New Irish language newspaper for students
October 1, 2013
Irish Independent launched a new service to replace ‘Foinse’.
Dáithí Ó Sé and Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh will provide regular content for the new publication, and last week’s edition featured articles written by journalists Tomaí Ó Conghaile and Ciarán Dunbar. This eight-page supplement which will appear as an insert with the Irish Independent will be part of a pair as Independent Media also aim to launch a second Irish language publication ‘Ar Fheabhas’ which will be distributed through schools.
It came as a shock to readers that ‘Foinse’ did not return to our shelves at the beginning of the school year as expected as a supplement in the Irish Independent. ‘Foinse’ was established in 1996, and a weekly Irish language newspaper was available nationally until summer 2009, subsidised with funding from Foras na Gaeilge. When the funding from Foras na Gaeilge came to an end, ‘Foinse’ was relaunched in autumn of 2009, with a new look and a new distribution system.
At the beginning of the year, Foras na Gaeilge announced a decision to cut all funding for the weekly Irish language newspaper ‘Gaelscéal’ before the contract was due to end officially. A low sales rate was the main reason given by Foras na Gaeilge for this action, with an average amount of 1,300/1,400 hard copies sold in shops weekly.
In a statement last February, CEO of Foras na Gaeilge stated: “There are difficulties with sales and distribution of newspapers worldwide. The Board and the Committee will now be looking at these questions as we move towards founding a new news service for the Irish Language community.” While Foras na Gaeilge has been researching this area since last spring, and have held focus groups and public meetings on the matter there does not seem to be much movement on finding or funding a successor to ‘Gaelscéal’.
Gaelport.com requested a statement from Foras na Gaeilge on this matter and were told that “the issue of Irish language news services will be discussed again by the Board of Foras na Gaeilge at their next meeting on 1st November 2013”.
While Independent Media have launched a new service for school students, those wishing to read their news through Irish on a regular basis are being ignored. It remains to be seen how long it will take to replace ‘Gaelscéal’ with a new publication funded by Foras na Gaeilge, whatever form that might take. While a Board decision is not forthcoming, the 1,400 regular readers which ‘Gaelscéal’ had built up are sure to be reading their news elsewhere. As ever, procrastination is the thief of time, and for a language under threat, time is not on our side.
Foilsithe ar Gaelport.com
