All Estate Names to be in Irish

I've always had misgivings about the treatment and, dare I say, the mismanaged decline of the Irish language. Making it an "official" language of state, to me, merely meant creating a glorified social employment scheme for a plethora of misfits who had no great love of the language except for keeping them in gainful employment at taxpayers expense. Removing the language meant they were redundant.

There is preservation, there is maintainance, then there is progress. I suppose the nicest thing to happen is the creation of TNaG which ensures that there is some relevance to the modern world, and growth in usage. I am glad it happened, my only regret is, that I wish it was there when I was in school, although watching An Nuacht, or Radharc helped.

I will agree that it is the way it is taught. I will shock you. At 11, I spoke and wrote BETTER Irish than I did at 17. This was thanks to a teacher who was very progressive and taught it like a modern European language. Yes - there was poetry and essays to show gramatical and linguistic niceties and unique features at that time, and some of the poetry and prose was required, particularly after learning grammar, we then saw an everyday application of the grammar. Make no bones about it, we do need to learn grammatical structures, syntax, conjugate verbs, and EVERY language requires some degree of rote learning of these, so that they are imprinted on the memory for future usage.

The argument that a "child of 5 can see through a lot of bull****", is a valid one. Well.....I am sad that I was taught to hate the Irish language at one stage, grew to like it, then to hate it, depending on which teacher was dealing with me at the time. Being a bit precocious I handled sarcasm, nutjobs, power crazed nutters and freaks pretty badly. Am I scarred for life, far from it. Do I have a chip on my shoulder as a result - Yes, two, one on each, so I can be regarded as a pretty balanced individual.

Was it me, or the system. I am mature enough now to say both. Which came first, the chicken or the egg. It was the switch between Munster dialect, Ulster dialect, then Galway dialect (1st and 3rd dialects are relatively similar, Ulster dialect sounds different). Because of the so called "Irish language fascists", depending on the region they were from, no one dialect predominated. They all wanted their own dialect so hated the others with even more contempt than they had for English, or filthy Soccer, Rugby or Foreign games put together. Indeed.....Myles na Gopaleen (AKA Flann O'Brien) satirised this attitude brilliantly.

The money spent on the Irish language could be better spent. Putting Estate names in Irish is like the Government policy towards the language since Independence. The Welsh have done a far better job of reviving their language and are willing and proud to use it everyday. Of course, we are Irish and naturally a bit rebellious. I am convinced as a result that the best thing to do to the Irish language is ban it. Immediately - EVERYONE would want to learn and speak it. Plus, we could throw away those Irish language fascists who helped me hate it by using such phrases.

"Ta se ag caint Gaeilge as an Leabhar"

(He is speaking "Book Irish", as in he does not have physical experience of it)

My final line is a savage indictment of the system. We spend perhaps 11 or 12 years in school learning a language that has no use outside a rock on the edge of Europe. We have spent untold BILLIONS of Euro/Pounds/Whatever since Independence teaching a language that we want to resurrect for the sake of resurrection in itself, rather than aiming to look out, we aimed to look in. This left Ireland insular and isolated for a long long time. Propose cutting anything in relation to this bauble, this toy, this ornament, one is called any one of the following:

"West Brit"
"Unpatriotic"
"Anti Irish"
"Thatcherite"

I am not saying discard Irish. I am saying reform the methods it is taught. If people wish, they can be reasonably conversant in a language within 2 years. Why is it that we spend 6 times that length of time learning a language that we hardly use after the age of 17, and still are NOT fluent. Why is it that we could spend perhaps a fraction of that time learning a modern European/Eastern language, and end up borderline fluent.

Work smarter, not harder. The money wasted on it can be spent far more effectively making people WANT to use it, rather than FORCED. The only reason many of us wanted a "D" at Pass level was so we could be eligible for the civil service.

Was the language sexy enough? I mean, I'd rather admire the curves on Antonia, or Christina, rather than Feachtna, Nollaig or Niamh.....was that it? ....that it reminded me of a land happily covered in mist and damp and cold, rather than the sexy alluring sunshine of Santo Domingo or the Costa Del Sol. ....could I admire the curves on the tits of Apple in Ampang, while seducing her with alluring sexy tones of Malay, Thai or Cantonese?

This needs to be solved. Our people as taxpayers deserve better. Our parents who bought/buy schoolbooks and tapes deserve better. Those who truly love Ireland and the Irish language and wish to maintain, retain and improve our distinctive cultural identity deserve better.

The Irish language is part of our national identity. However, it has become a massive waste of resources in terms of the amount of time allocated to it. I'll probably ruin the sense of my first post above in expanding, but I will try. Lets take three modern countries.

Only one nation I know of has successfully resurrected a "dead" language, and thats modern Hebrew in Israel. There was a rational reason for doing so. There was a diverse population who spoke Yiddish, Polish, Russian, German, English, but needed a unifying tongue to communicate. So modern Hebrew was created, which uses many of the traditional biblical words, but with Polish, Yiddish, Russian words thrown into the modern smorgasbord and given a German/Yiddish syntax. Israel manages to thrive today. Ireland can thrive also.

Singapore had an equally linguistically diverse populace. The 75% chinese majority spoke Hokkien, Hainanese, Cantonese, Teochew, Hakka and Mandarin dialects. In written form, they are one and the same. In spoken form, they are radically different. However, they discarded the first five and focussed on one - Mandarin. This did cause problems in that an older generation became isolated from their Grandchildren due to not knowing Mandarin. A rich cultural heritage was lost forever as a result. But thats Singapore for you, always chasing modernity and progress. Almost everyone, meanwhile, speaks English, and possibly one other language, Tamil or Malay.

Malaysia has a sorry linguistic history, in terms of state interference and inward looking policies. In 1974, they decided to teach everything in Malay. As a result, decades later, foreign investment is in decline, the economy depends on oil, and education standards have fallen. You'll notice this as many overseas Malaysians help support that pillar of the Irish economy called Paddy Power. Those remaining in Malaysia, unless they are connected to the corridors of power, now struggle for a shrinking national cake. It was a similar scenario to what could have happened to Ireland with extremists in charge, ethnically cleansing out the Protestants. And....DO remember that it was our first President, Douglas Hyde who was a core figure in the Gaelic revival of the early 20th century.

100 years ago, to communicate, many people used Latin, because of its wide range of expression. English now fulfils much of the same role. In 100 years time, I cannot predict which language will predominate. English is likely to adopt many more words from Chinese/Indian and African countries in that period, as it has done before. Very few learn Latin today, the last generation to learn it being taught up until the early 1970's

But back to Irish. We learned "Gaeilge as an leabhar" because at the time I learned it (1980's-1990's), there was no Internet, there was no TnaG, Radio Na Gaeltachta seemed to be a bit....well....primitive and country centric, with little appeal to people of my own age group.

The Gaelscoileanna thrive for one reason alone, smaller class sizes, ensuring better attention to individual students. Of course parents could send their children there for nationalistic, patriotic reasons. If it gets a better standard of education, then let Gaelscoileanna thrive, as its the best chance for Irish to survive and thrive in the modern age.

There are possibilities for Irish, certainly in a commercial sphere. Its useful for maintaining confidentiality and trade secrets, particularly if dealing with copyright, and there would not be many people capable of translating it outside Ireland. Consequently, it should be viewed as a possible tool in the knowledge economy, if Ireland finds it has to specialise in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, etc. In some ways, its ability to communicate concepts, emotions, feelings, can be superior to much vaunted English.

Reforming Irish -

Personally, my preference is towards the Munster dialect as its the easiest for an English speaker to pick up, pronounce, write, speak and adjust to. Later, the other dialects can be added on for higher level. Dialects exist in Spanish, French, Italian and German, more so than Irish. Certainly, the best existing literature is from that dialect, mainly originating from the Blasket Islands, in terms of Peig, AntOileaneach, and Muiris O'Suilleabhains writings. However, these, unfortunately, are part of the marketing problem, and the image problem with Irish. I did mention Flann O'Brien/Myles naGcopaleen above, and there are hilarious English translations of his work. It shows the history of the Irish language and those who spoke it as being lives of hardship, suffering, poverty, drudgery, and have about as much romantic appeal in the Ireland of the 21st century as a power cut ot Christmas. It does not mean that I should tread mockingly on that suffering, because its as tasteless as joking about the Ethiopian famine, or Rwanda. It was'nt the Brits fault either, because lets face it, bare barren rocky stony soil can only support so much with an agrarian subsistance barter economy, and the Blaskets were about as isolated then as Africa is now.

Modern technology can save Irish with the Internet and Television. Those who wish to communicate in it can do so online, and gradually it may recover. But it means winning hearts and minds, making it enjoyable rather than the same drudgery it was for many past generations. Making it better for those who make it the last priority in the Leaving Certificate, who aim for a D3 at Pass level. The tools exist, the ideas exist, and possibilities exist.

Meanwhile, lets not be fooled and conned by Quango's such as Udaras na Gaeltachta, Minister for the West, Regional Development Boards, expensive baubles riding along doing very little at taxpayer largesse. We can't afford these anymore, and we've got to choose between (for example) cervical vaccines for teenage girls, and the likes of this waste. It was fine during the economic bubble economy, but thats all over now. My crazy line would be turn the lot into a tax haven for gambling, drugs, and hookers, and tourists would flock, BUT they'd have to speak Irish to get the discounts . At least there would be a chance of a few Euro made on the damp rocks of the west.

As for me, well.....I can read it well enough. My spoken Irish is relatively poor, Irish words with an English syntax, which is nothing to be proud of, but better than nothing. The moment I speak Irish in an office overseas, local staff start typing faster, suspecting that something serious is afoot, and it often is if I have need to use it with Irish colleagues. Dolanbaker makes a very rational point I believe most of you here "hate" Irish because your parants had zero interest in it and disappeared when it was time for them to help you with your Irish homework. Its a good one, for most of our parents left school, and did not require it for their future career, which caused a vicious circle. If it has no "real life" application, then there are problems.