Losing Ireland?

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Ikky Poo2 wrote:

On another note: Is the OP coming back?

Eire4Ever wrote:

I'm proud to be Irish but i think the government needs to limit the amount of foreign people entering this country since nowadays they seems to be more different nationalities here than Irish. Where i live at present Polish is the most frequent used language and alot of foreigners are responsible for some of the crimes in Ireland

Seek and ye shall find.... Welcome back, what's with the new name?

Dyr

PoleStar wrote:

Aside from being completely untrue, the influx of foreign nationals will not change our Irish identity. Look at the numbers of non-nationals in the UK, and they're still quite "British" over there!

Really? Ask an indigenous brit from bradford how "british" they think their area is now :eek:

PoleStar

Bambi wrote:

Really? Ask an indigenous brit from bradford how "british" they think their area is now :eek:

Thank you Bambi, you have just illustrated that my original post was not clear enough as you still don't seem to understand.

Being "British" isn't about an area you live in it's a bout the person. And please dont reply now saying well what about all the people from Pakistan etc living in Bradford, do they feel British? Probably not because they probably still associate themselves with their home towns, again illustrating my point!

And I know well what Bradford is like, one of my best friends, who actually was from Kuwait lives there!

Ask one of the "natives" in Bradford, and please don't be smart and start asking about British born "non-nationals", if they feel British and the answer will be yes.

walrusgumble

Lou.m wrote:

A bi-lingual society at last! I think it is a wonderful idea. I would love to learn it properly but i guess everyone says that. I always thought though that the whole obligitary Irish idea had a nasty nationalist streak to it i think it was one of the reasons many young people did not learn it. It reaked of, tiocfaidh ar la, (I am probably not even spelling that correctly:o ) i feel it will develop a whole other attitude to Irish , the young will not view it as something stiffling. It may be the best thing for the Irish language yet!It would be wonderful if we could all be bi-lingual. Well at least those of us who might like to be, one of the problems i found with Irish that there was no one to speak to and no where. I know the is the gaeltacht but peole would hardly drive there just for a conversation. And cuman na gael was a bit well...conservative shall we say.

so long as na cailini from tg4 are involved that will great, oh and sharon ni bheoilain (prob mis spelt, the own on rte2 late at night)

walrusgumble

Dontico wrote:

i would agree we are starting to loose our irishness but i would bring more depressing matters.

our curancy doesnt matter. how long did we have it for? initially committing ourself to the eu started are economic boom. who brought us in?
sticking with to make a super euro federate state will benifit us more. i myself would be pushing for a unite european denfense force.

multiculturism is good for us. the bigger the population, the more companies want to come in for employment. also who are the main people coming in? the chinese. hard workers that dont come from a bland culture, very easy to blend in. there even chinese people picking up gaa. the polish also have a very simular culture and history to irelnad, more like ours than our surronding nations, excluding scotland.

as for irish. the best way to reform the language is making it more of atalking subject other than writting.

if i was going to complain about loosing our irishness i would bring up the subject of our country bending down to the americans allowing them transport prisoners to be illegally tortures, most of which are europeans. its been going on for about 15 years.

also the increasing popularity of socialism, jepordising our consitution and our nationalism if they get in. which would probably take ages. labour doesnt count as one.

here here on what you said, most important thing, ireland will have a decent soccer team in a few years time, maybe the gaa will beat the aussies, and the women will be even better looking (not saying irish are not good looking, there lovely, but more variety lol) i doubt we will ever completely loose our irishness, instead we should share it with other cultures and embrace other cultures with our own, we havent really done too badly looking to europe, now time to give back what they gave us, maybe also a time to prevent us from sitting on our laurels thinking "jesus we irish are great". this shall only improve our relationships with other countries,

fly_agaric

Ikky Poo2 wrote:

You really think the attachment of labels to an individual before birth helps define an individual's charactaristics...? You're black so you act black. You're catholic so you act catholic? Goes against freedom a bit.

No.

Just thought saying that "culture" is an illusion [one we'd all be much better off seeing through?] seemed a bit daft.
Maybe it is very difficult or impossible to pin down culture - "Irishness" or whatever -ness you are having yourself - in a definition or even in a paragraph of text but that doesn't mean it is an illusion.

fly_agaric

CherieAmour wrote:

I agree that you can spot an Irish person a mile off on holidays and that we are a warm, jovial, friendly race.

ssshhh...on the surface anyways...while the drink is flowing.;)

Underneath we are a lying, nasty, spiteful, grasping, corrupt race of little gombeen conmen with lumps of ice for hearts who never saw the value in anything that couldn't be milked for a few bob.

A belated Merry Christmas!:)

philologos

People seem to think that Irish is declining language, in fact the situation is quite the contrary. Gaelscoils are being set up right across the country with there being a huge base in Clondakin and Lucan. More people are starting to speak Irish by the day in their daily lives along with English. There is not one county in Ireland today without a Gaelscoil.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Jakkass wrote:

People seem to think that Irish is declining language, in fact the situation is quite the contrary. Gaelscoils are being set up right across the country with there being a huge base in Clondakin and Lucan. More people are starting to speak Irish by the day in their daily lives along with English. There is not one county in Ireland today without a Gaelscoil.

I'm of the opinion that gaelscoils are aimed at people who already speak Irish, or come from families that do. I know three gaelscoil students and that's the case in all three situations. Plus, they claim never to speak Irish outside of school, not even to each other. Not exactly a scientific representaion, I know, but a point nonetheless.

It also remains to be asked: how are you going to bring Irish to the great unwashed masses who don't have an interest in or can't get to a gaelscoil?

CherieAmour

fly_agaric wrote:

ssshhh...on the surface anyways...while the drink is flowing.;)

Underneath we are a lying, nasty, spiteful, grasping, corrupt race of little gombeen conmen with lumps of ice for hearts who never saw the value in anything that couldn't be milked for a few bob.

A belated Merry Christmas!:)

That's why the rest of my post read...

This being so, I feel that there is a selfishness and self-serving attitude in Irish people these days that did not exist in the past - people that will kill you to get on the bus, beat you up at 3am outside a club and charge you 6 quid a pint after midnight.....If you define Irishness as our general attitude, then we have lost some of this too.

oRlyYaRly

CherieAmour wrote:

for example, when someone who thinks you're english realises you are Irish and you see the complete change in their demeanour towards you.

Racism FTW!

philologos

Ikky Poo2 wrote:

It also remains to be asked: how are you going to bring Irish to the great unwashed masses who don't have an interest in or can't get to a gaelscoil?

Build more

Ikky Poo2 wrote:

I'm of the opinion that gaelscoils are aimed at people who already speak Irish, or come from families that do. I know three gaelscoil students and that's the case in all three situations. Plus, they claim never to speak Irish outside of school, not even to each other. Not exactly a scientific representaion, I know, but a point nonetheless.

Gaelscoil's at primary level usually take people who are completely new to Irish.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Jakkass wrote:

Build more

Gaelscoil's at primary level usually take people who are completely new to Irish.

I know, that wasn't my point: my point was how many actually go there form non-Irish speaking families?

Irish is taught in ALL primary schools. Wouldn't a simpler plan be to just make it more enjoyable so kids can learn it no matter where they go to school...?

philologos

that would also be another alternative indeed. I was merely pointing out that the language is increasing and not declining as it was made out to be initially.

GreenHell

Its a bit of a shame that work done in the gaelscoils is not carried on in 2nd level and applied to all subjects apart from english and other languages of course.

philologos

GreenHell wrote:

Its a bit of a shame that work done in the gaelscoils is not carried on in 2nd level and applied to all subjects apart from english and other languages of course.

It is though.. I've heard of people learning Geography etc through Irish for the Leaving Cert in Gaelscoils (2nd level). I think from what I heard from someone who used to go to one was that German and French and all were even taught through Irish.

walrusgumble

no one seems to have noted that if a foreigner comes to ireland, and sends their child to a primary school, most of those children have to take part in irish classes as part of their course, i think if child is u 6 or so.
if a foreign person wishes to study in blackhall to become a solicitor, i think he has to pass the irish exams.

one thing i find strange is how some irish people get really worked up when their fellow co worker who is foreigner decides to speak to their friend in their native language, jesus is the irish person really that paranoid that the other two are talking about them, if thats the case i wonder why pupils dont freak out when teachers come into each other's classes and speaks irish to them so the others pupils wont hear them (that was the norm in my primary school)