(Gaeilge) Gaeilge24
October 19, 2016
Oireachtas Committee told Gaeltacht is ‘not viable’
October 19, 2016
An Oireachtas Committee has been told that the Gaeltacht in its current state is not viable.
In his address to the Oireachtas Standing Joint Committee on the Irish Language, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, Dr Brian Ó Curnáin from the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies said that several recent academic reports on the Gaeltacht have shown that the number of Irish speakers there is decreasing.
He also said that young people’s competence in the language in these areas is also in decline, due in large part to their greater socialisation through English.
The status quo is no longer an option for the preservation of the Irish language and that a new approach is required, he told the committee.
Dr Ó Curnáin said the recommendations of the Department of Education and Skills regarding primary education in the Gaeltacht was the only exception to the State’s inaction in terms of the crisis.
However, those recommendations are yet to be implemented.
He recommended the establishment of new support structures for the Gaeltacht and the language, including a redefined geographical space where community use of the Irish language would be promoted and encouraged, a public trust that would manage its socio-economic resources, and a research body that would provide strategic advice.
The Government’s approach to the Irish language was also criticised by another academic who was invited to appear before the committee.
Professor Conchúr Ó Giollagáin from the University of the Highlands and Islands, Scotland, described the Government’s 20 Year Strategy for the Irish language as a strategy for non-Gaeltacht areas and said that there was a need for a different strategy to deal with the crisis affecting the Gaeltacht itself.
He stated that the requirements of Irish speakers in the Gaeltacht are very often confused with the requirements of those learning Irish – an example being the common curriculum in all schools in the country.
Severe cuts to the Irish language and Gaeltacht budget from 2008 onwards have proved that the strategy is a status quo approach but with only half the funding, according to Professor Ó Giollagáin.
The strategy has achieved very little to date and it is now apparent that it will have very little effect in the future, he said.
He said responsibility for the Irish language goes from one arm of the State to another, until it eventually reaches someone in a Gaeltacht community who deals with language preservation on a voluntary basis, when a proper process and proper support structures are required instead.
Revolution in learning about Irish history sees events in new ways
October 18, 2016
School students are learning about the Irish revolution in a new way through photos, documents, and maps showing some of the events and personalities in a different light.
An exhibition touring Cork and Kerry second-level schools offers a taste of the Atlas of the Irish Revolution, a book being finalised at University College Cork to offer a new approach to how the tumultuous events of a century ago are understood.
The tour was launched at St Angela’s College in Cork yesterday, an appropriate location as it is the former workplace of Mary MacSwiney. Caitríona Crowley, a transition year student, explained that the co-founder of Cumann na mBan’s Cork branch was arrested for her links to the revolutionary movement while teaching a maths class at the school in May 1916 after the Easter Rising.
Project co-ordinator Helene O’Keeffe will speak to students at the end of each school’s week-long exhibition about the research running through the atlas, much of it highlighting the subject areas available to students at UCC. As well as the history and geography connections, the statistics underpinning many of the illustrations may be used to teach maths and numeracy.
“Central to the exhibition are highly original maps which provide new and exciting ways for a younger generation to engage with Ireland’s revolutionary past,” said John Crowley of UCC’s geography department, a co-editor of the Atlas of the Irish Revolution.
The large-format book features the work of more than 70 historians, from UCC, around Ireland, and international scholars. It is due to be published by Cork University Press next March and features maps devised by the UCC geography department.
Those in the exhibition include the locations of suffragette branches in 1913 and 1914, locations associated with Michael Collins during the War of Independence and key events during the Civil War in Kerry.
St Angela’s College fourth-year student Alison Hegarty said the illustrations will help visual learners such as herself to engage with large amounts of information easier than they might from long pages of text in books.
“One of the ones I found most interesting shows where children who died in 1916 inner city Dublin, and their ages,” said Alison. “It shocks you to read, and it’s good to be reminded that the Rising didn’t just affect political figures, but also innocent children.”
Some of the maps, archival documents, and old photos —many from the Irish Examiner’s photographic archive — will feature in a digital resource for second-level teachers being developed by Ms O’Keeffe. Samples of maps from the book related to the 1916 Rising will be available from January at theirishrevolution.ie, an online collaboration between UCC and the Irish Examiner.
An Irish-language version of the touring exhibition is also open for all-Irish second-level schools to host.
Welcome for council’s new Irish language Christmas
October 18, 2016
IRISH language Christmas lights look set to adorn Omagh’s Courthouse this festive season after a Sinn Féin motion went unopposed at a recent Fermanagh and Omagh District Council meeting.
Irish language activists have welcomed the move, which will see the message ‘Nollaig shona duit’ lit up in both Omagh and Enniskillen.
Local gaeilgeoir Sinéad Ní Mhearnóg has described the move as a “big step” in helping change some attitudes to the language.
The Greencastle woman is chair of Pobal ar a’n Iúl, a new local branch of Conradh na Gaeilge (The Gaelic League), which was established in 2014.
The group had lobbied local councillors on the issue of Christmas lights and last week they responded by approving the motion first introduced by Carrickmore Sinn Féin councillor Barry McNally at September’s Regeneration and Community meeting.
Costing around £550 each, the lights will follow places like Carrickmore, Dungannon and Belfast, where Irish language messages are already part of the Christmas decorations.
Cllr McNally said the new decorations would complement the council’s Irish language policy.
“It absolutely complements the Irish language policy that has been developed by the council.
“I was pleased to get cross party support in the chamber, there was no dissension,” he said. “There were times in the past where this would have been opposed, but we’re glad that this got across the line without any opposition to it.”
Sinéad Ní Mhearnóg said the lights would help encourage the growing numbers of Irish speakers in the local area and encourage more positive reactions to the language.
“We see this as the council acknowledging that growing community in a positive way and we’re just really happy that the unionist councillors didn’t feel it was a negative thing.
“A sign isn’t any kind of a threat,” she added. “It’s really about acknowledging the large Irish language community there is in the area.”
The language activist pointed to the growing numbers in the Irish medium education sector, which has prompted Gaelscoil na gCrann in Ballinamullan to seek a new build.
“From all the new council areas, Omagh has quite a high number of people from the last census who would have knowledge of the Irish language.
“I think people forget there are children and families out there who are fully fluent,” she said.
“There are a growing number of young people out there who are fluent and will one day be working in the shops, the solicitors, the doctors. It’s all steps in the right direction.
“The Christmas lights is a small thing, yet it’s a big step I think in maybe changing attitudes a bit.”
Date set for Omagh’s festive lights switch-on
OMAGH’S big Christmas lights switch on will take place on Thursday November 24 at 6.30pm.
The date was confirmed by councillors at last week’s monthly meeting in Enniskillen.
Councillors also approved a system to seek voluntary contributions of between £50 and £250 from local businesses to help cover the cost of the lights.
The contribution will be calculated based on the total net asset valuations (NAV) of town centre businesses.
Councillors have also opted to once again supply 12 Christmas trees to towns and villages throughout the Omagh district. It followed a controversial decision last year to harmonize Omagh’s policy with Fermanagh, where only two trees were traditionally provided to Enniskillen and Irvinestown.
The council later reversed the decision.
Two trees will once again be installed in Omagh at Market Street and the Swinging Bars Roundabout. Other areas benefitting include: Beragh, Carrickmore, Dromore, Drumquin, Fintona, Gortin, Killyclogher, Loughmacrory, Mountfield and Trillick.
The council have also agreed to explore the concept of artificial trees for the 2017 Christmas period.
Meanwhile a total budget of £44,500 to fund settlements across Omagh and Fermanagh with money to purchase Christmas lights has been approved by the council.
New procedures introduced last year mean the funding is allocated on a basis of the population in a settlement.
Limerick teacher releases innovative free grinds app
October 17, 2016
A LIMERICK teacher has developed an Irish language app which may eliminate the need for private grinds.
The groundbreaking app, called Leaving Cert Irish App, has been designed to give disadvantaged and rural kids the “tutorial extras without the tutorial fees”, which it’s hoped will “level the playing pitch”.
Irish teacher John Gavin’s revolutionary idea takes the best aspects of the ‘grind’ system, and aims to make it available to all students, either for free or for a monthly subscription.
The Corbally-born teacher said that the Irish Leaving Certificate system is all about getting the edge, which is driving students to take intensive grinds to get ahead.
“That’s fine and convenient for those with the money to purchase that extra tuition and the physical proximity to that extra tuition,” he said.
“The problem is that it’s not available to those who either don’t have the money or just physically can’t get to the grind colleges in the evenings or at the weekends.”
Mr Gavin’s app aims to give all students access to the same resources.
“This app is for all those hundreds of kids who want – and I think deserve – a level playing field with the kids from Castletroy or the North Circular Road.
“I’m not excluding anyone, but I happen to believe that an ambitious boy or girl from Ballylanders or Castlemahon has as much right to the ‘tutorial edge’ as the kids from Castletroy,” he added.
The app is currently available on the iOS app store and Google Play store. Once downloaded, all of the content on the app is free, including video, notes and live classes. The participation on the existing live classes on Leavingcertirish.com is doubling each month. The classes are recorded, so they’re available even if you miss the live version.
Additional resources are available for €2.50 a month, which Mr Gavin pointed out is just five percent of the price of a traditional group grind.
“People can see that this isn’t a commercial exercise or revenue-raising. This is a long overdue coming together of everyday, ‘every kid’ technology, and a deliberate attempt to level a playing field that, quite honestly, I and many others think has been sloping the way of the urban and suburban upper middle classes for way too long,” he said.
“From now on, and with this app, the kids ‘out in the sticks’ or from ‘the wrong side of the tracks’ will get the same edge that all the others have been getting for free or for the price of a cup of coffee.”
Mr Gavin added that the app was updated on Wednesday to enable compatibility with iOS 10.
Mayor launches Gaeloideachas and education conference
October 17, 2016
Mayor of Kilkenny Patrick O’ Neill officially launched the Gaeloideachas and COGG Education Conference yesterday afternoon at an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM).
A new name for the organisation Gaelscoileanna Teo. was announced at the official launch of the conference in Kilkenny, organised in partnership with COGG. Members of Gaelscoileanna Teo. voted to adopt ‘Gaeloideachas – Guth don Oideachas lán-Ghaeilge’ (A voice for Irish-medium and Gaeltacht Education) as the organisation’s new name.
It recognises the organisation’s broad remit; Irish-medium primary and post-primary schools both in Gaeltacht areas and outside of them, as well as Irish-medium preschool services in non-Gaeltacht areas.
Speaking after the meeting, the organisation’s President, Cathnia Ó Muircheartaigh, said they were very grateful to members for their participation in the consultations around the change of name.
“Their involvement in the discussions demonstrated how important an issue this was for them and as an organisation, we’re delighted to be able to recognise members’ desire for a more inclusive and representative name,” he said.
The event was also an opportunity to showcase some of what will be on offer on November 11 and 12 here in the city.
Gaeloideachas public relations officer Seán Ó hArgáin said that it’s a great honour for the Cultural City of Kilkenny to be chosen as the venue for this year’s Education Conference.
“We’re expecting more than 300 delegates from all over Ireland to attend over the two days, to take part in professional development, networking and social events,” he said.
Two Irish language schools being lined up to join state controlled sector
October 17, 2016
TWO Irish language schools are being lined up to join the sector traditionally associated with non-Catholic education.
Schools in south Derry and Belfast are working with officials with a view to transforming to state-controlled status.
Discussions are at an early stage but should the plans be approved it will double the number of inter-denominational state controlled Irish-medium primary schools.
Irish-medium schools are often perceived to be Catholic, but are non-denominational.
The majority of children that attend are Catholic, however, schools including Gaelscoil an Chaistil in Ballycastle almost have as many `other/no religion’ pupils as those who identify as Catholic.
Only two Irish-medium providers have made the switch to the state sector, which mostly funds non-Catholic education.
The first, in 2004, was Bunscoil Mhic Reachtain in Belfast. It was followed in 2012 by Gaelscoil Neachtain in Dungiven.
The Department of Education told the Irish News that the two schools considering a move at present were Scoil an Droichid in Belfast and Gaelscoil na tSeanchaí in Magherafelt.
Numbers at Gaelscoil na tSeanchaí have spiralled since 2011 when it had just 25 pupils. Last year, 125 were enrolled.
Pupil numbers at Scoil an Droichid are also strong – it had 157 children last year.
The school was one of 15 told in 2014 that it would benefit from a £170 million investment in new buildings. In addition, it was one of two Irish schools that won a fight for funding to host `nurture’ units for children at risk of falling behind.
A department spokeswoman said under the relevant legislation, it would be for the Education Authority (EA) to bring forward development proposals to have the two schools recognised as controlled.
“The department understands that the EA is working with each school to prepare a robust case for change to support the publication of a development proposal,” she said.
“If the EA is satisfied that the case can be made then it will commence the statutory pre-publication consultation following which a development proposal will be published and a two month consultation period will commence.”
(Gaeilge) Gaelscoil Uí Chéadaigh presents €630 to CF Ireland
October 17, 2016
(Gaeilge) Polasaí oideachais Gaeltachta pléite leis an Taoiseach, ach níl aon phingin dá fheidhmú sa Bhuiséad
October 17, 2016
Irish language school in legal action against minister after building plan put on hold
October 17, 2016
