Gaeltacht advice

Blizzard

My son and his friend are in 5th year and want to go to the gaeltacht this summer to help with their honours irish for leaving cert next year. Was just about to sign them up when someone mentioned that some are very good and some not so good--meaning that they'll have a great time but might not learn as much as they could elsewhere. We obviously want them to enjoy it but they also need to get value from it also to help them next year. My question is - are there any that you would highly rate/recommend? We are considering:

Coláiste Ó Direáin, Aran Islands
Coláiste Laichtín, Aran Islands
Coláiste Chíaráin, Carraroe, Galway
Colaiste Chamuis, Galway

We're open to other suggestions in any location.

Thanks for any advice!

randylonghorn

I've heard Colaiste Chamuis mentioned favourably by both parents and students as being good for learning Irish as well as having a good atmosphere / good craic, which is probably the balance you're looking for. After all, we all tend to learn better if we're enjoying the process; from listening to many students over the years, I'd say *too* strict is probably just as bad as too easy-going, as they tend to become grouchy and go into teen rebel mode.

That said, I know very little about the other ones you mention, so they may be just as good or better.

In the end, as much will depend on whether the lads are serious about improving their Irish and put a bit of effort in as on where you choose to send them.

GalwayGrrrrrl

Chamuis is well organised and very strict with Irish so the children get full immersion. They get sent home with no refund if they speak a sentence in English and mobile phones are not allowed apart from
For a phone call home each Friday. It may be full for this year as it is a very popular college. I don’t know anything about the others.

Irelandman1998

Colaisti Chorca Dhuibne in Ballyferitter, Kerry was great craic when I was there! I learned a lot of Irish at the same time and they weren't too strict. Lots of activities to be had and run by friendly yet professional folks.

I haven't had too good of an experience with the Galway ones, personally. I found some of them far too strict and anal about things. For instance, they would go around during the break times and write you're name down if you were speaking english and if you were caught more than twice, you'd get the head screamed off you by the director/organiser of the program, which was ironic as ****, considering I was paying for the experience haha. But, that's just my experience.

JoeFritzl

The Gaeltacht is a fun experience but lets face it - The notion of putting dozens of non-Irish speakers together for a few weeks was never going to make much of a dent on their fluency and there's nothing the dry, boggy air of Connemara could ever do to change that.

spurious

JoeFritzl wrote: »

The Gaeltacht is a fun experience but lets face it - The notion of putting dozens of non-Irish speakers together for a few weeks was never going to make much of a dent on their fluency and there's nothing the dry, boggy air of Connemara could ever do to change that.

Perhaps, but put students in an atmosphere of fun and enjoyment and they can learn almost anything you want.