The creeping prominence of the Irish language

Yes that has been a noticeable change over past decade and more. Success of gaelscoileanna and reasons parents choose them?

1) love of the language and a wish to see it used and carried forward in Irish society.

2) political reasons

3) to mostly avoid immigrant children

4) to avail of additional points in state exams

5) to gain state jobs that require competence in Irish

All valid & logical choices made by parents in their own way.

Thankfully according to ESRI research the majority of people in the Republic of Ireland have a positive attitude towards the Irish language regardless of their level. So long as people like you are in the minority the language should continue to thrive. A snippet from an Irish Times article last year;

"The growth of Gaelscoileanna over the last 40 years has generated a massive amount of column inches. As research into the sector grew, showing the benefits of bilingualism for young children, so too did the number of parents enrolling children in Irish medium schools.

In fact, many of these schools started to consistently outperform their English-speaking counterparts, and many parents now feel the best public education in Ireland is available through the medium of the Irish language.

When you complement this with the massive popularity of Irish language summer colleges, for the first time in the history of the state, we have a critical mass of fluent Irish speakers moving into society.

The number of pupils being taught through Irish in primary school have reached record high levels in the recent school year.

Almost one in 12 schoolchildren at primary level are receiving their education through Irish,new figures published by the Department of Education show.

Irish as the primary language of education has risen steadily from 6.4 per cent of primary pupils in 2000 to 8.1 per cent in 2018/19.

A total of 45,278 students across 247 primary schools were taught through the medium of Irish in the recent school year, an annual increase of 1.5 per cent."

The majority of schools, 147 with almost 38,000 pupils, are located outside Gaeltacht areas.

Simple question was asked - "Is there any other country in the world where so little of their citizens speak their ‘first’ language."

We may by the only one that priotitises ahead of the most widely spoken langauge, but we're not the only one that speaks a different language more widely that the one originally associated with the country.

The wilful ignorace is in thinking that it's "first" purely because that's the way it's written in the constitution.

I have a question. Why are Gaelscoilenna used as an example of the strength/relevance/growth of the Irish language? Has any study been done on what percentage of the students of these schools go on to speak Irish on a daily basis when compared to non Gaelscoils outside Gaeltachts?

I ask that because of your comment in your post where you say anecdotally that students just use Irish in schools. That means that potentially Gaelscoils have minimal impact on Irish language usage in wider society. I think they do help the Irish language in the sense they provide more jobs for Irish speakers. However if Gaelscoils are not very effective at promoting Irish language usage outside the education system do alternative strategies need to be looked at and resources be reallocated? We know historically that the education system for different reasons is not good at increasing or even maintaining the number of speakers of the Irish language. Why are Gaelscoils considered to be any better especially in light of your anecdote.

I appreciate this argument can get polarised however I think your ancedote raises an interesting question regardless of a person's exact position on the Irish language.

Gaelscoileanna are considered “better” because they have little, to no, foreign nationals with poor English, and no Irish, language skills and they are also reputed to take in no kids with additional needs.

These kids are seen as ones who take away teacher time from kids without these “difficulties”. Smaller class sizes would be another factor.

If I had my way all, public, primary schools would be taught through Irish.

The real test of gaelscoils is how many continue to use Irish AFTER they leave the school system. Otherwise they're just a middle class means to get the edge on the rest of the herd.

Do you have kids in a Gaeilscoil? Do you know many children currently in a Gaeilscoil? How can you possibly know with any certainty what their parents motives are for choosing to send their children there? And how can anyone in their right mind say that adding 50,000 (currently in primary schools) future Gaeilgeoirs will not contribute to the advancement of the Irish language? Ridiculous post.

They speak French in Canada. Its widely spoken

That's not the case in Ireland

Well, there is, F. They like to “interview” the parents first to make sure they have the Erse, or at least some standard of it, so would be tough going for an immigrant family.

Even if they got through that “phase” I’m sure they would come up with a different excuse to knock them back.

I'm pretty certain the interview is to make sure the parents know what they are getting themselves into and have the commitment to see it through, the initial interview is in English and not a test of your level of Irish. Hence, anyone can enrol, and many parents from all parts of the world do. Im my sons class alone there are children who's parents are from, New Zealand, Italy and Africa, how do you think those parents "got through that phase"?

This whole thread has descended into tired old tropes and to be blunt, same old bullshit as every boards thread on Irish.

I've always found it amazing how many people state they couldn't care less about Irish but can't wait to tell everyone all the reasons they hate it. Doesn't really match up.

There is so many things I have zero interest or activitly dislike. I doubt I've posted once about them online and certainly don't feel the need to belittle those who have an interest in them. Yet Irish speakers have to continuously listen to the types who post in here. The "I don't care about Irish but..." crowd. Mostly the same set of folks I wasted time debunking last thing this thread came up.

Not time I'm going to waste again but I will stand up for this point.

To say people send there kids to a Gaelscoil to avoid mixing with foreign kids is a disgustingly disrespectful comment and 100% the words of someone who hasn't been with 20 miles of a Gaelscoil. Plenty of mixing of nationalities and races in any Gaelscoil I've been too. It says alot about those folks if that's what they think of as a benefit of Gaelscoileanna.

Slán.