Anyone who is free at lunch-time on Wednesdays can call into Ranfurly House in Dungannon, where a series of talks introducing the Irish language will be held over the fortnight. Irish language officer, Séamus mac Giolla Phádraig will give the introductory talks about the language to try to explain why we speak the way we do.

The children haven’t been forgotten. Seal Spraoi children’s clubs in Cookstown, Dungannon and Coalisland provide Irish language after-schools activities and there will be an emphasis on song, music and dance over the fortnight during and after school hours. A special storytime Seal Spraoi will be held in Cookstown’s Burnavon Centre on Friday 7 March from 4.30pm until 6.00pm with Gearóidín Bhreathnach. The Burnavon will also host a family céilí in on Sunday, 9 March between 2pm and 4pm, with music by Raymond Loney.

Gearóidín Bhreathnach, twice winner of Corn Uí Riada, the ultimate prize in Irish sean-nós singing, will be in the Square Box Theatre on Friday night, 7 March. Gearóidín has a clear, easy singing style. She explains the events behind the songs she sings and puts them in context by telling something of the lives of those who composed them.

Regular Irish language events, such as the Ciorcal Comhrá conversation club, on the first Saturday of the month and Léigh Leat reading club are held in conjunction with Dungannon Library. These and their counterparts in Cookstown will be making special efforts to welcome people who would like to try out Irish words and phrases they know. Details are available at www.guthonline.org.

A fund-raising relay run the length of Ireland, called Rith 2014, will arrive in Dungannon from Cookstown on Thursday afternoon, 13 March before making its way to Coalisland. Runners will have completed the relay from Strabane to Cookstown the night before. Rith 2014 provides clubs with the means to raise funds for their own small Irish language projects. Groups can ‘buy’ a kilometre and find details of the route at www.rith.ie.

Throughout the month of March, Dungannon Library will host an exhibition which has Irish writing systems as its theme. Examples of Ogham, the manuscript tradition, the invention of the printing press and modern computer fonts will be presented and discussed.

Dr Malachy Ó Néill will give a talk on the Ó Néill kingship on Thursday night, 13 March at 8.30pm in the Square Box Theatre. Dr Ó Néill examines Irish language sources for the O’Neill family story, reflecting the events which preceded the coming of Patrick to Ireland right up to and beyond the Plantation of Ulster, a period of some twelve hundred years. Máirín Hurndall will bring the official Seachtain na Gaeilge-Gaelfest celebrations to a conclusion with a talk the following evening at 8.00pm in the Burnavon Theatre, Cookstown, about the Gaelic Heritage of Protestants.

www.tyronetimes.co.uk

Irish language under threat

February 28, 2014

Sir, – I live part of the year in Wales, where you can hear more Welsh in five minutes than Irish in a year in nearly every part of Ireland (this is no exaggeration).

The unwelcome truth is that very few of us have any intention of ever speaking Irish. Instead we have long ago opted for cuplafocalarism, This consists of putting road signs, notices, documents and all the rest of it into Irish (even better if it can be done at European level) regardless of whether it is used or not.
Meanwhile, we blithely continue to speak our real native language, English. It shouldn’t fool a 10-year-old. But we are quite content with this nonsense and woe betide anyone who questions the emperor’s attire.

– Yours, etc,
DAVID HERMAN,
Meadow Grove

Sir, – In the course of my work, over many years, I travelled the entire island of Ireland. I know very little Irish, but that was never a problem. No one I ever met had any difficulty in speaking to me in English.
In fact, everyone I met or did business with spoke English. This also applied to shops, theatres and pubs. The only other languages to be heard, mostly in the high season, were, Spanish, French, German and some East European languages.
So I would like to challenge any one of the letter writers who accept the accuracy of the 2011 Census (which states 1.77 million speak Gaeilge on a daily basis), to stand with me on the main street of any large town or city in Ireland (apart from Galway) to hold a short conversation with passers by, as Gaeilge. Any takers?

– Yours, etc,
NIALL GINTY,
The Demesne,
Killester, Dublin 5.

A chara, – I agree with Revd Patrick G Burke (Letters, February 25th) that “the so-called financial experts” destroyed the Irish economy. And they were ably aided and abetted by a lot of our politicians and developers. In fact its arguable whether we own our country any more. We own the Irish language, but it seems a lot of our people do not value it very highly. Maybe our new immigrants – the Poles, the Lithuanians, the Nigerians – might succeed where we have failed. “Níl tír gan teanga”.

– Is mise,
BEAIRTLE O CONGHAILE,
Cúirt an Choláiste,
Dún Dealgan, Co Lú.

www.irishtimes.com

Normalise our native language, or lose it

February 28, 2014

Myles Duffy (Letters, Febraury 26) miss-es the point. The Irish language has never been nurtured by the State. On the whole, the language has been an ornament atop a monoglot anglophone system.

Where a language is excluded from pub-lic or official business, that language goes into decline. This has nothing to do with the survival of the fittest, but is a matter of policy .The Dutch language has thrived in Belgium since the normalisation of its use in public life there was achieved. The same Dutch language is dying out just across the border in Dunkirk, where it was the ma-jority language for centuries, because of its being banned from official spaces by the French state.

Seán Ó Cuirreáin, the Official Languages Ombudsman, resigned in December in frustration at the lack of progress on end-ing the systemic marginalisation of Irish. We need to normalise our language. The comparison with the GAA is not well made. Languages need active speakers with am-ple opportunities to use the language and pass it on to their children. There is no comparison with training for an hour once a week or cheering on from the sidelines.

Dáithí Mac Cárthaigh BL
An Leabharlann Dlí
Baile Átha Cliath 7

www.irishexaminer.com

Can children with language impairments learn two languages?

February 28, 2014

Interesting article on research into children with language difficulties learning a second language, and the benefits it has for them: The Hanen Centre

Rannpháirtithe á lorg le haghaidh clár nua ‘Teacher Teacher’

February 28, 2014

Sorry, this entry is only available in Irish.

Múinteoirí á lorg ag Coláiste na bhFiann

February 28, 2014

Sorry, this entry is only available in Irish.

PDST Workshops on Anti-bullying Policy

February 27, 2014

The PDST are hosting a series of workshops in March on Anti-bullying policy, the details are as follows:

18th March 2014
1-3pm
Cork Education Centre

19th March 2014
1-3pm
Kilkenny Education Centre

19th March 2014
1-3pm
Navan Education Centre

20th March 2014
1-3pm
Gallagher’s Hotel, Donegal

20th March 2014
1-3pm
Dublin West Education Centre

20th March 2014
1-3pm
Galway Education Centre

25th March 2014
1-3pm
Mayo Education Centre

26th March 2014
1-3pm
Athlone Education Centre

For further information, contact info@pdst.ie

Imeachtaí as Gaeilge san Ardmhúsaem, Sráid Chill Dara

February 27, 2014

Sorry, this entry is only available in Irish.

Irish language under threat

February 27, 2014

A chara, – While there may be some merit in the views expressed by Eanna Coffey (February 25th) regarding the Irish language, I would have to take issue with some of his remarks.

How can a language be described as “functionally useless” when it is still the first language of many citizens born in this State, be they located in Iarthar Ciarraí, Conamara or Gaobh Dobhair or elsewhere on this island? Presumably these citizens can still communicate with each other in their language of birth? I agree with his assertion that the policy of compulsory Irish has failed. It is a beautiful, sophisticated language and is wasted on those who do not appreciate it. Set the Irish language free and teach it to the willing. – Is mise,

ROB Mac GIOLLARNÁTH,
Sandyford View,
Simonsridge,
Sandyford, Dublin 18.

A chara, – Éanna Coffey’s letter (February 25th) contains the writer’s derogatory comment on a literature written in a language which he deems to be “detested by students, who are force-fed second-rate poetry and literature out of some absurd national pride”. Then he urges us to see Gaelic games, Irish dancing , traditional Irish music as being worthy substitutes for language – the prime signifier of the Other. As a prose-writer who has written 10 works of fiction in my native language, ie, Irish, I find this attitude hard to take.

Mr Coffey dares to speak for others while he detests the Other that my native language has become in my native country. Furthermore, Mr Coffey, I presume, is aware of the fact that there is an Irish speaking enclave 40 miles from his own doorstep in west Kerry, where I come from. The fact that I received my secondary education in Killarney where I was force-fed English and its oftentimes second-rate poetry and literature, deemed worthy and first-rate, out of some absurd cultural-imperialist pride, is probably of little or no significance to him. – Is mise,

PÁDRAIG Ó CÍOBHÁIN,
Bóthar na Ceapaí,
Bearna, Co na Gaillimhe.

www.irishtimes.com

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