Irish language: not just a Gaeltacht issue

Is Fine Gael’s proposal to make Irish an optional Leaving Cert subject a liberation from schoolroom misery or a fast track to oblivion for the national language? Either way, it provokes strong views

It is as simple as this: if you don’t have to do a subject for your Leaving Cert, you aren’t going to study it. And Irish is a subject where some parents can’t help.

“So the language is going to suffer. This is not solely a Gaeltacht issue. People look at the economic implications, the 672 houses in the country, but Irish has a huge economic impact: the colleges bring €60 million per annum into one of the most economically deprived areas in the country. And it supports a way of living in the country. We do feel that this is central to our own national identity. A lot of people who come to the Gaeltacht are very enthusiastic about the language. We call them ‘repeat offenders’. But most of these kids come with a real grá for the language from home. Gaeltacht kids come there for the summer, too.”

[Sam: an interesting case of a language struggling for survival.]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2011/0219/1224290260211.html