Do you think Irish should become an option after LC?

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

krudler wrote: »

Thats more Irish than I can speak.

Germans, is there anything they can't do?

This is what happens when you let people choose to learn it.

AlexderFranke

Please let us consider that many other subjects are mandatory at school, too even if you absolutely hate one or more of them. But it is not worth provoking pupils to strongly hate a subject and to overdo with the amount of lessons over the necessary one unless pupils choose to do it more intensively.
I think everybody agrees that until the period which ends in Ireland with the JC, the pupils ought to get a solid general education upon which they can well build more specialised education. Yes, knowledge in the regional language, in this case Irish, belongs absolutely to the general education in my eyes.
Furthermore at primary school children tend to readily receive what they are presented if it is not in an unpleasant way. If Irish is taught in an effective and practical way, one hour Irish three times a week at secondary school until JC is probably enough unless pupils choose to do it more intensively or to attend a Gaelscoil.
I speak out of my own school experience. I have absolutely seen the sense of the subjects we had. But I did not understand the amount of lessons for example for arts and sports. Furthermore some lessons were held in such an unpleasant way and with such waste of contents, in addition to some forbidding teachers. And I would have wished more possibilites to choose. Even duties can be framed in order not to provoke total resent! On the other hand there were teachers whose lessons were interessant.

Dar liomsa, is leis an oideachas coitianta go deo in Éirinn. Ach ní fiú foghlaim na Gaeilge a bheith ar na daltaí a thacaíonn an drogall de an-chuid daltaí!

Iwasfrozen

AlexderFranke wrote: »

Please let us consider that many other subjects are mandatory at school, too even if you absolutely hate one or more of them. But it is not worth provoking pupils to strongly hate a subject and to overdo with the amount of lessons over the necessary one unless pupils choose to do it more intensively.
I think everybody agrees that until the period which ends in Ireland with the JC, the pupils ought to get a solid general education upon which they can well build more specialised education. Yes, knowledge in the regional language, in this case Irish, belongs absolutely to the general education in my eyes.
Furthermore at primary school children tend to readily receive what they are presented if it is not in an unpleasant way. If Irish is taught in an effective and practical way, one hour Irish three times a week at secondary school until JC is probably enough unless pupils choose to do it more intensively or to attend a Gaelscoil.
I speak out of my own school experience. I have absolutely seen the sense of the subjects we had. But I did not understand the amount of lessons for example for arts and sports. Furthermore some lessons were held in such an unpleasant way and with such waste of contents, in addition to some forbidding teachers. And I would have wished more possibilites to choose. Even duties can be framed in order not to provoke total resent! On the other hand there were teachers whose lessons were interessant.

Dar liomsa, is leis an oideachas coitianta go deo in Éirinn. Ach ní fiú foghlaim na Gaeilge a bheith ar na daltaí a thacaíonn an drogall de an-chuid daltaí!

The problem with your arguement though is that Irish is not a regional language.

karlog

Irish is an option after the LC

AlexderFranke

Yes and no.
Of course, Irish is the national language of Ireland. But in reality, Irish can be seen as a kind of regional language as English is now mostly the interregional colloquial language of the British Isles.

sensibleken

thisisadamh wrote: »

I am finding it hard to motivate myself to learn it as I am living in Ireland and I never use, ever. And if I never use Irish in Ireland, then when will I use it?

Nuair a bhfuil tú ag caint in aice le sassnaigh

Iwasfrozen

AlexderFranke wrote: »

Yes and no.
Of course, Irish is the national language of Ireland. But in reality, Irish can be seen as a kind of regional language as English is now mostly the interregional colloquial language of the British Isles.

No, Irish is a national language of Ireland, along with English.

Naikon

Yes. It's practically dead and not worth knowing beyond the galeteacht.

Krusader

Up in the North they have a real passion and hunger for Irish,I wish we felt the same down here. it's a really beautiful and poetic tongue and to be perfectly honest, it isn't that hard to grasp at all when taught properly

I dTuisceart na hÉireann bíonn fíorphaisean agus dúil acu faoi choinne Gaeilge.Is mian liom go mbraith muid an céanna thíos anseo. Is í teanga fhíorálainn agus teanga fhileata agus chun na firinne a rá, níl sí ródheacair ar chor ar bith, má mhúintear í

Yag reuoY

Crosáidí wrote: »

Up in the North they have a real passion and hunger for Irish,I wish we felt the same down here. it's a really beautiful and poetic tongue and to be perfectly honest, it isn't that hard to grasp at all when taught properly

I dTuisceart na hÉireann bíonn fíorphaisean agus dúil acu faoi choinne Gaeilge.Is mian liom go mbraith muid an céanna thíos anseo. Is í teanga fhíorálainn agus teanga fhileata agus chun na firinne a rá, níl sí ródheacair ar chor ar bith, má mhúintear í

That doesn't make it any less pointless I'm afraid. :pac:

yamadeejit

This is ridiculous. In English we have to learn off poems, write essays, learn a drama, watch a film, etc. but you never complain about that! It's always about Irish. Bródúil as a bheith ar d'oidhreacht!

Krusader

yamadeejit wrote: »

This is ridiculous. In English we have to learn off poems, write essays, learn a drama, watch a film, etc. but you never complain about that! It's always about Irish. Bródúil as a bheith ar d'oidhreacht!

You see there is 3 sure things in life

1.Death
2.Taxes
3.Irish people will hate their own indigenious language and culture

Pace2008

Crosáidí wrote: »

You see there is 3 sure things in life

1.Death
2.Taxes
3.Irish people will hate their own indigenious language and culture

If you actually care about "Irish culture" as you see it, which in reality is organically developed by Irish people and not dictated by a minority of Gaelgoirs, don't bother coming out with insulting tripe like this as you're just polarising the sides and driving another nail into the coffin.

Greyfox

Crosáidí wrote: »

Up in the North they have a real passion and hunger for Irish,I wish we felt the same down here. it's a really beautiful and poetic tongue and to be perfectly honest, it isn't that hard to grasp at all when taught properly

The majority of us don't as were forced to learn it and feel we've already wasted too much time on it, the blame is definitely with how poorly Irish is taught to students overall. If it was optional we would produce less adults who hate the language and I think we should all want to reduce the amount of hatred that's out their for the language.

I no longer "hate" Irish as my LC was years ago but I still don't really watch TG4 and I'm not bothered about ever learing Irish words again yet out of curiosity I picked up latin book and I know a few latin words, the words were easy to remember because I had no ill feeling towards Latin.

Professional Griefer

It should be optional at secondary level.
Its forced on everywhere, and I think thats where most of the hate comes from.

If someone picked it they'd have a higher opinion of it, and give it more time.

Greyfox

yamadeejit wrote: »

This is ridiculous. In English we have to learn off poems, write essays, learn a drama, watch a film, etc. but you never complain about that! It's always about Irish. Bródúil as a bheith ar d'oidhreacht!

Yes because with English the poems, essays and films come after you've got a basic grasp of the English language. In Irish they had this dumb idea of teaching students how to analysing poems etc when the students don't even know how to have a basic conversation in Irish.

bleg

yamadeejit wrote: »

This is ridiculous. In English we have to learn off poems, write essays, learn a drama, watch a film, etc. but you never complain about that! It's always about Irish. Bródúil as a bheith ar d'oidhreacht!

The Irish literature we studied for the LC wouldn't have been published except for the fact that it was in Irish.

"Treall" has to be one of the worst poems in any language ever.


Even Ireland's greatest writers used and still use English as their language of choice.

Krusader

bleg wrote: »

Even Ireland's greatest writers used and still use English as their language of choice.

What made them great writers in English was there use of Irish idioms directly translating into English, alot of these idioms we still use today in our Hiberno-English dialect

Rebelheart

bleg wrote: »

Even Ireland's greatest writers used and still use English as their language of choice.

The logic, if that's the word, here is astounding. The reason they are our supposed "greatest writers" is solely because they wrote in English in the first place. The reason they wrote in English is largely because there was more money in writing in that language, more fame and more recognition. A simple old-fashioned power dynamic, my dear boy.

By no means do these features equate with English being a "better" language than Irish, whatever that implied adjective means in this case. This is basic cop-on.

Rebelheart

Greyfox wrote: »

The majority of us don't as were forced to learn it .... If it was optional we would produce less adults who hate the language.

Cut the unadulterated shíte for the love of sweet Jesus. Your beloved English language has been rammed down the throats of every single child in Ireland since 1831, when the Roman Catholic church in Ireland collaborated with the British colonial state to overthrow the Hedge Schools and produce brainwashed anglophile papist bastards who thought Daniel O Connell was a great Irishman.

This ramming the English language syllabus down the throats of each child continues in every single school in Ireland today, where chislers are forced - do you see that fúcking word? - to learn your supposedly not-forced English language syllabus. Even in the meánscoileanna. Bollocks to your benign notions about the march of the English language in modern Ireland.

It's time for all you people who are blaming Irish for your own failures to be honest about the force and compulsion upon which the English language syllabus has always rested in the schools of Ireland. None of you seem to have a problem with that force. No, that's just grand.

And don't even waste your breath telling me that William Shakespeare, one of the greatest plagiarists in the history of literature, has been essential to the education of Irish students. He - as with the rest of those pompous privileged foreign wasters - was forced down our throats. Pointless - utterly pointless - English shíte.

Keep it real.

SkepticOne

Crosáidí wrote: »

Up in the North they have a real passion and hunger for Irish,I wish we felt the same down here. it's a really beautiful and poetic tongue and to be perfectly honest, it isn't that hard to grasp at all when taught properly

Not forced to school leaving age. That's why. Not a requirement to get into certain universities etc. Fairly obvious.

Krusader

SkepticOne wrote: »

Not forced to school leaving age. That's why. Not a requirement to get into certain universities etc. Fairly obvious.

To be fair, its not the language's fault that it's a requirement, blame the educational system for that, but it's just easier to have a pop at Irish.
In fact you shouldn't really need any language but the one relevant to your college course to attend a college, same with your choice of subjects in the LC, they should be relevant to your choice of degree

Krusader

Pace2008 wrote: »

If you actually care about "Irish culture" as you see it, which in reality is organically developed by Irish people and not dictated by a minority of Gaelgoirs, don't bother coming out with insulting tripe like this as you're just polarising the sides and driving another nail into the coffin.

There's some truth in it though

phasers

It should be taught the same way as French. I despise Irish because I was forced to memorise some bullshit essays and poems from a million years ago.

I loved the oral because it was relevant stuff and I didn't have to talk about a word being fcuking éifeactach (or however it's spelled)

Pace2008

Crosáidí wrote: »

There's some truth in it though

Of course I'm going to resent it if you try to force your arbitrary idea of Irish culture on me. Doubly so if you regard me as somehow less "Irish" for rejecting it.

Krusader

Pace2008 wrote: »

Of course I'm going to resent it if you try to force your arbitrary idea of Irish culture on me. Doubly so if you regard me as somehow less "Irish" for rejecting it.

Don't be putting words in my mouth :mad:

bleg

Rebelheart wrote: »

The logic, if that's the word, here is astounding. The reason they are our supposed "greatest writers" is solely because they wrote in English in the first place. The reason they wrote in English is largely because there was more money in writing in that language, more fame and more recognition. A simple old-fashioned power dynamic, my dear boy.

By no means do these features equate with English being a "better" language than Irish, whatever that implied adjective means in this case. This is basic cop-on.

You've got me all wrong. People say there's so much vibrant literature available in the Irish language. I say bollocks to that. You can gain access to far better Irish literature in the English language. That was my point. Not that English is somehow a better language. Such a concept of "better" languages or having pride in a language is nonsense.

Iwasfrozen

Rebelheart wrote: »

Cut the unadulterated shíte for the love of sweet Jesus. Your beloved English language has been rammed down the throats of every single child in Ireland since 1831, when the Roman Catholic church in Ireland collaborated with the British colonial state to overthrow the Hedge Schools and produce brainwashed anglophile papist bastards who thought Daniel O Connell was a great Irishman.

This ramming the English language syllabus down the throats of each child continues in every single school in Ireland today, where chislers are forced - do you see that fúcking word? - to learn your supposedly not-forced English language syllabus. Even in the meánscoileanna. Bollocks to your benign notions about the march of the English language in modern Ireland.

It's time for all you people who are blaming Irish for your own failures to be honest about the force and compulsion upon which the English language syllabus has always rested in the schools of Ireland. None of you seem to have a problem with that force. No, that's just grand.

And don't even waste your breath telling me that William Shakespeare, one of the greatest plagiarists in the history of literature, has been essential to the education of Irish students. He - as with the rest of those pompous privileged foreign wasters - was forced down our throats. Pointless - utterly pointless - English shíte.

Keep it real.

lol, Someone has a huge chip on his shoulder.

Predator_

phasers wrote: »

It should be taught the same way as French. I despise Irish because I was forced to memorise some bullshit essays and poems from a million years ago.

I loved the oral because it was relevant stuff and I didn't have to talk about a word being fcuking éifeactach (or however it's spelled)

No, English should be taught the same way as French. After all its as foreign as French. Irish should be the default language.

AlexderFranke

As to German lessons, I again still remember well my school days. We were also turned off from literature by absolutely boring contents and teaching methods. The almost only content consisted of writing essays about literature and reading pages of literal works in relatively short time. I remember one teacher where lessons were so boring that you could fall asleep. My father one time was present to look at the lessons. And he told me that he himself had to fight not to fall asleep.
Of course pupils ought to know about the classical authors, too. But I doubt if it is use forcing teenagers to read classical works in a few weeks of very difficult content to grasp, especially for young tennagers. It is use integrating more literature which probably will interest teenagers. In higher education if you choose to study literature, this is another matter.
On the other hand, I remember the Latin, English and French lessons to have had more interesting contents. These lessons contained some interesting matters of life in Old Rome, Britain/USA/Australia and France/Québec. Furthermore the teachers were not giving the lessons in a way not that boring.
If Irish lessons are given in that way, oh muis! Certainly one could mix up a syllabus with contents which will contain contents which meets with the interests of each pupil and which has some relevance to the life in Ireland.

Má tá na ceachtanna Gaeilge tugtha mar a bhí mo cheachtanna Gearmáinise tugtha ar feadm mo shaoil scoile, oh muis! Go cinnte, is féidir inneachair a chur san áireamh sna ceachtanna Gaeilge a bhfuil cuid bainte acu leis an saol in Éirinn agus a spreagann suim i measc na ndaltaí.

An Ghaeilge go brách!

Iwasfrozen

Predator_ wrote: »

No, English should be taught the same way as French. After all its as foreign as French. Irish should be the default language.

Seeing as many parts of the country have been speaking English for at least four hundred years, with some areas, (the Pale) speaking it for more on eight hundred. I really don't think you can call English as foreign as French.

c_man

Predator_ wrote: »

No, English should be taught the same way as French. After all its as foreign as French.

Where are you getting that from? Going by the recent 1901 and 1911 census', English has been the main language in my family going back at least four generations.

For the overwhelming majority of people on this Island, it is their native tongue.

Foreign? In the same way as spuds are :pac:

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Rebelheart wrote: »

Cut the unadulterated shíte for the love of sweet Jesus. Your beloved English language has been rammed down the throats of every single child in Ireland since 1831, when the Roman Catholic church in Ireland collaborated with the British colonial state to overthrow the Hedge Schools and produce brainwashed anglophile papist bastards who thought Daniel O Connell was a great Irishman.

This ramming the English language syllabus down the throats of each child continues in every single school in Ireland today, where chislers are forced - do you see that fúcking word? - to learn your supposedly not-forced English language syllabus. Even in the meánscoileanna. Bollocks to your benign notions about the march of the English language in modern Ireland.

It's time for all you people who are blaming Irish for your own failures to be honest about the force and compulsion upon which the English language syllabus has always rested in the schools of Ireland. None of you seem to have a problem with that force. No, that's just grand.

And don't even waste your breath telling me that William Shakespeare, one of the greatest plagiarists in the history of literature, has been essential to the education of Irish students. He - as with the rest of those pompous privileged foreign wasters - was forced down our throats. Pointless - utterly pointless - English shíte.

Keep it real.

Apart from the anti-Brit sentimism, I agree with you. No subject should be mandatory after the Junior Cert. If you can't do basic maths and aren't able to communicate to the level you will need in later life by the time you are 15, something is very wrong.

I have as much hate for Wuthering ****ing Heights as I do for any crap "taught" on the Irish syallabus.

Some of Shakespeare's works (or whoever wrote them - plagarism or lack there of not being the point here) are genuine masterpieces in terms of plot and language though. Although I only appreciate them now because I took the time and had the interest to learn them on my own.

My point being: if you want people interested in something, make it interesting and let them CHOOSE to learn it. If you feel you have to FORCE it, then you have to take a step back and ask yourself why.
One last question (which I fear will go unasnwered) but exactly what failures are being blamed on the Irish languages?

Greyfox

Rebelheart wrote: »

Cut the unadulterated shíte for the love of sweet Jesus. Your beloved English language has been rammed down the throats of every single child in Ireland since 1831......Keep it real.

I'd like to know what unadulterated shíte your talking about as you seem to be living in a different world to everyone else. Ireland is a far better country now that our first language in spoken in more countries in the world then any other language, the fact that English is our first language is one of the few advantages we have when in comes to trying to get people to set-up companies in Ireland and trade with Ireland. I take it you still haven't come to terms with the fact that the lovely English language is our first language, if so I think it's time you put down the history book and joined the real world

Back in 1831 the English were wrong to force their language on us but it happened so long ago that anybody who has a social life has now accepted it happened too long ago for it to matter any more. But whatevers happened in the past does not give anybody the right to force a language on a majority of people when only a minority actually want to learn it. We now live in a civiliced time were we all should look down on anybody who chooses to force something on somebody rather then using persuasion

P.S yeah it's true that all of Shakespeares work is sh*te

Yag reuoY

Rebelheart wrote: »

Cut the unadulterated shíte for the love of sweet Jesus. Your beloved English language has been rammed down the throats of every single child in Ireland since 1831, when the Roman Catholic church in Ireland collaborated with the British colonial state to overthrow the Hedge Schools and produce brainwashed anglophile papist bastards who thought Daniel O Connell was a great Irishman.

This ramming the English language syllabus down the throats of each child continues in every single school in Ireland today, where chislers are forced - do you see that fúcking word? - to learn your supposedly not-forced English language syllabus. Even in the meánscoileanna. Bollocks to your benign notions about the march of the English language in modern Ireland.

It's time for all you people who are blaming Irish for your own failures to be honest about the force and compulsion upon which the English language syllabus has always rested in the schools of Ireland. None of you seem to have a problem with that force. No, that's just grand.

And don't even waste your breath telling me that William Shakespeare, one of the greatest plagiarists in the history of literature, has been essential to the education of Irish students. He - as with the rest of those pompous privileged foreign wasters - was forced down our throats. Pointless - utterly pointless - English shíte.

Keep it real.

Back to mating with your sister and chomping on potatoes, Paddy! :pac:

krudler

Rebelheart wrote: »

Cut the unadulterated shíte for the love of sweet Jesus. Your beloved English language has been rammed down the throats of every single child in Ireland since 1831, when the Roman Catholic church in Ireland collaborated with the British colonial state to overthrow the Hedge Schools and produce brainwashed anglophile papist bastards who thought Daniel O Connell was a great Irishman.

This ramming the English language syllabus down the throats of each child continues in every single school in Ireland today, where chislers are forced - do you see that fúcking word? - to learn your supposedly not-forced English language syllabus. Even in the meánscoileanna. Bollocks to your benign notions about the march of the English language in modern Ireland.

It's time for all you people who are blaming Irish for your own failures to be honest about the force and compulsion upon which the English language syllabus has always rested in the schools of Ireland. None of you seem to have a problem with that force. No, that's just grand.

And don't even waste your breath telling me that William Shakespeare, one of the greatest plagiarists in the history of literature, has been essential to the education of Irish students. He - as with the rest of those pompous privileged foreign wasters - was forced down our throats. Pointless - utterly pointless - English shíte.

Keep it real.

Rewrite this post in Irish, impress us all.

krudler

Predator_ wrote: »

No, English should be taught the same way as French. After all its as foreign as French. Irish should be the default language.

Yes, we should teach the language that the majority of the country speak from childhood as a "foreign" language.

ya-ba-da-ba-doo

I finished the leaving in 2009 and I can honestly say that after 13 years of being thought the language I wouldn't be able to hold up a simple conversation in Irish right now - one and a half years since I sat an exam in it.

Albeit I did it at a pass level for the leaving but still, kinda shocking I can speak better french than Irish, after only 5 years of learning it (and I'm certainly not good at french!).

krudler

ya-ba-da-ba-doo wrote: »

I finished the leaving in 2009 and I can honestly say that after 13 years of being thought the language I wouldn't be able to hold up a simple conversation in Irish right now - one and a half years since I sat an exam in it.

Albeit I did it at a pass level for the leaving but still, kinda shocking I can speak better french than Irish, after only 5 years of learning it (and I'm certainly not good at french!).

and thats the biggest sign of how badly its taught, reciting poems doesnt teach you how to speak a language, you're just learning specific phrases with no idea how to apply them to actual conversation or convert them into correct sentences. I literally cant speak a sentence in Irish, I finished my leaving cert in 1999 and barely scraped a pass in foundation, our Irish teachers were of the "stare at this poem and that should get you through" mentality.

Krusader

krudler wrote: »

and thats the biggest sign of how badly its taught, reciting poems doesnt teach you how to speak a language, you're just learning specific phrases with no idea how to apply them to actual conversation or convert them into correct sentences. I literally cant speak a sentence in Irish, I finished my leaving cert in 1999 and barely scraped a pass in foundation, our Irish teachers were of the "stare at this poem and that should get you through" mentality.

I agree with what you say, but teachers are tied to the curriculum and have to try and get kids to pass the LC, i would say a fair few of them would rather teach it in conventional way through conversation and so on

Joe_Dull

google faps wrote: »

Listen to me, you goddam west brits, Irish is our national language and you'll learn it - whether you like it or not. Syre it may not be easy to speak it with your fake Hills accents, but you will try.

Quoted for truth! I'm not even bothered reading the last 5 million pages of this thread, the case has clearly been made.

AlexderFranke

But sometimes I have met Irish persons from ordinary school being able to converse in Irish, even some of those who evidently were not language-enthusiastics.
So are there that great differencies between how teachers in reality teach Irish? Evidently there are some teachers who do teach pupils do hold conversations in everyday life.
Those persons I met with perfect Irish not having been on a Gaelscoil or Gaeltacht school were a bit enthusiastic about Irish.

Uaireanta bhuail mé le hÉireannaí ó scoileanna coitianta a bhí in ann caint sa saol laethúil a bheith acu, fiú amháin idir siúd gan suim speisialta sa Ghaeilge. An bhfuil difríochtaí chomh mór sin ann idir theagasc na Gaeilge? Go léir, is go maith caint an tsaoil laethúil a thugann cuid múinteoirí dona ndaltaí.
Go n-éirí an Ghaeilge libh.
Alex

wil

ScumLord wrote: »

Students shouldnt be wasting there time learning subjects for collage when they could be focusing on the subjects that they'll need for work.

Nothing wrong with learning a bit of cut and paste.
You'd be amazed how useful it is for work.

Though I like your idea of "here" and "there" time.
We don't make enough time to be in places.

Maith an tiarna.

randylonghorn

jackiebaron wrote: »

It was compulsory to get into TCD and because Irish was one of the 5 subjects that the points were calculated from

Irish has *never* been compulsory for TCD ...

Rebelheart wrote: »

Keep it real.

Take your own advice.

Start by realising it's not 1831, and that the world has changed since then.




Personally, I would hate to see the Irish language die (and I hated it as much as anyone in school).

But, if there's any hope for it to survive:

(a) it has to be made attractive / enjoyable for people to learn

(b) that means improvements in how it's taught

(c) in my view, it should not be compulsory after Junior Cert, and the curriculum should be greatly re-engineered up to then with an emphasis on oral and written Irish language rather than literature

(d) Irish should be optional for LC, with much more emphasis on the language itself

(e) the people who spend their time forcing the Irish language as a patriotic duty / political statement down kids' throats should cop on and realise how much damage they do to their own cause

Scuid Mhór

Rebelheart wrote: »

And don't even waste your breath telling me that William Shakespeare, one of the greatest plagiarists in the history of literature, has been essential to the education of Irish students.

this reminded me a lot of my friend when he watched loose change and decided he was THE AUTHORITY on what REALLY HAPPENED on 9/11.

FoxT

The Irish Language is all but dead. We should accept that & move on.
Many languages have already died, along with their associated cultures. Over the coming decades, many other languages will die also. (French, for example) Irish is not special.

Already, too many resources are spent on the language, and much of this spending is wasteful & cynical.

- Every Irish citizen who is facing a court case can demand that it be heard in Irish.
- Lots of Planning permission applications are made in Irish (totally cynical & should be made illegal)
- Who listens to Radio na Gaeltactha these days?

- there is a crisis in math/science education in this country
- Arts education is also poor.
- For economic reasons Indian & Chinese languages need to become part pf the broader curriculum.

Irish should be dropped in secondary schools entirely and the resources saved should be used for improved education in math/science/arts/living languages.

Wont happen though :mad:

- FoxT