Thriomaigh an fhoinse
September 16, 2013
Foras na Gaeilge ended its contract with Foinse four years ago. It seems that Foras were unhappy with circulation figures. I really liked Foinse: the paper had first rate writers and sometimes it carried stories that you couldn’t find in any other newspaper. In my opinion,the paper that came after it, Gaelscéal, was not half as good as Foinse. Only around 1,400 copies of Gaelscéal were sold in the shops, apparently. But Foinse came back as a supplement in the Irish Independent. The new Foinse was a very good paper. That’s right: past tense. There was a notice on the Internet site Foinse.ie last week saying that the printed edition of Foinse would no longer be available. The Foinse Internet service is still available. This is an excellent facility: the site gives you six or seven pieces of news in very good Irish and there is help for those who do not have much Irish. Emer Ní Chéidigh and her staff did a great job. The paper had a very professional look. Readership increased 350% ! Young people started reading Irish for the first time.
The printed edition was an excellent resource- particularly for learners. But now we don’t have an Irish language paper. An Irish teacher will not be able to show his class a newspaper to illustrate a point. Is there another country in the world that does not have a newspaper in the first national language? Are we not hypocrites? Is Ireland not a laughing stock? We are looking for official status for Irish and we cannot even produce a weekly paper. A small staff- perhaps six people- could put out a good paper every week. We have the writers. But they have no work. Will we have another generation of Irish writers? Are we happy to be reading the English rags? (‘No fun, no Sun’). Have we lost our dignity completely? Will Irish go the same way as Latin: a living language – a school subject – a part of classical studies – disappeared out of sight?
www.derryjournal.com
