Let’s debunk the myth of Irish as a living language, it now represents failure and a national disorder
February 24, 2011
Some phenomena exist solely as cultural tautologies, contradictions in terms whose intrinsic flaws are largely unobserved by their participants.
The Alcoholics Anonymous meeting that begins with champagne cocktails: the Noise Abate-ment Society AGM that opens with a Sex Pistols concert; the Islamic Suicide Bombers’ Christmas Bar-Mitzvah that begins with prayers to the Virgin Mary for a long and peaceful life. And not least of all, the recent TV debate in Irish, in which Labour and Fianna Fail ominously warned that people might not be able to understand Irish if Fine Gael’s voluntary language proposals became policy, but which had to be pre-recorded and subtitled in order for the audience to understand it. Welcome back to the Irish joke. Moreover, so poorly is Irish spoken generally that this was the first ever such debate in the history of the State. Yet the Fianna Fail and Labour leaders clearly subscribe to the public fiction that the Irish language is alive and well. It’s not. It’s green around the gills and it reeks. Only a widespread psychiatric disorder would maintain the myth of a living Irish language. This fantasy actually predates the foundation of the State. The 1911 census shows huge numbers of young people in Dublin with Anglophone parents reporting an ability to speak Irish, though all they probably had was a Christian Brothers doggerel-Gaelic.
Independence turned this delusion into a state dogma, which Fianna Fail then transformed into a Constitutional Declaration of National Piety. Many politicians still declare that compulsion in Irish is vital to keep the language “alive” — but usually do so in English, either because they wouldn’t be understood if they spoke in Irish, or because they can’t speak it themselves. The status of the Irish language as a lodestone of illogicality was amply revealed in a recent statement on the issue from Pádraig Mac Fhearghusa, of Conradh na Gaeilge. He said: “Recent research has shown that of the adult population, born in Ireland and of all levels of education, over 9pc are fluent or very fluent in Irish … Yet in the Department of Education, the proportion of staff who can provide a service through Irish is down now to 1.5pc.” In other words, fluency in Irish within the department is just one-fifth of what it is amongst the general population. Which indicates that either the department actually filters out Irish speakers during recruitment, or that it advertises vacancies only in Urdu and Mandarin publications, or that (perhaps most likely of all) 9pc of the population is not really fluent in Irish at all. In fact, the figure is probably less than the 1.5pc in the department, and considerably fewer than the numbers of authentic Urdu or Mandarin speakers here. The “restoration” of spoken Irish is the greatest single economic and cultural project in the history of the State. Not merely has it also been the greatest national failure, but it has also revealed a national disorder; the acceptance of a consensual falsehood across society, from the intimate disclosures of a census form to the public formulation of national policy.
Hence the 2006 census, in which 1.6 million people allege that they “have” Irish, which is a simple lie. A more realistic assertion is that 72,000 (in other words, a nearly-full Croke Park) speak Irish every day, but that’s still not true if it’s meant to imply that Irish is their primary language of communication. Irish is not even the main spoken language in the Gaeltacht any more. That Irish is now primarily a political and commercial artefact was revealed in the hysterical response to Fine Gael’s proposals. Concos, which co-ordinates Irish language summer schools, reacted as if the Fine Gael policy was to BAN Irish, and lamented the alleged EUR60m financial “losses” that would be incurred by the Gaeltacht generally and in particular the 672 Irish-speaking homes that take in students. (Untrue, of course: young people will still go to the Gaeltacht, if only to simultaneously lose their virginity and contract pneumonia). The Concos logic is apparently that every student in this Republic should spend 1,500 hours learning Irish, or 15pc of total teaching time, at a cost to the state of EUR500m a year, so that 672 boarding houses in the Gaeltacht are kept in business. There are simpler ways to run soup kitchens. But this is what happens when you politicise “culture”: language becomes the only commodity available in a false marketplace dominated by hysteria, self-delusion and coercion.
So Enda Kenny could have been far louder in proclaiming the virtues of abandoning the disastrous policy of compulsory Irish. There are votes to be got that way. Moreover, he should have given the Fine Gael position much more thought and preparation. Irish is constitutionally the official language of the Republic, so maybe it won’t even be lawful to remove it as a mandatory subject without a referendum. And by God, if you think there’s been some gross hypocrisy over the language thus far, just watch how dirty it gets when the Gaelgoiri and the “cultural republicans” of post-terrorist Sinn Fein face the prospect of losing their precious shibboleth.
Irish Independent – Kevin Myers
Leaving the last word to the wise
February 16, 2011
May I be so bold as to say I am one of the few people who strongly agrees with and supports Fine Gael’s policy on the Irish language.
From my understanding, Irish will still be compulsory up until Junior Cert level. After this, students will be allowed to choose Irish as an optional subject for the Leaving Cert as they would with other subjects. Given the influence of the Leaving Cert on third-level entry and in preparation for work, the least we owe our students is for them to decide what subjects will best suit their abilities, interests and suitability for their future career/education after the Leaving Cert. The policy is not about removing Irish from the curriculum, it is simply about allowing these 16-year-old students to decide whether or not they wish to study Irish for their Leaving Cert.
If they haven’t developed a grasp or love of the Irish language at this stage, another two years of compulsory Irish certainly isn’t going to change anything. Irish teachers wouldn’t have the task of teaching the Leaving Cert Irish course, while simultaneously supervising the students who have Irish exemptions. Instead, they would have interested and motivated students wishing to learn Irish rather than a plethora of students who detest being there because they have to be. The irony of it is that most people I know who have had 14 years of tuition in Irish still cannot speak Irish fluently. Bar gaining entry into university, I have never needed the Irish language since, so what purpose has it served me?
I am as patriotic as any other Irish person, I just don’t believe that language is the only expression of patriotism. If we are to presume that the argument for maintaining compulsory Leaving Cert Irish is to preserve our culture, then we can duly make the argument for inclusion of compulsory Irish history, Irish music, Irish dance, Irish folklore and Celtic art in our Leaving Cert curriculum.
School teacher
Name and address with editor
Irish Independent – Litir chuig an Eagarthóir
Irish language policy will cost us votes, admits Fine Gael senator
February 16, 2011
FINE Gael’s controversial plan to drop Irish as a compulsory subject is now a “big issue” in Gaeltacht areas and will cost them votes, one senator admitted last night.
Gaelscoileanna, mna na tithe with Irish summer colleges and Conradh na Gaeilge are intensifying pressure on Fine Gael election candidates to have the party’s position reversed. Senator and Galway West election candidate Fidelma Healy Eames last night conceded it had become a “big issue” in areas such as Connemara and many parts of Galway city. The senator said no changes should take place until a “solid review” was undertaken in order to diagnose the problem.
But the party’s education spokesman Fergus O’Dowd last night claimed that while there would be a period of consultation about improving the curriculum and proficiency levels, the decision had been made to make Irish an optional Leaving Cert subject. Some 15,000 people have now signed a petition opposing Fine Gael’s plans to end compulsory Irish. At the launch of the party’s manifesto, party leader Enda Kenny also signalled that Ireland must move beyond its traditional neutrality and take a more active role abroad. He said “change is necessary” within the spirit of United Nations agreements so that Irish defence forces could make a greater contribution to humanitarian crises. And in another contentious move, the party also confirmed plans to reverse the ban on stag hunting that was hard-fought for by the Green Party last year.
But on issues such as legislating for the 1992 X-case, which would make abortion lawful if the life of the mother is at risk, or legislating for gay marriage, Mr Kenny was less forthright. The abortion issue has re-emerged as a political issue following the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights last year. The next government faces a decision on whether to ignore the X-case decision, to legislate for it or to rescind the X-case ruling by means of a new referendum. But Mr Kenny refused to be drawn on any specifics yesterday. Instead, he insisted that an all-party Oireachtas committee should first examine the issue. “This is obviously a very sensitive matter and one that requires and deserves serious consideration and analysis,” Mr Kenny said.
And on the issue of gay marriage, Mr Kenny would only say that his priority is to have the conclusions of the Civil Partnership Bill enshrined in the Finance Bill. This, he said, was the main priority in the area “for the moment”. In contrast, Labour wants a referendum asking people about recognising same-sex unions on the same basis as marriage. It also wants to legislate for the 1992 X-case.
Irish Independent – Áine Kerr
Learning Irish is a right to treasure
February 15, 2011
I HAVE heard the recent reports on Fine Gael’s plans to make the Irish language an optional subject at Leaving Cert level.
As a Leaving Cert student myself, I was outraged at these reports and fear that the right of the young people of this country to learn and speak Irish is in jeopardy. I am not from the Gaeltacht and I am not a fluent Irish-speaker, but I love this language and I can guarantee you that I represent the views of the young Irish people who are afraid to speak out on this issue.
I have recently turned 18 and so will have a vote in the upcoming election. Politicians of this country need to hear the response from the young people — every day I hear adults discussing the effects that this decision will have on us, the young people, but what about how we feel? We are the future of this country, and we are also the new and upcoming electorate. It is time for our voices to be heard.
Ruth Lawlor
Tramore, Co waterford
Irish Independent – Litir chuig an Eagarthóir
Crisis in Irish extends to Gaeltacht
February 15, 2011
THE crisis facing Irish is revealed in new figures that show just 1,000 children attending primary schools in the Gaeltacht are native speakers of Irish.
And some 70pc of Gaeltacht primary schools now have three teachers or less. The figures were compiled by the state agency COGG (An Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta and Gaelscolaiochta) which promotes the educational needs of all Irish schools. COGG chief executive Muireann Ni Mhorain said they showed the challenges facing the language especially in Gaeltacht primary schools where there are 9,500 pupils. “Any discussion of amalgamation of small rural schools, which is being proposed for economic reasons, must bear in mind the language of instruction in schools,” she told the Irish Independent.
Separate figures reveal a sharp drop in the standards of Irish among pupils in Gaeltacht and English medium schools. The Government admitted last year there was limited oral ability among Junior Cert students in a third of post-primary schools. The admission was contained in a 20-year Strategy for the Irish Language, the targets of which were greeted with scepticism. One goal was to treble the reported number of daily speakers outside the education system from 83,000 to a quarter of a million by 2030. As it is, the demand for all Irish schools outside Gaeltacht areas is not being met. There are 28,500 children in these Irish-medium primary schools at present, but no new ones have been sanctioned by the Department of Education since 2008, when four new schools opened.
Irish Independent – John Walshe and Katherine Donnelly
Scrap maths too if Irish is useless
February 14, 2011
I READ Derek Ross’s letter in yesterday’s paper (Letters, February 11) with regard to the FG policy on the Irish language with some dismay. I was glad to read that he accepted the benefits of learning another language can give but unfortunately this doesn’t apply to Irish. If such a letter had been written with regard to maths on the curriculum there would be uproar. Let me put it like this. For the benefit I get from maths on a daily basis, I should have stopped learning after sixth class (or rang a sé in my case). By then I knew my tables and had been introduced to the wonders of percentages. Instead I had to stick it out for another six years, by the end of which I had any amount of theorems and formulas in my head, but only for a while, and due to a lack of use they were soon forgotten. A shocking indictment of our system isn’t it?
Twelve years of maths but all I really knew were my tables and my percentages. Therefore, compulsory maths should be scrapped. Those that continue with maths, do so as “a hobby”. Or so Mr Ross’s theory goes. And so presumably does the FG theory go. Mr Ross and the FG theory can also be applied elsewhere to great effect. Can we also scrap funding for swimming, athletics, hockey and the GAA? Surely money would be better spent on professional sports like soccer and rugby where the participants will pick up skills “that will prove more beneficial to them than to join the dwindling ranks of those that” play a sport “that has essentially become little more than a hobby”? Somehow I can’t see Mr Ross (or FG) backing either of the above.
Marcus O Buachalla
Cill Mochuda, Co Ath Cliath
Irish Independent – Litireacha chuig an Eagarthóir
Ashamed of FG’s policy on Irish
February 14, 2011
It may be Valentine’s Day today but the leader of Fine Gael will not be winning the hearts of those who support the Irish language.
While loved-up couples across Ireland will be exchanging chocolates and teddy bears, the Union of Students in Ireland will be holding a silent protest outside an empty Dail against a political party which is deaf to the concerns of students. As a member of that party, I hang my head in shame. In his new book, Dr John Walsh critically examines the social and economic development of Irish in recent times.
He recently stated that making Irish an optional subject for the Leaving Certificate would have dire consequences for the language. As a renowned scholar of socio-linguistics, surely his word carries more weight than a party-political policy that came to life without any substantial research worth mentioning. As an active member of Young Fine Gael, I too will be outside the Dail today. The question of the Irish language is bigger than party politics and so long as Fine Gael remains determined to make Irish an optional Leaving Certificate subject, then I will have no choice but to remain ashamed of our policy on the Irish language.
MICHAEL CLANCY
DEPUTY-INTERNATIONAL SECRETARY, YFG, TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN
Irish Independent – Litir chuig an Eagarthóir
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
Kenny vows to make Irish optional
February 8, 2011
Fluent Irish speaker Enda Kenny is to end compulsory teaching of the language if put into power.
The Fine Gael leader confirmed his party’s election manifesto includes proposals to abolish the subject’s mandatory status in the Leaving Certificate. In an interview on Raidio na Gaeltachta’s Adhmhaidin morning show, Mr Kenny said Irish as a compulsory class had clearly failed. Micheal Martin, Fianna Fail leader, attacked the move, saying: “Making Irish optional is not an option as far as I am concerned. It would lead not (to) the revival of Irish by 2030 but to its extinction.”
Mr Kenny denied his proposals would decimate the Irish language summer college industry, an essential part of the Gaeltacht economy across the west and north-west. He said the party intends to consult with experts and stakeholders before lifting the mandatory status but that the plan would go ahead with the oral worth 50% of marks in the Irish Leaving Cert.
Fergus O’Dowd, Fine Gael education spokesman, said Fianna Fail has no credibility on the language as it took them 13 years to publish a strategy. “It is long-standing Fine Gael policy that Irish should be optional after Junior Cert but we do understand some people’s concerns and we do want to listen to them,” Mr O’Dowd said. “Many stakeholders have passionate and long-standing beliefs on this issue and Fine Gael will consult with these stakeholders before the introduction of Irish as an optional subject.” He added: “Fine Gael will double the proportion of Irish students sitting the Higher Level Leaving Certificate exam by 2018.”
Irish Independent
Enda’s Irish
February 4, 2011
Much praise is due to TG4 for organising the first inter-party pre-election debate in Irish. Congratulations also to the candidates who can confidently step up to the mark in their own language.
However, concerning one of the candidates, Enda Kenny, a clarification is immediately required regarding his stance on the language in our schools.
If Taoiseach, what would you do Enda? As you have stated before, you might consider making Irish optional in schools. Is this still the cornerstone of your policy? Would it not then suffer the same fate as that of foreign languages in schools in England at the moment. After being made optional, interest levels dwindled from 78pc to 44pc in the last ten years.
We’ve had enough of politicians avoiding transparency. Let us see and hear you Enda. Don’t be a stranger. Are you willing to back Irish in our schools or not?
Ciarán Ó Ceallaigh
An Bhruiséil
Irish Independent – Litir chuig an Eagarthóir
