Meeting on gaelscoil site
October 24, 2016
A public meeting will be held on Thursday to discuss Gaelscoil Chill Mhantáin’s search for a permanent home.
The school is currently located on the grounds of the old Abbey Community College in Wicklow town.
The Department of Education have ear-marked a site in Merrymeeting for a brand new school, but some parents believe the site is too small and would prefer to remain at the school’s current location.
The public meeting is open to all parents for their feedback and takes place tomorrow (Thursday, October 20) at St Patrick’s GAA Clubhouse at 8 p.m.
Govt’s Gaeltacht area education policy to be announced
October 21, 2016
The Department of Education has confirmed that the policy for educational provision in Gaeltacht areas will be launched next week.
Policy proposals for educational provision in Gaeltacht areas were published in May 2015, followed by a lengthy consultation process.
Many language, education and Gaeltacht organisations have expressed their disappointment about the delay in publishing the policy, but it is now expected to be implemented in September 2017.
The policy was discussed at a meeting of the Cabinet committee on arts, Irish and the Gaeltacht last week.
It is understood Taoiseach Enda Kenny will launch the policy next week in Conamara.
Department ‘to consider Irish language’ in patronage process
October 21, 2016
A move to incorporate language preference in the process used by the Department of Education when awarding school patronage has been criticised by Irish language body An Foras Pátrúnachta.
The change means it is open to all prospective patron applicants to propose a preference for Irish- or English-medium education in their application in the case of nine new post-primary schools due to open by September 2018.
Mr Caoimhín Ó hEaghra, general secretary of the Irish language patron, said the change does not address the needs of the community it is supposed to serve.
“As the vast majority of people speak English they would choose English-medium education,” Mr Ó hEaghra said.
While the department has said it will take “existing Irish-medium provision in the adjacent school planning areas” into account in its assessment, Mr Ó hEaghra said: “A fairer way would be to ascertain if there was Irish-medium provision in place. If not, it should be”, he added.
Campaigners have long argued the school selection process is skewed against those who wish to have their children educated through Irish on the basis that they cannot numerically compete with English-language schools in strictly-defined catchment areas.
The result is that children who attend such schools often have to travel from school districts where Irish language schooling is not available to them.
Study
Citing a 2015 ESRI study on attitudes towards the Irish language on the island of Ireland, Mr Ó hEaghra said: “Twenty-three per cent of parents stated they would send their children to Irish-medium education if it was available.”
In an effort to satisfy the department’s geographical criteria, An Foras Pátrúnachta recently submitted a joint application with the Laois-Offaly Education and Training Board for a multi-denominational community college in Portlaoise – one of the nine schools due to open by 2018.
If the application is successful, the new school will incorporate an all-Irish unit, or aonad lán-Ghaeilge, which will eventually evolve into a fully independent Gael Choláiste.
Mr Ó hEaghra said if it was “to implement its stated support for the Irish language and Irish-medium education then it must engage in an active policy of supporting their development as opposed to a passive one.”
“This would require ensuring that they had the resources to provide subject choice, etc, until such a time as the number of pupils in the school has grown to a sustainable level,” he added.
Planning areas
Six of the schools outlined by the department are due to open next September and will serve the following school planning areas:
– Carpenterstown and Castleknock, Dublin 15
– Limerick city and environs (south-west)
– Lucan, Co Dublin
– Malahide and Portmarnock, Co Dublin
– Portlaoise, Co Laois
– Swords, Co Dublin
The remaining three schools are due to open in September 2018 and will serve the following school planning areas:
– Limerick city and environs (east)
– Dublin south city centre (Dublin 2,4,6 and 8)
– Firhouse, Dublin 24
Death of Gaeltacht likely in next 10 years, warns expert
October 21, 2016
A leading academic has warned of the death of the Gaeltacht within the next decade due to current Government strategy.
Dr Brian Ó Curnáin of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies said a new approach was required for the language and that the status quo was no longer an option.
The Gaeltacht in its current state was in crisis and unsustainable, he said.
Academic reports had shown the number of Irish speakers in Gaeltacht areas was decreasing and young people’s ability in the language was declining, mainly because of their socialisation through English, he said.
Addressing the Committee on the Irish Language, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, Dr Ó Curnáin criticised what he called the State’s inaction on the Irish language and said the only area where there had been some action was in relation to primary education.
However, even there the recommendations of the Department of Education had yet to be implemented, he said.
Dr Ó Curnáin said the geographical areas of the Gaeltacht should be redefined where new support structures would be put in place including the creation of a strategy research body, a trust to manage socio-economic resources, and the promotion of community use of Irish.
Strategy
Another academic also criticised the Government’s 20-year strategy for the Irish language and said it was aimed at non-Gaeltacht areas.
Prof Conchúr Ó Giollagáin of the University of the Highlands and Islands in Scotland said there was a need for a separate strategy for Gaeltacht areas.
He said the needs of Irish speakers were very different from those of Irish learners but they were treated as if they were the same.
Prof Ó Giollagáin cited the common curriculum in all schools, which focused on Irish as a second language and not a mother tongue, which it was for those from the Gaeltacht.
Prof Ó Giollagáin told the committee that the 20-year strategy had achieved very little and would do little more in the remaining years of the policy.
He condemned Government cuts to Irish language funding and the Gaeltacht budget since 2008.
He said this proved that the strategy was a “status quo” approach because it only got half the funding it should have.
He also said too many State bodies had responsibility for the Irish language which meant language preservation ended up being dealt with ineffectively.
Drop-in centre for young Irish speakers set to open
October 21, 2016
By Brónach Ní Thuama
YOUNG Irish speakers will have a new meeting place from this week with the opening of Tearmann Óige Aoine in Glór na Móna’s new state-of-the-art Gael-Ionad Mhic Goill.
Tearmann Óige Aoine is an Irish medium youth ‘drop-in’ facility which will open every Friday night between 7.00 pm and 11.00 pm and is open to all young Irish speakers aged between 11 and 18.
It’s a unique partnership between the Upper Springfield Youth Team and Irish language youth and community organisation Glór na Mona and will be supported in year one with funding from the Terry Enright Foundation Legacy Project.
A delighted Conchúr Ó Muadaigh from Glór na Móna said: “Friday nights launch of Tearmann Óige Aoine is a demonstration of the perpetual growth of Irish medium youth work in recent years.
“This is the first Friday night youth drop-in project through the medium of Irish in the north of Ireland and in this sense it groundbreaking. This is a massive stride forward for Irish medium youth practice and an enormous development for both Glór na Móna and the young people who engage in our programmes, who now have access to an additional service at the weekend.
“Until now we have opened for two nights per week, courtesy of Education Authority funding in the Upper Springfield, and we will now have the capacity to extend this to include a third night on Friday in the new purpose built community hub Gael Ionad Mhic Goill and we owe a special thanks to both Upper Springfield Youth Team and the Terry Enright Foundation for helping us with this new development.”
Conchúr added that it is also “heart-warming” that three former volunteers of Glór na Móna are now in paid capacity working within the club.
“This shows the organic growth of Irish medium youth work and how a new generation of Gaelgoirs are taking charge and spearheading this new programme who are all under the age of 21.”
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.
