The creeping prominence of the Irish language

One thing that goes against Irish is that it’s a poxy hard language to learn...

having been taught Irish for 13 years throughout my primary and secondary education, I at 18 had a much greater ability to speak and understand French when I left school...having studied it less then 50% of the time then I had studied Irish, just 5 years....

most of my classmates would have been the same... I think you were aware too, that Irish will be of fûck all use to you when you leave school..you’ll never be called upon to utter a single syllable of it or understand it, nor will a potential employer be bothered about that grade... French, Italian, Spanish or German .... could be of use... could open doors.... when I went to live and work in France for an international organization, my proficiency with the language helped score me the job...

irish in secondary school should be optional, students should be able to select another language say French and German, Germany and Italian...a government should stand up and have the stones to piss off the gaeilgeoirs, mostly seriously prejudiced individuals with a particular fascist enjoyment of ‘making’ Irish compulsory in an age where the language Has been formally recognized as dying as it’s just not required.... for what it’s worth the last two censuses confirm that view, the numbers of Irish speakers, even in Gaeltacht regions are diminishing....

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True... coupled with it being of less tangible benefit to any of us..

Surely the argument is if something is going to be hard to do, you had better have a damn good reason for doing it. Pushing a rock up a hill is hard work, but there is no prize for doing so just because it's difficult.

"You'll never be called upon to utter a single syllable of it"

Well that's nonsense, unless you're one of those "prime minister of Ireland" cranks who won't say Taoiseach. How about answering a pub quiz question where the Irish President lives? If you're giving out (a term unique to hiberno English ="ag tabhairt amach") about bus éireann or the luas you are speaking plenty of Irish syllables without realizing it.

You have the freedom to live it, love it or lump it as you wish.

Loanwords or untranslated proper nouns aren't really the same though. No one would think of croissant or deja-vu as French if they used them in a sentence.

"Give out" is really interesting. Most people here don't realises it's not a standard English phrase. There's a funny anecdote video I watched years ago about a lecturer from Ireland teaching in the US and telling his students a story about his wife giving out to him which they took as being analagous to the American "put out" and were bewildered as to why their lecturer was telling a story about having sex with his wife.

There is no freedom in relation to the language if you don’t have the freedom to drop it.

Far from nonsense, since school I haven’t ever been required to speak, listen to or have an understanding of Irish... yet I was subjected to thousands of hours learning and being taught it.

im good at languages but I’m not good at waiting time learning shît that will be fûck all use to me...

Your going to have to expand on that. Who exactly is going to take over once Irish dies out?

Like all subjects you were "subjected to" at school, it's as much use as you want it to be. I never have looked at Shakespeare since I finished school, didn't enjoy it then, don't enjoy it now, but you can respect and recognise that a well rounded education covers more than just skills "required" of us.

... supporting the sector.

The main site is called Online Patronage Process System - original as ever.

Loans of information for you on RTÉ.ie about new schools opening to show the true state of affairs in relation to patronage and language choice.