A bit Irish
October 12, 2011
In response to Mr G G Dalton’s letter on October 3 and Mr Doyle’s letter on September 28, I must say that I wholeheartedly agree with Mr Dalton’s assertion that Irish be made optional for the Leaving Cert.
Mr Doyle states that 70pc of Irish parents support compulsory Irish — why weren’t the students asked? (and I mean students from all over the country, not just Gaeltacht areas). Most students in fifth year are over 16 years old. At this age, they are deemed responsible enough to decide on their own medical treatment, yet they are not allowed to decide whether or not to study Irish. I have a son in fifth year and I asked him to go around his class and ask how many of them would do Irish for the Leaving Cert if it was optional. A total of two out of a class of 30 said they would. Incidentally, there are 145 students in his whole year and 25 are doing Irish at higher level (and this figure will go down much lower by the time they sit their Leaving Cert). In case Mr Dalton doesn’t believe my figure, I would suggest that he asks any fifth year student to carry out a similar survey and not have to get Bord na Gaeilge to ‘ask the parents’. By the way, I am not against the abolition of Irish in any shape or form and every resource should be made available to students who WANT to study it. I am sure these students would prefer to be in a class where their classmates have a genuine love of the language and not be in a class where 98pc of the pupils don’t want to be there.
Name and address with editor
Irish Independent – Litir chuig an Eagarthóir
10 Deireadh Fómhair 2011
