Is the Irish language still relevant to our daily lives?

no i dont think it is relavent to our daily life's....

i never speak the language and dont tend to.........

the only time i do speak it is in school,so.....................

and i never hear people talking in the lauguage outside school!

yeh your right in some ways,it is apart of our country.........

but it isent taught bad in some secondary schools...........

but it is taught very bad in primary............i never learnt a thing!

but the school i in at the moment they teach irish well.......

i learnt more in reading a irish book than what i did learn in primary school!

If it's relevant in our lives it's 'cos the government make it relevant for the sake of being relevant...

I voted yes, If only because it's something unique to being Irish and anything that can reinforce our identity in the world and keep the lines from getting blurred is a good thing in my book.

I think the language is only going to slip away more and more as the years go on if there isn't a major reform of the way it's taught in primary and secondary schools.
It should be taught more along the same lines as the modern European languages, with more emphasises on the modern day to day usage of it rather then getting bogged down in the technicalities of it.

After some 12 years of Irish and 6 of German I've come away a much better German speaker, with little or no Irish skills to speak of. I think that sums up the teaching of Irish in this country, It's terrible.

Funny thing is since leaving secondary my appreciation of the language has increased and have probably learned more since leaving then I ever did while there.

People judge the relevance of the Irish language by whether we speak it or not. Certainly, few of us speak it, but it still surrounds you in many ways. It is part of our culture. The place you live in and all place names, steet names, etc. are in two languages. Not only that though, but even many of the English names come from the Irish names, in two ways. First we have the direct translations and then we have the mispronounciations of the original Irish names. Sometimes the Irish and English names have direct connections and sometime they don't. The classic example of them not doing so is Dublin. As most of you will know, Dublin comes from Dubh Linn, meaning Black Pool. The Irish name used for Dublin, Baile Átha Cliath has a completely different meaning and in fact relates to a different places. It refers to the crossing of the hurdle ford. Baile Átha Cliath and Dubh Linn were two separate settlements on the Liffey which grew and became what is now Dublin. Both names have survived.

Any place in Ireland called Ballysomething comes from Baile, meaning own. Kil or Kill at the beginning of a name comes from Cill, an old Irish word for church. There are many other names or words as part of names that come from Irish. Dún means fort. Derry comes from Doire meaning a wood.

There are lots of everyday words in use that come from Irish that we use. Probably the most obvious is Taoiseach. Organisations like RTE or CIE use the Irish names for themselves. Irish is everywhere around you in obvious and not so obvious ways.

So yes, you may not speak it or hear it very often, but for these few reasons I've given and for many, many others it certainly has a big relevance to us and our culture. Anyone who thinks otherwise is only kidding themselves or has absolutely no understanding of their identity, their culture or their country. Whether we speak it or not has very little to do with that.

If I had my compu I'd 日本語 you so bad right now...

Lol...

If we, the americans and candians spoke spanish, and if the "international language" was spanish the results of the poll may be different. Many resent speaking the language of "the oppressor" and that is why they are so adamant to keep Irish there rather than just give in to practicality. A lot of french and german people can speak english, but do not, due to the seemingly international hatred of "the brits", whereas the dutch, who have no real beef with the brits, speak it freely.

Goodshape wrote:

It's a national identity thing. Practically everyone speaks (or can speak) English in Europe, and much of the rest of the world. But then they turn to their mates and start blabering away in 'their own' language and your left thinking 'damn, wish I could do that'.

I've had the same experience, and tbh, I'd think I'd learn Irish properly if I had the time. But unless people want to learn it, they won't. You can't lay the ultimate blame on the education system, flawed as it is. The language is dead because the people of Ireland don't really want it to be alive, in spite of what they might claim. If every person that thinks Irish should be forced on unwilling students just shut the **** up and went to learn the language themselves they might actually succeed in resurrecting it.

Live and let live. For the vast majority of us the Irish language is only a part of our history.

Does anyone here think that the auld teanga has been made a bit more popular amongst young people as a result of influences such as Hector Ó hEochagáin?