FG policy on Irish language will be divisive
February 11, 2011
Were Fine Gael to succeed in making Leaving Cert Irish optional it would be mission accomplished for the dark forces in the Department of Education, which for the past 30 years has been sticking pins in the doll that is our national language.
National bilingualism is not a pipe dream but a day-to-day reality for many thousands. That we still have an Irish language at all is testament to the courage and vision of concerned parents who decades ago realised the importance of setting up their own Irish language primary and secondary schools. These very same schools top national lists of high achievement every year. If the vast majority of our school leavers were illiterate and innumerate it would be a national scandal and yet it has become somehow acceptable that after 14 years of instruction our young people can leave school having been denied any meaningful relationship with their own language. Optional Irish — a very ‘Oirish’ solution to an Irish problem!
Colm Mac Con Iomaire
Co Loch Garman
The stated policy of Enda Kenny to drop the Irish language as a compulsory third-level subject has just ensured that he will have my family’s vote. There is no doubt as to the cognitive and developmental benefits of learning another language, but whilst you may be able to compel the learning of a subject, you cannot compel an interest in it. The majority of students across the country may accept the cultural importance of the Irish language but they have long ago discovered its irrelevance. Indeed as thousands of our young people emigrate to pursue jobs in foreign lands the last thing that will equip them for this is being able to speak Irish. If people have a genuine interest in the Irish language then let them indeed learn to speak it. This apart, our educational system should be extolling the huge benefits in the ability to speak such languages as Spanish, French and Mandarin; skills that will prove more beneficial to them than to join the dwindling ranks of those that speak a language that has essentially become little more than a hobby.
Derek Ross
Blessington, Co Wicklow
Irish Independent – Litireacha chuig an Eagarthóir
