Why can nobody speak Irish?

The_Conductor wrote: »

I can speak as happily in Irish or German, as I can in English. I've worked exclusively in all 3 at various stages. Yes- there is an issue with the way Irish is taught in Ireland- were it taught in a similar manner to French or German- with modern teaching mechanisms- I'm certain it would be a hell of a lot healthier as a language than it now is.

The flipside of the coin is there are now more Irish language primary and secondary schools who teach all subjects through Irish- than there have ever been. The Dublin region has more people with gaeilge liofa, than Connemara- and very few of them are from traditional Gaeltacht areas. So- yes- there is an issue with the way Irish is taught in most Irish schools- but Irish as a primary language, has never been healthier than now.

The notion of there being some sort of serious massive revival in the number of people who actually speak Irish daily is completely wide of the mark based on the census figures.

Between 2006 and 2011 the number who speak Irish daily increased from 72,153 to 77,185 an increase of 5,032, which sounds good initially before we look at the actual increase in overall population.

However during the same period the population increased by 341,421.

However probably the most relevant number is the increase in the amount of people who can speak Irish which increased by over 110,000.

The education system has added an additional 110,000 people who can speak Irish yet only 5,000 use the language daily. Maybe the education system isn't the problem people make it out to be?

So overall 340,000 new people in the county, a third of whom can speak English yet only 5,000 of them use Irish in everyday life.

In percentage terms the number of daily Irish speakers has decreased slightly
72,152/4,239,848 = 1.70178% in 2006 to 77,185/4,581,269 = 1.68480%

Basically it's a tiny minority pastime and it clear that the overwhelming majority of people have little to no interest in.

Kids are not stupid ,they see no one speaks irish in real life ,
unless you are a teacher ,broadcaster ,theres no practical use for it.
OUTSIDE the gaeltacht its a dead language ,not used by ordinary people.
ITS ridiculous to spend 10 per cent of the educational budget on irish,
meanwhile special needs assistants are losing their jobs in schools all over ireland.
WE ARE competing with country,s who design schools to focus on practical subjects or allow students to choose what subjects they want to study,that may have some practical use in real life .
i,d regard it as something like poetry or playing a musical instrument.
IT should be voluntary,
90 per cent of people would have no interest in learning to play the violin.
IT was always like this, the no of people who compose music, or write poetry
is small.
ie its a minority interest .

AT some point we,ll reach a crisis ,where the educational system
will need to be designed for the 21st century.

OF course i know theres vested interests,
eg teachers,tutors , quangos that rely on the irish language to exist
and get paid for it.
IT should be like traditional music, let those who want to study it,or

speak it do so.
And good luck to them.
if students choose to study science or geography instead of irish ,
so be it.

PEOPLE will still speak it,and study it,
but students who are more practically minded will study another subjects.

its not dead, no more than poetry is dead.
it should be just a voluntary subject ,like art.

Foxtrol wrote: »

I'd be proud if I could speak Chinese and doing so would be far more beneficial to me in the real world than Irish ever could. If people want to learn Irish for sentimental or other reasons I’ve nothing against them but the current way it’s rammed down people’s throats doesn’t help anyone and is a big reason why there’s so much push back against it by a large proportion of the population.

It depends, I have fluent German and I think having Irish as a language helped achieve fluency in German because I knew what it took to become fluent in a language.

Seannew1 wrote: »

It depends, I have fluent German and I think having Irish as a language helped achieve fluency in German because I knew what it took to become fluent in a language.

So learning Irish makes it easier to learn a useful language. Fair enough but why not just learn two useful languages?

Iwasfrozen wrote: »

Yeah English and German.

Correct, aswell as fluent Irish,I also speak Scots Gaelic, now there's one useless dead language if ever I saw one!

Seannew1 wrote: »

Correct, aswell as fluent Irish,I also speak Scots Gaelic, now there's one useless dead language if ever I saw one!

So you concede Irish is not a useful language? Scots gaelic is no less useless then Irish.

Seannew1 wrote: »

No I never said that, I like Irish and it's useful to me in my daily life,it may not be useful to you or other people here but that's a different story. And no you're very wrong there, Scots Gaelic is failing completely in Scotland,while most Irish people now Conas atá tú? and the odd phrase such as An bhfuil cead agam dul go dtí an leithreas, most Scots wouldn't know "hello" in that language.

You said you have 2 useful languages. Implying Irish isn't useful.

1ZRed wrote: »

Ah now that's a bit of a cop out :P I can speak fluent Irish too and I met a guy once who could speak Scots Gaelic, yet we could both understand each other even though we were speaking slightly different languages. It's only when I looked at the spelling comparison that I saw the biggest difference between them, but while speaking it you can largely understand the other, I found.

I think being bilingual has helped me pick up other languages much quicker. I've a good level of French and my Spanish is passable. If kids grew up actively learning a more approachable language (I don't think Irish is the easiest to pick up compared to others) then I think as they get older learning new languages will be a lot easier for them.

I personally found them different, eg Táim i mo chónaí i nDún Dealgan as opposed to Tha mi a'fuireach ann an Dún Dealgan.

epluribusunum wrote: »

If a language can be used to communicate it suits its purpose. So since Irish can be a vehicle of communication it is useful, may not be popular but it is useful. It serves its purpose for some making it useful.

Excellent point. Couldn't put it better myself.