Irish language on the radio?

seachto7

I carried out a quick search there, and noticed a thread from 7 years ago about Irish language on the radio.

Is there a minimum amount that should be on radio stations? I notice most of it seems tucked away late at night or early in the mornings over weekends.

If the government really want to tackle promoting the Irish language, should it be pushed more during day time radio?

I know it's down to what the audience want to listen to, but should the media be obliged to promote it more?

marno21

Think it's 4 hours a week for the regional/youth stations.

Beat have Top 40 Oifiguil na hEireann on from 07.50 to 09.50 and 22:00 to 00:00 on Sundays. RedFM have Top 40 from 10-12 on Sunday mornings and Irish inserts during the week (which really break up the show and often make me change the station).

seachto7

I notice in Limerick, Live 95, they don't seem to have any. Clare FM has a half hour slot on Saturday's and that's it. I guess it's down to audience.

So even the media have given up on the language?

mickydoomsux

There shouldn't be any obligation for any station to have "X" amount of Irish language programming per week or whatever.

If the market is there they'll have it on themselves, don't see there being a whole lot on if this was the case.

More forced propping up of a dead language through legislation to keep a tiny minority quiet.

seachto7

Is the Irish media obliged to though, by law?

Turn the radio on

I always found it odd that Galway bay fm only have the standard one hour token Irish language program per week considering the biggest galthacht in the country is in their franchise area.

seachto7

Well there you go. I wonder if I could do a small report or analysis on this...

Skid X

seachto7 wrote: »

If the government really want to tackle promoting the Irish language, should it be pushed more during day time radio?

I know it's down to what the audience want to listen to, but should the media be obliged to promote it more?

I think Radio Stations have a hard enough time without making them broadcast Irish Language Shows in daytime. There is no good reason to force it on the public - if they want Irish shows they will find them.

There is already a national Irish language station, and some local programming. That's plenty.

spank_inferno

Newstalk put in a 20 second spot occasionally comprising of reading the 1st paragraph of a random wiki profile.

I think a commercial station should be allowed to broadcast its content in whatever language it chooses.
Free of government interference.

ThisRegard

Skid X wrote: »

There is already a national Irish language station, and some local programming. That's plenty.

The problem with RnaG is that during the day anyway it wouldn't really appeal to a younger audience, something Raidió na Life in Dublin does better I would think.

L1011

seachto7 wrote: »

If the government really want to tackle promoting the Irish language, should it be pushed more during day time radio?

I know it's down to what the audience want to listen to, but should the media be obliged to promote it more?

That would just result in pushing overall radio listenership down further, and zero boost to the language.

reg114

As someone said already and I fully agree Irish is a dead language except for several 1000 habitual users. 99% of people had a negative experience of learning the language in school, giving it the oxygen of public finances in the form of token Irish programming or TG4 / RnG is simply keeping the life support machine switched on. It's over a century since Irish was the predominant language spoken here, but in terms of economic, developmental and cultural importance Irish is about as significant to the Irish people as Aramaic.

ThisRegard

There's just so much wrong with that statement, but that's for another forum and has been debated many times over.

westmidlands

Turn the radio on wrote: »

I always found it odd that Galway bay fm only have the standard one hour token Irish language program per week considering the biggest galthacht in the country is in their franchise area.

They do have a 2 hour Irish program on Tuesday nights from 10pm on Galway Bay FM. But being from Galway and listening to this station a lot I always feel that GBFM is aimed more at the city and the east of the county. Of course the population in these areas is much higher though. You never hear too much on it about what's going on west of Moycullen/Spiddal. I just guessed that RnaG covered Gaeltacht areas better.

whisky_galore

I don't want to hear any radio show in Irish, just no interest. If I hear a show in Irish, I'll jog on to the next station.

The Newstalk 20 sec spiel is just a sop to whatever Irish langauge movement is funding it or whatever quota they have to fill, the notion that it's somehow 'reviving' the language is laughable. Rugach....some artist dude...blah blah agus fuair se bas...

seachto7

Wow, didn't realise there was so much hatred for the language.

I suppose what I was getting at originally was there is this half arsed attempt during Seachtain na Gaeilge where they mix in some Irish with English during the news or the weather.

If the government is serious about trying to revive the language, it should be mixed in with English all the time.

My experience of Irish language broadcasting was the stations filled a quota but stuck it on at horrible times.

I suppose I look at the Welsh language and to a lesser extent Hebrew, and how it was revived.

StaticNoise

Broadcasters are going to stick the Irish language requirements within programming that they don't expect the general public to listen. Look at the Irish content: most commercial broadcasters have it put on the chart show. Why? Because they can still snatch some listeners and throw in some Irish words to cover it. 'Uimhir a haon... Clean Bandit le Rather Be'. Problem solved. Quota filled, retaining some listeners at that time. Also, they stick the shows on at hours in the morning, or at night, or during weekend hours when people may not be listening as much.

You could add up all the Newstalk Irish segments, and they may reach a quota time. Why bother doing a bulk programme if you can stick it in, broken up, into ad breaks where people jump the dial anyway.


To be honest, they should stop pushing the language on media. Nuacht on RTÉ. RnaG for the Gaelgeoirs. Regional for the speakers. Leave those alone who don't speak it, and that's most.

seachto7

Is it a legal requirement though? And do stations not fill the quota?
I would think not?

L1011

seachto7 wrote: »

Wow, didn't realise there was so much hatred for the language.

Its not hatred - its just the same reaction you'd get if you suggested radio stations were compelled to have content in Swahili, as its about as relevant to the average listener.

seachto7

So Irish is as irrelevant as Swahili in the media?

Seeing as schools were such a negative experience for many (not for me), I am curious as to whether the media should be used to try and regenerate the Irish language. I suppose the bigger question is reviving the language. I would hate to see an Ireland without Irish. It's a shame so many have a chip on their shoulder about it. That's they way I see it.

Skid X

seachto7 wrote: »

It's a shame so many have a chip on their shoulder about it. That's they way I see it.

I've no chip on my shoulder, but I don't understand Irish and I've no interest in it.

Why should any commercial station be forced to broadcast in a language most people don't understand? it would be commercial suicide.

seachto7

True. It's a pity it would be considered commercial suicide...

More Music

It's not a legal requirement or forced on any local station.

They include a token Irish programme in their licence application to the BAI to make it look good (brownie points if you will). If they win the licence they are then stuck with it.

BTW, how long has Seachtain Na Gaelige been 2 weeks long?

I only realised this year that "Irish Week" runs for 2 weeks.

RayM

seachto7 wrote: »

So Irish is as irrelevant as Swahili in the media?

Seeing as schools were such a negative experience for many (not for me), I am curious as to whether the media should be used to try and regenerate the Irish language. I suppose the bigger question is reviving the language. I would hate to see an Ireland without Irish. It's a shame so many have a chip on their shoulder about it. That's they way I see it.

I think people's dislike of the language stems from the perception that it gets rammed down our throats. Worse than that, actually - it's rammed down our throats at school for fourteen years, and most of us still leave with barely a 'cúpla focal'. I'm fine with TG4 and RnaG, because they do exactly what they're supposed to do. They also do it very well, and aren't generally seen as half-arsed tokenism.

Almost every effort to 'promote' the Irish language fails because a lot of people generally regard it as a minor nuisance - and because of the perception that it's being forced upon us. I'm quite sympathetic towards it, but I still switch over when the Nuacht comes on the radio. I still find it a bit annoying that so much valuable space on roadsigns, bus destination screens and RTPI displays is given to a language that hardly anybody speaks.

If they want to actually revive the language, rather than merely pacifying the tiny minority of hardcore Gaelgoiri, they should start off by teaching it properly in schools - but only to those who want to learn it.

whisky_galore

seachto7 wrote: »

Wow, didn't realise there was so much hatred for the language.

You should throw that q out there in After Hours and see all the hatred. This forum is polite tea and crumpets by comparison.

ThisRegard

RayM wrote: »

rather than merely pacifying the tiny minority of hardcore Gaelgoiri,

That's the type of bad attitude Irish is up against.

L1011

ThisRegard wrote: »

That's the type of bad attitude Irish is up against.

No, but your post is an example of the typical hypocrisy that's used

People who are pro Irish can get away with accusing others of a "bad attitude" or "zealotry", or "hatred" as has been throw around constantly on this thread with zero proof and no basis; but once that's even mentioned about their attitude and approach it results in screaming and wailing.

ThisRegard

The phrase used, "hardcore Gaelgoiri", can have certain implications of how Irish speakers are portrayed.

Your reply to my post is verging on the hysterical being honest. This thread has been very level headed and far from going down the road of how you're painting it.

L1011

ThisRegard wrote: »

The phrase used, "hardcore Gaelgoiri", can have certain implications of how Irish speakers are portrayed.

Your reply to my post is verging on the hysterical being honest. This thread has been very level headed and far from going down the road of how you're painting it.

Random accusations of "hatred" isn't level-headed. Far from it.

One side cannot insist on being seen as whiter than white while slinging accusations themselves.

hoodwinked

i love hearing the irish segments on radio stations, my 4 year old is the same, she is currently in a naíonra and loves the language, she will be going onto a gaelscoil in september, and i think it helps her to hear these segments on radio,


even this morning listening to ian dempsey trying to speak it (and having the characters from ros na rún on) was refreshing!

people keep saying the language is dying but in my experience it is those who don't like it or "had it forced into them" or "the way it was taught in the old days" who are dying out leaving our generation and the younger ones being the ones who love the language, its why more and more gaelscoils are popping up and the ones that are here are over-subscribed,

every year in ireland, you have another (im guessing with a few hundred gaelscoils) few thousand 6th class fluent irish speakers moving on to secondary school, and those numbers are increasing.

most of whom would love to hear the languages they speak in a more main stream media like dual language irish radio stations, i think its also why the cartoons on tg4 are so popular amongst children

ThisRegard

MYOB wrote: »

Random accusations of "hatred" isn't level-headed. Far from it.

The guy said there's a lot of hatred for the language, for which there is being honest. Otherwise, in comparison to similar threads that have popped up recently, this one isn't too bad, yet.

hoodwinked wrote: »

every year in ireland, you have another (im guessing with a few hundred gaelscoils) few thousand 6th class fluent irish speakers moving on to secondary school, and those numbers are increasing.

most of whom would love to hear the languages they speak in a more main stream media like dual language irish radio stations, i think its also why the cartoons on tg4 are so popular amongst children

This is a good point, and by implication of the kids going to gaelscoileanna their parents return to the language.

L1011

ThisRegard wrote: »

The guy said there's a lot of hatred for the language, for which there is being honest. Otherwise, in comparison to similar threads that have popped up recently, this one isn't too bad, yet.

And there are also, very clearly, "hardcore Gaelgoiri" - which seems to have you very upset. That said, I haven't actually seen a shred of proof of "hatred" for Irish - at worst, there's dismay at the amount of the state's cash that gets spent on it and nothing more.

You cannot have your cake and eat it - sooner that's realised we can start having proper debates without the wailing.

ThisRegard

No, I'm sure there is and it doesn't bother me in the slightest, but in many cases all are portrayed as being that way.

L1011

ThisRegard wrote: »

No, I'm sure there is and it doesn't bother me in the slightest, but in many cases all are portrayed as being that way.

So why your post about there being a "bad attitude" when its brought up then?

mickydoomsux

hoodwinked wrote: »

...its why more and more gaelscoils are popping up and the ones that are here are over-subscribed,

Nah, this is why.

RayM

ThisRegard wrote: »

The phrase used, "hardcore Gaelgoiri", can have certain implications of how Irish speakers are portrayed.

Perhaps, rather than accusing people of having a 'bad attitude', we could look at why the phrase 'hardcore Gaelgoiri' is viewed as a pejorative. I didn't calculatedly use it that way - I don't actually have a negative attitude towards the language. I used it because I wanted to distinguish between those who just happen to speak Irish, and those (a minority within a minority) who adopt a more evangelical approach and insist that everybody should speak it, or else be bombarded with it, whether it's practical or not. You know - the kind of people who complain about having to pay their property tax in English and fire off angry letters whenever Irish translations are missing from official documents, public transport displays/announcements, etc. I saw Blathnaid Ni Chofaigh on television recently, saying that all schools should be Gaelscoileanna. Pandering to those people has been a gigantic failure, and has created an undeserved level of antagonism towards the language itself.

hoodwinked

mickydoomsux wrote: »

Nah, this is why.

nope i don't think so, quite a lot of them go to english speaking secondary schools as there wouldn't be enough space in the irish language secondary schools to accommodate them all, so they wouldn't get those marks, and anyway those extra marks were there when i did my leaving cert and it didn't encourage people to do it back then,


i think the sudden revival is more to do with people wanting to learn the irish language, and because of initiatives like these media outlets.

L1011

hoodwinked wrote: »

i think the sudden revival is more to do with people wanting to learn the irish language, and because of initiatives like these media outlets.

There's been exactly the same amount of Irish on broadcast media here since 1989 basically so no, it really has nothing to do with that.

Also, people wanting to learn the language generally go learn it - sending their children to a specific school isn't going to make them (the parents) learn it. The reasons people send their kids to gaelscoils are widely varied but the amount of Irish language content on radio isn't one of them, and the parents wanting to learn Irish is going to be extremely low on the list if it happens at all.

hoodwinked

MYOB wrote: »

There's been exactly the same amount of Irish on broadcast media here since 1989 basically so no, it really has nothing to do with that.

Also, people wanting to learn the language generally go learn it - sending their children to a specific school isn't going to make them (the parents) learn it. The reasons people send their kids to gaelscoils are widely varied but the amount of Irish language content on radio isn't one of them, and the parents wanting to learn Irish is going to be extremely low on the list if it happens at all.

well my mother had not got a word of irish when i started, but she learned with me, even heading up the parent council at one point as her irish was almost fluent.

my point is in younger generations attitudes are changing in multiple area's, irish language is one of those changing, that along with the presence of irish in the media (both radio and tv) and dotted around society, Gardaí, names of companies...etc means its gaining a reputation amongst those generations more nowadays as a fun language then the irish language of old that older people hated so much and complain about.

L1011

hoodwinked wrote: »

my point is in younger generations attitudes are changing in multiple area's, irish language is one of those changing, that along with the presence of irish in the media (both radio and tv) and dotted around society, Gardaí, names of companies...etc means its gaining a reputation amongst those generations more nowadays as a fun language then the irish language of old that older people hated so much and complain about.

I haven't seen a shred of evidence to suggest any of that.

Again, the last time there was an increase in the amount of Irish in the media was 1995 when TG4 launched. TG4, who now makes their name off showing US drama, in English.

SEPT 23 1989

There used to be a great dance music show on Radio na Life in the late 90's

whisky_galore

If I was a parent that wanted my offspring to be at an advantage, and was not afraid of being slightly less than PC, the gaelscoils would have a smaller number of 'slow' kids and kids from non-Irish backgrounds that an ordinary school would have to cater for.

GaelMise

seachto7 wrote: »

Wow, didn't realise there was so much hatred for the language.

So much hatred? I see a handfull of posters, not much in the grand scheme of things.

whisky_galore

GaelMise wrote: »

So much hatred? I see a handfull of posters, not much in the grand scheme of things.

A little bit a hatred, a lot of indifference.

GaelMise

whisky_galore wrote: »

A little bit a hatred, a lot of indifference.

Plenty of support out there too though.

Skid X

whisky_galore wrote: »

A little bit a hatred, a lot of indifference.

Not hatred, just a measured reaction to an over the top proposal to introduce compulsory Irish Language broadcast hours at peak time radio.

We are all entitled to our opinions.