Irish Language

Deiseen wrote: »

Not wanting to embrace the language is fine, it's a free country. But a lot on here seem ready to go out of their way to stop Irish from ever developing further. That's just not right.

I am rubbish at Irish, absolutely terrible, I'm bad at languages in general. However, I will never ever go out of my way to discourage any measure relating to the promotion of our language. I won't force it on my kids but I hope I can convey the importance of it and they will do a better job of embracing it than I have.

People keep stating that its unused and should not be promoted. How it can it ever be used more if we are not willing to try? I guaran-feckin-tee you that if a prober job was done of promoting our language, and it did manage to get a decent foothold, then future generations would be shocked that we almost lost it and even more shocked that some people wanted it to die.

We really do hate ourselves sometimes.

"We"?

Speak for yourself.

Tony EH wrote: »

I never said anything about "dead". I said it's on life support.

What does this actually mean? The Irish language gets state funding and the position of the language would be worse without the funding, but this is true of just about everything. Is the health service on life support, or the education system? How about sports or the arts, they get plenty of state support, much much more than the language infact, and you can be damm sure that they would suffer greatly if state funding was withdrawn.

What is it about Irish that makes you reach for life support metaphors?

facehugger99 wrote: »

I don't believe future generations have voted you to be their spokesperson.

Their far more likely to be concerned with more pressing matters. If they think about the Irish language at all it will likely be with a sense of bemusement that so much money and time was invested in such a folly.

Do you think the French would look with a sense of bemusement at expenditure on ensuring the survival of French as the language of France, or would they be astounded at the idea that they would ever allow French to decline and die to be replace by another language?

The English constantly congratulate themselves on their victory in two world wars which ensured that future generations would be speaking English and not German, and yet we are expected to accept the replacement of our language without even wondering why our language should be killed off.

It seems to me that most people find it natural to want to protect their national language and insure its continued use into the future, and yet we Irish are expected to facilitate the death of our own language. I must say the reason that we should want to do this escapes me.

Imreoir2 wrote: »

What does this actually mean?

It means it not dead, but certainly isn't thriving as a national language in the majority of the country.

It isn't difficult to understand.

saabsaab wrote: »

The point of this poll is to see what people think - too early to make such a claim.

A Boards poll? :rolleyes:

The proof of my point in already evident - the vast majority of the population would struggle to string a sentence together beyond asking to go to the toilet. There's no interest in it beyond lip-service. Better to let it die and spend the money on something useful instead.

If you want to talk poll results, here's the ESRI study on attitudes to the Irish language on the island of Ireland.

https://www.esri.ie/news/new-study-shows-that-while-attitudes-towards-the-irish-language-are-broadly-positive-this-does-not-translate-into-significant-use-of-the-language

Snow Garden wrote: »

It's shambolic that Sinn Fein will not reopen Stormont at a crucial time in NI politics because of the Irish language.

Far more shambolic that the DUP are keeping Stormount closed rather than allow an Irish Language Act that was promised in the GFA and St Andrews, and which would bring NI into line with other parts of the UK in terms of language protections.

The DUP have a terrible track record of treating the language like a punching bag, its about time they got their act together and make concessions to ensure that all sides are shown respect in NI. They are quick enough to cause uproar at any and every perceived attack on orange culture and yet are only delighted to dish out insult after insult to the other side.

saabsaab wrote: »

Poll is now closed.



The interesting aspect for me was how many were actively anti-Irish language. I can understand those who are not bothered but to wish it ill will is another thing entirely. Those of this opinion are a small but significant minority and I feel that this has little to do with education and people of this mentality have been around since the beginning of the Irish State.

The poll I believe would be representative of the opinions held by the general public.

What, 12%? Hardly significant at all!

saabsaab wrote: »

Poll is now closed.



The interesting aspect for me was how many were actively anti-Irish language. I can understand those who are not bothered but to wish it ill will is another thing entirely. Those of this opinion are a small but significant minority and I feel that this has little to do with education and people of this mentality have been around since the beginning of the Irish State.

The poll I believe would be representative of the opinions held by the general public.

I bet you the people who want it dead are to first to get annoyed when we get mistaken for Brits.

Hamsterchops wrote: »

The Irish language has unfortunately been "weaponised" since the foundation of the State, firstly it was introduced into our schools as our "First language" in the 1930s for no other purpose than to make sure everybody know we were now IRISH and not to be confused with the British anymore....

With constant waves every few years of promoting Irish as our 1st language, not that it's done much good, because it's still no more widely spoken now than it was in the 1930s, and maybe Irish as the spoken word has even deminished?

Taking things right up to date in 2019 and the Irish language is now been used as a weapon/ bargaining chip in the restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly, "Either you give us our Irish language act" or we don't take part in the Assembly....
So says Michelle O'Neill/Mary Lou McDonald

Maybe after all these failed decades we should just let it find its natural place in society, which would probably confine it to the Gaeltacht areas of the country, ergo leaving the rest of us alone both North & South to speak & converse in our real first language, which is obviously English

Nice rant, but it is totally detached from reality. Go speak English all you like, you will find that in the real world no one is preventing you from doing so. Irish speakers face genuine state imposed restrictions when it comes to using their own lanugage. Penal laws from the 1730's against the use of Irish in the courts are still in force in NI today.

English has been used as a weapon of Anglicisation on this island for centuries. It is entirely natural and normal for a nation to use its own language. There are almost no examples of any people abandoning their language for someone elses by choice, it really only ever happens through violence and coercion. That is the case here, English was forced on Ireland.

Irish was not introduced in the thirties for no reason other than to remind people that we were no longer part of the UK. It was an expression of a newley free nation taking control of its own linguistic policy and acting to protect the language that had been the majority language of the island within living memory at that time, and which the previous colonial administration had done much to marginalise and force into decline.

Demanding legal status for the Irish language in any part of the island of Ireland is not weaponising the language, it is simply insisting on normal human rights enjoyed by people elsewhere on the island, elsewhere in the UK, in Europe and around the world. Only the most bigoted mindset would think it is acceptable to try to continue to discriminate against the Irish language in Ireland.