Learn Irish for less at Coláiste na nOileán
February 24, 2014
Located in the heart of the Connemara Gaeltacht, Coláiste na nOileán is one of the longest-running Irish colleges.
The college offers a number of course options. Five day summer Gaeltacht course for fifth and sixth class primary A specially designed five day residential course for fifth and sixth class primary students, this completely separate and fully supervised course is especially designed around parents’ requests and caters specifically for this age group.
Three week summer courses
The extremely popular three-week courses have made the college stand out from the rest with special courses for those sitting the Leaving Cert and Junior Cert 2014. Great emphasis is placed on the oral Irish test which accounts for 40 per cent of the awarded grade.
One, two, and three day Gaeltacht activity courses
The college also runs one, two, and three day mini Gaeltacht activity courses during the school year that would suit all ages from fifth and sixth class primary students to transition year in secondary. The courses include a huge range of activities, all through the medium of Irish, which make it a fun packed adventure.
Coláiste na nOileán believes that learning Irish should be fun as this helps to cultivate a love for the Irish language and its culture, a formula that has made Coláiste na nOileán a huge success for over half a century.
It is also running special offers for mid-term break and Easter. For further details on all courses and to download a brochure visit www.colaistenanoilean.ie or contact the college on 091 551933/595890 or email colnanoilean@gmail.com.
www.advertiser.ie/mayo
Irish language under threat
February 24, 2014
A chara, – As a Gaeilgeoir I prefer to communicate with government departments and State agencies as Gaeilge, but am coming to the conclusion there is an unofficial policy at Government level to discourage this. The following examples illustrate the point.
In the first year of the Local Property Tax, I wrote to the Revenue Commissioners requesting that all correspondence between them and me in that regard be done as Gaeilge, including explanatory booklet and bill. The request was ignored and I had no choice but to invoke the assistance of An Coimisinéir Teanga (the Language Commissioner).
I estimate that more than a dozen letters were written before that simple matter was successfully concluded – by me, by An Coimisinéir Teanga and by the Revenue Commissioners. Stout resistance was encountered from the last of those.
Recently I again had to invoke the assistance of An Coimisinéir Teanga to obtain the Irish language version of Form DD1 which applies to exemption from VAT and VRT for those with adaptations to their vehicles to suit a driver or passenger with a physical disability. Twice I wrote to Revenue for the form to be provided as Gaeilge but my request was ignored in favour of the English language version. The requested one finally arrived, as Gaeilge.
It is interesting to note that the Revenue Commissioners have an impressive website that pretends there is a choice of either official language but, on closer examination, it transpires that there are serious discrepancies.
By contrast, those in charge of collecting the household charge had no difficulty in doing the entire matter as Gaeilge and without fuss.
Many of my friends are Gaeilgeoirí but, sadly, several of them have abandoned their efforts to deal with the State as Gaeilge. They cite numerous examples of obstacles being placed in their paths.
Is it any wonder that Seán Ó Cuirreáin has resigned as An Coimisinéir Teanga?
Saturday’s march in Dublin shows there are many in this country who believe in the value of our uniqueness of language and richness of identity and also that most of those whom we have elected to lead us are not remotely interested.
– Is mise,
BRIAN Mac a’ BHAIRD,
Carraig Mhachaire Rois,
Co Mhuineacháin.
www.irishtimes.com
Protest over Irish language rights held in Gaeltacht
February 24, 2014
The Government’s failure to protect linguistic rights of Irish speakers was denounced in the State’s largest Gaeltacht yesterday, when hundreds of people braved southerly gales for a demonstration in Connemara.
The “Slán le Seán” protest, as it was titled, was held to mark the last day in office of the first Irish language commissioner Seán Ó Cuirreáin, who announced his resignation late last year over the State’s lack of commitment to providing adequate services in Irish for Irish speakers.
Yesterday’s event – coming just a week after an estimated 10,000 people marched in Dublin – is part of a nationwide campaign to seek equal treatment for Irish speakers on both sides of the Border.
Anybody who wishes to engage in Irish with the State or any of its agencies or bodies is entitled to do so Why are Irish language groups protesting?
Reiterating that they were “dearg le fearg”, or “red with anger”, the demonstrators, represented by Colm Mac Donncha of Tuismitheoirí na Gaeltachta, presented a letter of tribute to Mr Ó Cuirreáín at his office in An Spidéal.
Mr Ó Cuirreáin said he was humbled by the level of support from Gaeltacht communities and Irish speakers across the island. “I always found it to be ironic that the State, which requires all students to study Irish up to Leaving Certificate level, it then fails to facilitate them, and in fact actively prevents them from using that language in dealing with State bodies,” he said, emphasising that his recommendations had all been “cost neutral”.
“To continue to do this over the years and generations is a folly which has pushed the language to the margins of society,” he said.
Mr Ó Cuirreáín said he wished his successor – the incoming Coimisinéir Teanga, Rónán Ó Domhnaill – “every success in meeting the challenges of protecting and promoting Irish language rights”.
A minute’s silence was held in memory of Éanna Griallais, a young man from Indreabhán who died over the weekend, before the participants then set out on foot from An Spidéal to Department of the Gaeltacht offices at Na Forbacha with banners and loud-hailers.
On arrival, actor and Fíbín theatre company producer Darach Ó Tuairisg read out a letter addressed to Minister of State Dinny McGinley, which was then presented to one of the department officials.
The letter calls for repeal or amendment of the Acht na Gaeltachta 2012 to ensure it sets the boundaries of the Gaeltacht according to linguistic criteria, and implementation of a clear policy throughout the Civil Service to ensure State services are provided through the medium of Irish.
Former Gaeltacht minister Éamon Ó Cuív and Sinn Féin senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh were among politicians at the demonstration, along with representatives from communities across the Connemara Gaeltacht.
www.irishtimes.com
Rúnaí Oifige lán-aimseartha á lorg ag Gaelscoileanna Teo. – Spriocdháta 26 Feabhra
February 24, 2014
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
