Comórtas Ealaíne Cúla4
Márta 21, 2013
Tá go dtí 5 Aibreán ag daoine óga chun pictiúr d’aon eilimint ó Aimsir Cúla4 a tharraingt, mar shampla tuar ceatha, an ghrian nó aon rud de do rogha féin, agus é a sheoladh ar aghaidh don chomórtas ealaíne atá á eagrú ag Cúla4 mar chuid de Sheachtain na Gaeilge.
Tá Cúla4 i gcónaí ag tacú le Seachtain na Gaeilge agus tá duais iontach, táibléad, á thairiscint acu i mbliana do bhuaiteoir an chomórtais.
Is breá an duais é agus ba chóir tabhairt faoi do phictiúr a tharraingt láithreach agus é a sheoladh chuig Cúla4, TG4, Baile na hAbhann, Co. na Gaillimhe.
Ar ndóigh beidh an buaiteoir in ann Aip Cúlchaint 1 agus Cúlchaint 2 a íoslódáil chun cur leis an spraoi. Tá Aipeanna Cúla4 ar fáil saor in aisce agus is féidir iad a íoslódáil ach dul chuig iTunes nó Playstore agus cuardaigh Cúla4 nó TG4.
www.advertiser.ie/galway
Comhdháil Chomhairle na Gaelscolaíochta – Míshástacht léirithe faoin Bhille nua Oideachais
Márta 20, 2013
D’fhreastail os cionn 300 toscaire ar Chomhdháil Chomhairle na Gaelscolaíochta i mBéal Feirste.
4,881 páiste atá ag tabhairt faoi Ghaeloideachas sna sé chontae faoi láthair. Ba é ‘Ag gabháil na gairmiúlachta’ téama na Comhdhála.
Labhair Meon Eile le lucht a fhreastalaithe faoi staid reatha an Ghaeloideachais agus faoi thodhchaí na hearnála.
Léirigh Príomhfheidmeannach na Comhairle, Dr Micheál Ó Duibh míshástacht faoi stádas na Gaeilge sa Bhille nua Oideachais… Féach an físeán ar www.meoneile.ie
Tús curtha leis an bpróiseas clárúcháin do Ghaelcholáiste nua i mBÁC
Márta 20, 2013
Cuireadh tús leis an bpróiseas clárúcháin do Ghaelcholáiste nua le gairid, a osclófar i nDún Droma i mBaile Átha Cliath in 2014. Bhailigh slua mór le chéile i mBaile na Lobhar chun an t-eolas is déanaí faoi Ghaelcholáiste an Phiarsaigh a chloisteáil.
Tá An Foras Pátrúnachta ina phatrún ar an nGaelcholáiste nua. Freastalóidh an scoil, a bhfuil éiteas ilchreidmheach aici, ar an éileamh mór atá ar iarbhunscoileanna lán-Ghaeilge i ndeisceart Bhaile Átha Cliath.
Dar le Caoimhín Ó hEaghra, Ard Rúnaí ar an bhForas Pátrúnachta, tá an Foras Pátrúnachta agus an Roinn Oideachais ag obair le chéile faoi láthair chun suíomh sealadach agus suíomh buan a aimsiú don scoil.
Dúirt Cathaoirleach an ghrúpa bunaithe, Lorcán Mac Gabhann, go bhfuil siad ag súil go mbeidh an scoil in ann freastal ar an éileamh sa cheantar ar oideachas lán-Ghaeilge.
Tá an fhoirm chlárúcháin chomh maith leis an bpolasaí iontrála ar fáil ar an suíomh idirlín www.gaelcholaiste.com
www.foinse.ie
Irish deserves strong support
Márta 20, 2013
Your editorial (Mar 13) would be comical if it were not so ill-informed.
You offer no evidence for the alleged €1 billion annual spend on Irish. How is this quantified? Is money spent on childcare (good) through the medium of Irish (bad) included? Are schools which don’t teach Irish for more that 20 minutes a day included?
You quote the budget of TG4, which gave us Ireland’s first teen drama and myriad quality TV shows, in comparison with RTÉ Two, for example, which costs much more and adds very little to viewer choice in its rebroadcasting of foreign shows.
Is money spent on gaelscoileanna a spend on education (good) or on Irish (bad)? Does it cost more to ensure that public servants serving Irish speaking areas are bilingual? Answer: No.
Our appalling English-only attitude has left us the odd man out in Europe with no respect for either our own history, culture and language or that of anyone else. Consumerism has not lead to happiness. Self-confidence and self-worth will. Time to see the value of our language, and of ourselves.
Irish has no intrinsic monetary value or use, much like Shakespeare, ballet and laughter. Irish is not much used in working life, like calculus, integration or the history of WWII.
Are we all to be trained to be unthinking cogs in a wheel? Each language is a different way of thinking. We need to think in a different way. And had you checked the record you would see that more Irish is spoken in the European Parliament that Maltese, Estonian or Latvian.
Dáithí Mac Cárthaigh BL
Law Library
Dublin 7
www.irishexaminer.com
All this talk about Irish is rubbish
Márta 19, 2013
The view in your editorial (Throwing good money after bad? Mar 13) is built on the supposed fact “that we spend something around €1bn a year just teaching
Irish.” This figure is rubbish.
What’s the annual budget for the Department of Education and how could it be claimed that the teaching of Irish could account for such a high proportion of it?
It is absurd to suggest that €1bn a year could be saved from the education budget by scrapping Irish. The writer assumes that the policy of the State has been a failure. On the contrary, and given the incompetence of many of those charged with responsibility, the policy has been remarkably successful.
Most Irish people are sympathetic to the language and 1.5m of them claim competence in it. I agree, it’s a poor reflection on the education system if some people don’t know a ‘capall’ from a ‘bó’ or ‘bainne’ from ‘tae’. With TG4, new social media, etc, Irish has a greater presence in the public space than ever before. It also has a greater capacity to attract and mould a new language community.
If Irish is to have a future, it will be as a second language, of choice (teanga roghnaithe), for citizens who want to use it. In the David and Goliath context, in which Irish struggles to survive, there is little or no public understanding of the concept of a second language of choice. The attitude is ‘why would you use Irish when everyone speaks English, and you have perfect English yourself?’
This was the underlying attitude in the case in the annual report of An Coimisinéir Teanga — of the Garda who arrested the young man who wanted to conduct his business through Irish. The constitutional position of Irish notwithstanding, historically there has never been much acceptance among the public for the linguistic rights of the Irish-speaking minority, be they native speakers or speakers by choice.
Paradoxically, as Irish retreats in the Gaeltacht, and as its wider public profile increases (thanks mainly to TG4), there are indications that a more positive attitude is beginning to emerge. The Government needs to build on this. Most of all, government policy needs to be focused on making it possible for people to use Irish in the public domain.
In fairness, this was the thinking behind the Oireachtas’s unanimous passing of the Official Languages Act, 10 years ago. As usual, the sentiment was correct, but the practical steps needed to make it happen have so far been lacking.
Seán Mag Leannáin
Bánóg Rua,
Cillín Chaoimhín,
Co Chill Mhantáin
www.irishexaminer.com
State must support Irish language
Márta 19, 2013
B’fhearr liom an litir seo a scríobh i nGaeilge. I would prefer to write this letter in Irish, but I know how important it is to reach out to English speakers to explain why the Irish State cannot be neutral about the Irish language.
Your newspaper’s editorial (Mar 13) regarding the Irish language asked if, in difficult economic times, Ireland could afford to pay for the Irish language. Languages gain strength by being used by a state. If the Irish State does not support and use the Irish language, which state will? Slovenia? Botswana? Argentina?
Irish is unique to Ireland so the Irish State is the only one that can support it. If anyone needed proof of how a state strengthens a language, all that needs to be done is to imagine if English was not an official language in Ireland. Imagine if English was not taught in schools, used in Government departments, broadcast on televisions and radios, used in courts or used for public notices and contracts, etc.
The real questions that should be asked is why the Irish State took so long from 1922 to 2003 to lay down in law the rights Irish speakers have and the requirements for the State to provide services for Irish speakers? In that period the Gaeltachtaí declined considerably.
Why is it acceptable for English speakers to be unable to speak Irish, but it is unacceptable for Irish speakers to be unable to speak English? Monoglot Irish speakers don’t exist anymore, but if a parent insisted to the Department of Education that they did not want their children to learn English, they would not be allowed to do that, but it is acceptable for parents to not want their children to learn Irish.
Another editorial enquiring why the State does not want to make Irish the vernacular language would be most welcome. Táim ag tnúth go mór leis. (I look forward to reading it.)
Seanán Ó Coistín
Bonnevoie
Luxembourg
www.irishexaminer.com
So many quangos, so little Irish
Márta 19, 2013
Millions of euro flow into a range of Irish-language educational quangos. But with few people having little more than cúpla focail, it’s time to question the strategy
In July 2007, the Harris Report indicated that less than one third of pupils from English-medium schools achieved mastery of the Irish language between 1985 and 2002. The report also found the confidence of teachers to speak Irish declined significantly, with almost a quarter indicating their own standard of Irish was “weak”.
In our schools, there are serious questions about how effective Irish-language policies have been, with many school leavers still unable to speak more than a cúpla focal within a few years of the Leaving Cert. Last week, it emerged some gardaí are unable to ask basic questions in Irish, despite having studied it in school and at the Garda College in Templemore.
Is the taxpayer getting value for money? Have the myriad Irish language quangos achieved anything? And what is the future of the language, a slow death or a miraculous revival?
In 2010, the Fianna Fáil-led government published the 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language. The document was rich in promises and expensive aspiration. Three years later, Foras na Gaeilge, the all-island body for the promotion and development of the Irish language, which also channels public funding to 19 Irish-language organisations, considers publication of the strategy a major result in itself.
Progress on the strategy has been slow. Several key parts have been axed. A planned Irish-language education resource centre in Baile Bhúirne, Co Cork, will not now happen. An Comhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta agus Gaelscolaíochta (COGG), which provides Irish-language resources to schools, has been downgraded: the opposite of what was promised in the strategy. Promised financial support for trainee teachers to attend the Gaeltacht has not materialised and a scholarship scheme for disadvantaged students to attend the Gaeltacht has also evaporated.
However, many other educational parts of the strategy are being implemented, in part at least, including the development of third-level programmes at NUI Galway and Dublin City University.
There is significant duplication of resources between many publicly-funded Irish language organisations. Cumann na bhFiann, Ógras, and Údarás na Gaeltachta all organise Irish-language youth clubs. Gaelchultúr, Conradh na Gaeilge and Gael Linn all arrange Irish classes for adults outside the Gaeltacht, while six other organisations operate Gaeltacht-based Irish-language courses. Conradh na Gaeilge and Gaelscoileanna Teo both play a role in establishing Irish-medium schools.
COGG, Gael Linn, and Foras na Gaeilge all produce educational materials for Irish medium schools on the island of Ireland, although COGG produces the vast majority. In Northern Ireland, An tAoisanaid, which receives the majority of its funding from the State through Foras na Gaeilge, provides these resources for its Irish-language school curricula. A further unit within Foras, Clar na Leabhar Gaeilge, publishes occasional Irish-language books for a general readership.
Duplication of resources
The Irish language sector also has significant and powerful representation, with Conradh na Gaeilge, Comhluadar, Comhar na Múinteoirí Gaeilge, and Gaelscoileanna Teo, all of which are publicly funded, among the organisations with have a lobbying and advocacy role.
In the face of opposition from many of the public bodies funded through Foras, amalgamations of these quangos have been slow. While much public money has been invested in Irish-language educational initiatives at all levels, in contrast, modern European languages were completely axed from the primary-school curriculum in 2011.
Major technology companies such as eBay, Facebook, and Google are hiring staff from France, Spain, Germany, and Italy due to the lack of qualified European-language graduates from within Ireland. There is no corresponding level of public investment in European languages that comes remotely close to that spent on Irish. There have always been serious questions about the effectiveness of Irish-language policies in education.
The 1966 Fianna Fáil government, led by Seán Lemass, made a series of pledges to support the language and increase bilingualism. A three-year action plan for the Irish language was published in 1983 during a Fine Gael/Labour government. Then, as with the latest strategy, teaching of other aspects of the curriculum through Irish was called for, and recognised it as crucial for young people to truly engage with the language. It never happened.
A major focus of the current strategy is on increasing the number of Irish speakers nationwide, and supporting the many organisations that provide Irish-language classes, competitions, courses and events. But meaningful or effective change in how Irish is taught in schools has been slow since the foundation of the State. Will the latest attempts to reform the Irish language sector also amount to nothing?
Changing how Irish is taught
Thirty years on from the 1983 action plan, and once again, the provision of Irish-language immersion education, or partial immersion education, forms a central plank – arguably the central plank – of the latest Irish-language education strategy.
The idea of immersion education is that pupils are given a chance to use Irish not just in Irish class but also that, for instance, some other classes such as geography, maths, religion and history would be taught through Irish. The strategy says that “from as early as possible in Implementation Phase II, it is proposed to move towards a situation where partial Irish-language immersion will be offered to all children”.
To prove the point that immersion works, the level of pupils in Gaelscoileanna who achieve mastery in both listening and spoken Irish is above 90 per cent. The strategy is in the first phase of implementation and there are still 17 years to bring about change. But three years on, no significant developments have taken place to introduce widespread immersion or partial immersion education.
Indications from the Department of Education and from senior figures in Irish-language organisations suggest that, despite its centrality to the strategy, the issue is not on the table for the time being. The focus is firmly on revising the curriculum for all primary pupils and supporting immersion education in Irish-medium schools, although the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment is developing a new Irish-language primary curriculum and looking closely at the changes that have already been made to the Leaving Cert, particularly the oral exam.
View from the Irish language sector
The Irish-language lobby is suspicious of the Government, after Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s pre-election suggestion that compulsory Irish in schools be abolished. More recently, Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn stated that too much time in schools is spent on Irish and religion.
“There is no evidence of any commitment to the 20-year strategy in the current Government,” says one senior figure in a major Irish-language organisation. “Little by little the language is being downgraded.” The current Programme for Government commits the Government to supporting the strategy and delivering on achievable goals.
The most significant piece of legislation relating to the Irish language is the controversial 2011 Gaeltacht Act, which redefined Gaeltacht areas based on the amount of locals speaking the language rather than on geographic location.
“The Irish-language community are being frozen out of the decision-making processes,” says Julian de Spáinn, general secretary of Conradh na Gaeilge. “The publication of the Strategy was a big achievement and included a range of recommendations from the community. Three years later, and the Department is picking and choosing the easiest elements of the Strategy, implementing only parts that are cost neutral, and ignoring whole swathes of it altogether. A huge amount of mistakes are being made. A high-level structure between the community and the authorities must be set up to oversee the implementation of the strategy, or it will not succeed.”
There are some positive indications. An 11 per cent increase in the uptake of higher level Irish at Leaving Cert level has been linked to the new marking scheme that awards 40 per cent to the oral exam. Overall, the number taking higher-level Irish increased last year by almost 5 per cent to 37 per cent.
De Spáinn says that the teaching of languages needs to be changed entirely. He argues, supported by international evidence, that partial immersion education is central. However, the Department of Education is a long way from implementing this change. Apart from some minor curriculum adjustments, the strategy barely addresses how the teaching of Irish will change. It seems like another major oversight in our approach to the national language.
www.irishtimes.com
Love for Irish language
Márta 14, 2013
I am writing in response to RTE1’s episode of ‘Prime Time’ aired on the night of Tuesday, March 12.
The topic discussed that interested me most was regarding the Irish language. I was delighted to see that quite a few people still have a great ‘gra’ for our native language and that it holds an important place in the lives of many. However, I was absolutely disgusted to hear the comments from Declan Lynch, who insisted that the Irish language is not part of us. These comments infuriated me, to say the least!
As a native Irish speaker who came from one of the Gaeltacht areas around the country, Irish has been a huge part of my life growing up and has had a massive role in shaping the person that I am today. Irish will always remain part of my life, my culture and my heritage.
I cannot express the annoyance I felt when Mr Lynch had the cheek to dismiss our native tongue. There are many people, young and old, working actively to keep the Irish language alive.
Take a look back over the past two weeks, events have been held nationwide to celebrate Seachtain na Gaeilge 2013, all of these embracing and celebrating our native language.
I may not use Irish every day as I did when I was a child – working and studying away from home does not allow me to use Irish in my everyday life any more. But I do not intend to lose something so important to me. Irish is part of my national identity and I know that there are a lot of people out there who feel the same.
Katie Ni Leallaidh
Baile Ghib, Co na Mi
www.independent.ie
Maebh mar loinnir dhóchais Mhúscraí i gcomórtas Scór
Márta 13, 2013
Is í Maebh Ní Dhuinnín ó Bhéal Átha ’n Ghaorthaidh an loinnir dhóchais a bheidh ag Gaeltacht Mhúscraí i gcraobh an chontae de Scór na bPáistí níos déanaí an mhí seo.
Chuaigh Maebh ar aghaidh ó bhabhta leathcheannais Chorcaí – a bhí ar siúl in Áth an Chóiste an Satharn seo caite – sa chomórtas amhránaíocht aonair, agus raghaidh sí ar aghaidh go dtí craobh an chontae sna hUamhanna ar an 24ú Márta. Roimhe sin bhuaigh Maebh an teideal rannóige tar éis di craobh cheannais Mhúscraí a bhuachaint. I mbabhta ceannais Mhúscraí chomh maith, tháinig Colm Mac Lochlainn ó Scoil Lachtaín Naofa, Cill na Martra sa dara háit san amhránaíocht aonair, fad a thóg Eoin Ó Conaill ó Chumann Liathróid Láimhe Chill na Martra an tríú háit sa chomórtas ceol uirlise aonair. Bhí rath do Scoil Abán Naofa Baile Mhúirne (3ú háit) agus do Scoil Chúil Aodha/Barr d’Inse (2ú háit) sa chomórtas ceol uirlise, agus tháinig Síle Ní Mheachair ó Scoil Chúil Aodha sa dara háit sa chomórtas ceol uirlise aonair.
www.eveningecho.ie
The Irish language: Throwing good money after bad?
Márta 13, 2013
The Irish language has played a central role in shaping our culture.
Its influence is so deep-rooted that it has nurtured Hiberno-English — an Irish solution to an English imposition. Because of our history it, like other suppressed languages, has been afforded a political status, an assumed patriotic integrity, replicated in other countries once colonised. Whether this is permanent or even relevant today is an open question. Despite that, and despite the great emotional and almost spiritual attachment some Irish people feel for the language, it has not been central to Irish life for over a century.
Nevertheless, the 2011 census recorded a 7.1% increase in the number of self-declared Irish speakers. Some 1.77m people said they could speak Irish. However, and this seems more pertinent, only 1.8% used it every day outside of the education system. This marginalisation was highlighted yesterday when An Coimisinéir Teanga launched his annual report in Galway. Coimisinéir Seán Ó Cuirreáin revealed that gardaí are to get a laminated card carrying useful phrases in Irish. This follows instances where a garda competent enough in Irish to deal with the public through Irish was not immediately to hand. It is estimated that we spend something around €1bn a year just teaching Irish. Other programmes add to that cost. Foras na Gaeilge supports 19 Irish promotion organisations with state funding. Television service TG4 got €32.75m in current funding from Government last year. Its audience stands at something around 2% of the population. Raidió na Gaeltachta has, it is believed, an even smaller audience though official figures are not available. It may be assumed that funding for RnaG pushes the bill for Irish language broadcasting towards the €50m mark for just these two outlets. Gaelscoileanna have been enthusiastically supported though whether this reflects a commitment to the language or something else is uncertain. So successful are they that they may be the source of a new urban Irish apparently incomprehensible to some native speakers.
Though Irish was afforded official language status by the EU in 2007 a recent report suggested the language had been spoken just nine times by ministers at EU meetings in the last two years. In the EU parliament Irish took up just 0.23% of the speaking time during plenary sessions up to May 2012. Even if the country was not bankrupt this litany of failure would have to be considered. That we spend as much as the current round of Croke Park talks hope to save on teaching Irish every year — €1bn — seems at least irrational in today’s circumstances. Economic criteria should not be the primary consideration on this largely cultural issue but maybe it is time to be less reverential, less deferential on the subject. After all, the facts speak for themselves — if Irish was as important to people as some would suggest it would not need huge, ongoing ubvention to register the tiniest blip on society’s radar, it would be almost self-sustaining if not regenerating. Current policies have failed and it’s time to ask why we keep throwing good money after bad. Doing that would not be an attack on Irish just an admission that the vast majority of the population seem to be at best indifferent on the subject and that the billions we have spent on trying to popularise the language have been largely wasted.
www.irishexaminer.com
