Irish is indeed alive, Mr Myers
March 3, 2011
Kevin Myers (Irish Independent, February 23) thinks the leaders’ debate on TG4 being pre-recorded and subtitled is a joke but he forgets to mention TG4 had their highest ratings ever for it and he fails to realise that any programmes aired in Irish are subtitled for the convenience of non-Irish speakers.
He thinks it’s a myth that Irish is a living language but he fails to recognise the fact that there are about 172 Gaelscoileanna around the country, with around 40,000 children receiving education through the medium of Irish outside of the Gaeltacht areas. There is no doubt a majority would vote to maintain Irish as a compulsory subject because a majority cherish the language, spoken here for over 2,000 years.
Graham Doyle
Artane, Dublin 5
Irish Independent – Litir chuig an Eagarthóir
