Is Irish actually spoken in the Gealtachts?

deise go deo

An gal gréine wrote: »

On a recent short visit to An Rinn in Co. Waterford, I found Irish speakers sure enough but they have been surrounded by blow-ins who make no effort. In Ráth Cairn they have tight control of who moves in to their area.

I don't think that's entirely fair, sure there are plenty of blow in's who make no effort, but there are those who do, the Local development officer is a blow-in from Dublin.

An gal gréine

deise go deo wrote: »

I don't think that's entirely fair, sure there are plenty of blow in's who make no effort, but there are those who do, the Local development officer is a blow-in from Dublin.

I did add to above at post 141 but you are right, I was'nt clear enough as regards those who have made a significant difference. Did'nt mean any disrespect to them.

deise go deo

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

Yes, as I said Irish was dangling in around 50% (lower if you count just irish speakers, higher if you count bi-linguals) before the famine. The point is in was in decline before the famine.

Ó Cúiv and fitzgerald and a lot of other people agree on this.

40% only spoke Irish before the famine (ie, the most irish speakers ever) so 30% outside of the east had started to move to english and the percentage of young adults, teens and children was much lower too.



I have not read it all either.

Its impossible to know with any kind of accuracy how many people spoke Irish before the famine as there are no reliable figures.

We can guess all day, but it makes no difference to where the language is now.

HugoBradyBrown

deirdremf wrote: »

Probably (if true) because all languages are incredibly flexible etc.
One small question, though: where did it get "its immense lexical range" (to the extent that such exists)?
Mostly, I think from Latin, Greek and French - or in other words, it was lacking and rather than being able to develop it from its own resources, it went begging and robbing, with the result that in English we have hydrogen and oxygen, but in German they used their own resources and came up with wasserstoff and sauerstoff.
Now I'm not saying one is better than the other, but as you mentioned its lexical range, and supple syntax ...

For various historical and purely linguistic reasons (related primarily to the openness of its grammatical structures to lexical borrowing), English is replete with a linguistic corpus derived from many sources, giving it throughout its vocabulary a nuanced spectrum of full, partial and quasi-synonyms, and of a blending of shades of meaning across this entire semantic spectrum, which is clearly not found in any other extant language. It accounts for the sheer length of our dictionaries, but it also powers the language to the forefront of international use, since it allows for both the rudimentary and crude communication that is also possible in simpler languages, but also for the cartesian clarity made possible by its use across its full lexical range, by, for example, masterful writers and diplomats.

Syntactically it permits the highest level of precision, otherwise achievable, I understand, only in mathematical statements; this is not to say, however, that some speakers are not capable of egregiously defective use of the language, both intentionally or inadvertently.

deise go deo

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

I was not referring to the Irish there, but to people speaking supposedly living languages worldwide.

As an instrument for communicating thoughts with the finest degrees of nuance and discrimination, English has never been surpassed, because of its immense lexical range and the suppleness of its syntax. Small wonder that it is the lingua franca of all of humanity, as we strive to engage with each other across cultural and political boundaries. Such linguistic transparency is an objective support for human understanding, for the reduction in international tensions, and for the creation of a happier and economically more productive humanity.

It is the compartmentalization of humanity into exclusive and hermetically sealed linguistic cells that propels us to conflict, that reduces our economic activity and that puts us into the often self-seeking hands of translators and interpreters.

Floreat lingua Anglica!

Nonsence, it is not even close to being the lingua franca of the majority of humanity.

For native speakers, its not even in the top two.

Fuinseog

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

Sadly, my dear Enkidu, I think it at least plays into ill-informed perceptions of crafty, deceitful peasants, unwilling to articulate what they mean in the clear light of day. This may be wrong, and Connemara is clearly not Surrey, but we could do with a touch of clarity, even in a society with no tradition of elocution training or rhetoric.

I think the people of Conamara are more influenced by the Gaelic tradition while people in the East tend to be more Saxonised.

HugoBradyBrown

deise go deo wrote: »

Nonsence, it is not even close to being the lingua franca of the majority of humanity.

For native speakers, its not even in the top two.

Taking lingua franca in its conventional sense, English is the lingua franca of the world. I cannot help further with explication, since we seem to have reached first principles here and I do not intend rummaging in a dictionary, the last redoubt of a pedant.

Fuinseog

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

For various historical and purely linguistic reasons (related primarily to the openness of its grammatical structures to lexical borrowing), English is replete with a linguistic corpus derived from many sources, giving it throughout its vocabulary a nuanced spectrum of full, partial and quasi-synonyms, and of a blending of shades of meaning across this entire semantic spectrum, which is clearly not found in any other extant language. It accounts for the sheer length of our dictionaries, but it also powers the language to the forefront of international use, since it allows for both the rudimentary and crude communication that is also possible in simpler languages, but also for the cartesian clarity made possible by its use across its full lexical range, by, for example, masterful writers and diplomats.

Syntactically it permits the highest level of precision, otherwise achievable, I understand, only in mathematical statements; this is not to say, however, that some speakers are not capable of egregiously defective use of the language, both intentionally or inadvertently.

what a load of rollocks. every language has foreign influences. English is a major language not because of the English, but because of the control the Americans have over the world.
on the subject of languages the Irish appear to be the worst in Europe in terms of acquiring a second language.

HugoBradyBrown

Fuinseog wrote: »

I think the people of Conamara are more influenced by the Gaelic tradition while people in the East tend to be more Saxonised.

Yes, I agree with the previous poster, there is a sense in which the further east one goes in Ireland, the more clearly people seem to express themselves (both in English and in Gaelic, as it happens). This may be a matter if dialect or "accent", or it may be the influence of good television and radio, but there you are, it cannot be gainsaid. The closer to Montrose, the better the enunciation, perhaps.

byhookorbycrook

The Scientician wrote: »

I think it'll be interesting to see the result of the current Gaelscoil movement in the next generation. Will kids who went to a gaelscoil send their kids to a gaelscoil?

Yes, we have a lot of children of past pupils. We also have children of parents who always wanted to use their school Irish and are making an effort to learn with/speak to their child in Irish when they can.

deise go deo

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

Taking lingua franca in its conventional sense, English is the lingua franca of the world. I cannot help further with explication, since we seem to have reached first principles here and I do not intend rummaging in a dictionary, the last redoubt of a pedant.

You made the claim that English is the lingua franca of all humanity, that is not true nor is it even close to being true, it is the lingua franca of a fraction of humanity.

There are some people who hold that the English language is the only useful language and that all others are unnecessary and of less value, that idea is a dangerous nonsense and should be challenged whenever it is espoused.

HugoBradyBrown

deise go deo wrote: »

You made the claim that English is the lingua franca of all humanity, that is not true nor is it even close to being true, it is the lingua franca of a fraction of humanity.

There are some people who hold that the English language is the only useful language and that all others are unnecessary and of less value, that idea is a dangerous nonsense and should be challenged whenever it is espoused.

OK, I relent, on this one occasion. The international lingua franca of all humanity is English. All truth is on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua_franca

Mike 1972

An gal gréine wrote: »

In Ráth Cairn they have tight control of who moves in to their area.

Pitchforks and Torches ?

conor.hogan.2

Is there even a single mono-lingual irish speaker left? When was the last mono-lingual irish speaker?

deise go deo wrote: »

Its impossible to know with any kind of accuracy how many people spoke Irish before the famine as there are no reliable figures.

We can guess all day, but it makes no difference to where the language is now.

I would hardly call what Garret did "guessing" now. But yes it has little to do with now, kind of.

HugoBradyBrown

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

Is there even a single mono-lingual irish left? When was the last mono-lingual irish speaker?

I believe a few were extant until the 1930's.

General Michael Collins

Some older Irish speakers refuse to speak English ... whether they speak it or not, that's effictively monolingual.

deise go deo

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

I would hardly call what Garret did "guessing" now. But yes it has little to do with now, kind of.

As far as I am aware he studied the 1911 census results for people who were born before the Famine who spoke Irish.

That study would naturally miss all those who had died between the Famine and 1911 and all the people who had left the country.

HugoBradyBrown

General Michael Collins wrote: »

Some older Irish speakers refuse to speak English ... whether they speak it or not, that's effictively monolingual.

Perhaps they just don't have much to say that's of any interest?

deise go deo

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

OK, I relent, on this one occasion. The international lingua franca of all humanity is English. All truth is on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua_franca

I am fully aware of what the term Lingua Franca means.

Which means that I know for instance that a language you do not speak can not be a lingua franca for you.

Given that at most only about 1.5 Billion people speak English either as a native or subsequent learned language, then English cannot be the lingua franca of all of humanity, But rather it is the lingua franca of a fraction of humanity, 1.5/7 to be precise.

General Michael Collins

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

Perhaps they just don't have much to say that's of any interest?

This is some persistent Trolling, a chara, I must admit I thought you were serious at first. Do you speak Irish?

HugoBradyBrown

deise go deo wrote: »

I am fully aware of what the term Lingua Franca means.

Which means that I know for instance that a language you do not speak can not be a lingua franca for you.

Given that at most only about 1.5 Billion people speak English either as a native or subsequent learned language, then English cannot be the lingua franca of all of humanity, But rather it is the lingua franca of a fraction of humanity, 1.5/7 to be precise.

I would suggest turning the mind back to the Middle Ages, and consider the case of Latin; or in the Baltic, and consider the case of the Hanse; or the 18th century, and consider the place of French. In each case there was a lingua franca; not everyone spoke it; some people had other languages in common, though these were not the regional lingua franca; the lingua franca, allowing someone in Portugal to speak to a cleric in Poland was Latin; later, French functioned between North America and the court of Catherine the Great and in all places between. Now, if two people from widely separated parts of the world or from widely different countries need to communicate without the need for interpretation, they must use the universal lingua franca, English, unless, by unusual chance, they speak some other third language in common.

English it is.

conor.hogan.2

So you never heard of Chinese or Spanish then?

parrai

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

I would suggest turning the mind back to the Middle Ages, and consider the case of Latin; or in the Baltic, and consider the case of the Hanse; or the 18th century, and consider the place of French. In each case there was a lingua franca; not everyone spoke it; some people had other languages in common, though these were not the regional lingua franca; the lingua franca, allowing someone in Portugal to speak to a cleric in Poland was Latin; later, French functioned between North America and the court of Catherine the Great and in all places between. Now, if two people from widely separated parts of the world or from widely different countries need to communicate without the need for interpretation, they must use the universal lingua franca, English, unless, by unusual chance, they speak some other third language in common.

English it is.

We are talking about the present Hugo, the present... Not harking back to times of yore....

parrai

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

I would suggest turning the mind back to the Middle Ages, and consider the case of Latin; or in the Baltic, and consider the case of the Hanse; or the 18th century, and consider the place of French. In each case there was a lingua franca; not everyone spoke it; some people had other languages in common, though these were not the regional lingua franca; the lingua franca, allowing someone in Portugal to speak to a cleric in Poland was Latin; later, French functioned between North America and the court of Catherine the Great and in all places between. Now, if two people from widely separated parts of the world or from widely different countries need to communicate without the need for interpretation,

Ironically, this is exactly how business is done, through the medium of an interpreter. All the rest is irrelevant to the post.

HugoBradyBrown

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

So you never heard of Chinese or Spanish then?

Yes, as it happens, I have heard of Chinese and Spanish, and I have some competence in one of them. However, neither one is a universal lingua franca. Both have large numbers of speakers, and are widely spoken in many countries. The position of English is that it is the lingua franca even in countries where it is not generally spoken as a daily language by more than a small minority. A flight crew from Shanghai to Mexico City will conduct their ATC business in English.

HugoBradyBrown

parrai wrote: »

We are talking about the present Hugo, the present... Not harking back to times of yore....

This is beginning, sadly, to resemble a pass degree class coming towards their supplemental examinations.

I used examples to demonstrate that before English became the universal lingua franca, other languages served as lingua franca. Even today, the role of regional lingua franca is filled by Swahili, by Chinese, by French, by Russian, and so forth. None, however, is a universal lingua franca.

parrai

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

This is beginning, sadly, to resemble a pass degree class coming towards their supplemental examinations.

I used examples to demonstrate that before English became the universal lingua franca, other languages served as lingua franca. Even today, the role of regional lingua franca is filled by Swahili, by Chinese, by French, by Russian, and so forth. None, however, is a universal lingua franca.

This, of course, relates to Gaeilge as a spoken language in the Gaeltachts?

An gal gréine

French is the universal lingua franca in the communications industry.

HugoBradyBrown

parrai wrote: »

This, of course, relates to Gaeilge as a spoken language in the Gaeltachts?

This relates to a wrongheaded post; in-context enlightenment has been offered, and is, I imagine, welcomed by all reasonable people who wish to improve themselves, even if English is only their second language.

deise go deo wrote: »

Nonsence, it is not even close to being the lingua franca of the majority of humanity.

For native speakers, its not even in the top two.

parrai

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

This relates to a wrongheaded post; in-context enlightenment has been offered, and is, I imagine, welcomed by all reasonable people who wish to improve themselves, even if English is only their second language.

This topic looks quite clear to me... maybe you just wandered off topic a tad..No harm done...

Rhedyn

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

A flight crew from Shanghai to Mexico City will conduct their ATC business in English.

They don't do it by choice. It is international aviation law.

HugoBradyBrown

Rhedyn wrote: »

They don't do it by choice. It is international aviation law.

It was an example. But it is matters like these that help a lingua franca to arise. I am not saying that it occurred organically. It is related to the history of the Empire, and then of American world dominance. Mine is not a value judgement; neither is it wishful thinking; it is a statement of the factual position.

conor.hogan.2

So when will boards have a thumb down button?

deirdremf

HugoBradyBrown wrote: »

It was an example. But it is matters like these that help a lingua franca to arise. I am not saying that it occurred organically. It is related to the history of the Empire, and then of American world dominance. Mine is not a value judgement; neither is it wishful thinking; it is a statement of the factual position.

Which empire?
Last time I checked, there had been several of them!

HugoBradyBrown

deirdremf wrote: »

Which empire?
Last time I checked, there had been several of them!

Think hard and in context and the meaning of the reference will probably become clear. As Housman said, (I think it was Housman), "five minutes thinking will reveal the truth, but thought is irksome and five minutes is a long time." I am, however, surprised at such reluctance to make an intellectual leap unbidden.

DeBrugha

Yeah, but you're more likely to met speakers of high quality Irish in the traditional Gaeltachtaí right?

Yes

The pronunciation is the biggest give away, just listen to a middle aged person from the Aran islands talking for example

Beautiful Irish

deirdremf

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

I would hardly call what Garret did "guessing" now. But yes it has little to do with now, kind of.

No, it wasn't guessing, but it was far from perfect.
In 1841, there was a huge population of extremely poor people, and this population was the one that was destroyed by the famine, whether by death through starvation and disease, or through emigration. It was also the most heavily Irish speaking section of the population.
For obvious reasons, they were not involved in the census of 1911.

Neither did the census count those who had spoken Irish in their childhood/youth and had given up speaking it. Many of these people would have been put onto the census form by their sons or daughters who might not even have been aware that they spoke Irish when they were young.
It is not very long ago that I met a man who told me that his grandmother was brought up speaking Irish, but denied knowing it at all. An acquaintance bought a farm in the West of Ireland from another person of that sort. The country would have been replete with older people of that sort in 1911.

jamesnp

Irish is most definitely spoken in the Gaeltachtaí.

However, the lines of official Gaeltachtaí are out of date and it's often you hear someone from the fringe areas dismissing the rest of the Gaeltacht because their area is no longer class A.

-jp

phatrat1982

Sorry if I am intruding a little but I have some thing to add to the above discussion regarding English as a universal language or whatever. I don't know about Ireland, or England, but I do know that in Canada one of the largest English speaking countries, French is still spoken side by side with English so even a lot of Canadians who speak English do not exclusively do so. And here in the US there are parts of the country were English is only spoken at school everywhere else it is the local regional language.

I grew up in an area of Nevada where in my school everyone, myself included spoke Spanish, class reports were often in Spanish, dances were all spanish music with announcers speaking in spanish, the road signs and government notices all posted in English and Spanish but Spanish always came first because less people spoke English than Spanish and that was right here in America.

There are parts of a lot of southern states similar to this people will know and use more Spanish than English, in fact it has become a political topic of sorts in recent years because Spanish is starting to over take English in the US and pretty soon the most powerful and prominent English speaking country will be divided between English and Spanish and Spanish has already over taken English in world wide speakers.

A hundred years ago, before WWII German was the second most spoken language in the US and at that time it was actually spoken in schools and many parts of the US were exclusively German, especially in the Mid-west and the colonies that were settled by German immigrants. For over a hundred years German news papers were published side by side their English counterparts, and German was on the rise and was nearly popular enough to over take English in several states, WWII changed that suddenly it was outlawed in several states the speaking of German in public places government documents had to be in English only and German was wiped clean from our countries culture and collective minds where today even today if you are German or German descent you are a second class citizen, I know this all to well as my grandfather came straight over from Germany speaking German till the day he died.

The same happened to the natives, my grand mother is full blooded Shoshonee so I have some indian in me too so I can speak on this subject, there used to be MILLIONS of Native American speakers of hundreds of native languages, today there are FIVE native American languages left and of those five only two have a chance to survive the others are spoken only by elderly men who are near death and their children have already assimilated into American English society. There are a few other Native languages that limp along in back woods areas of their Reservations used only for ceremonies but not even taught in their own schools.


Friends the English speakers of this world are snobs about their language and the Spanish are the first to stand up to them and say NO we will not give up our language and culture and if you call any phone number to any business SPANISH comes up first then you have to press 2 for English.


I say this because Irish is actually a rich language, your language is older than English and your culture is a hell of a lot more defined than "ours" American culture is mix and match what we like throw out what we don't and piss on everyone else. I used to love being an American until I grew up and realized our country sucks we hate everyone and we are the most arrogant stubborn asses ever to walk the Earth.



If you are serious about saving Irish take a lesson from the Mexicans FORCE it on people. Just stop dead cold turkey using English and be a snob about it right back. When you call into a business to ask questions about your bill start up in Irish and if they can't accommodate you GET ANGRY at them and repeat your demands and stick to your guns. You can not be passive about it you HAVE to be aggressive about it the British were sure as hell not anything close to passive about forcing it on you, nor were the Americans passive about forcing it on me, I could have been fluent in German had my dad not been afraid of his neighbors and here I am as English as you can be sitting in the middle of America wondering what went wrong? I am taking a stand I have set myself on a quest to learn all the languages of my ancestors and I am not going to sit down and let the Spanish be told they have to give up and assimilate because that is what my Irish and German forefathers did no sir I am standing up and fighting back you know why, because ENGLISH is the most damn complicated and confusing language ever conceived.

It was forced upon me and my family and we were conditioned "we are white and white people speak English" screw that I traced my family tree we haven't a drop of English blood in us it's all Irish, German, some French and my Native Shoshone roots I don't have any desire to hide. Am I white skinned yeah sure so what Italians are white but they speak Italian French people are white but they speak French why do I have to speak English because I live in America, I read our Constitution there is NO official language in this country.

If you are complacent and passive your language will die that is a fact, there are more people here in the city I live in than the entire Irish speaking population in your entire country, the country where Irish originates and the Irish are scared to use it that is just like the Cherokee ever heard of them? Or the Choctaw or the Shoshone, or how about the Aztecs their language is long forgotten. Hell consider back to the Spanish that is why they are so aggressive is because Spanish was already forced upon them once and they had to give up their native tongue already why should they do it again.




EDIT: Hey sorry if that came off wrong it was not meant to be in anger just trying to be supportive.

enfant terrible

phatrat1982 wrote: »

If you are serious about saving Irish take a lesson from the Mexicans FORCE it on people.

I can assure you most Irish people don't want it forced on them.

We have it forced on us enough in school as it is and after fifteen years learing it most Irish people can barely string a sentence together.

cytex

phatrat1982 wrote: »

If you are complacent and passive your language will die that is a fact, there are more people here in the city I live in than the entire Irish speaking population in your entire country, the country where Irish originates and the Irish are scared to use it that is just like the Cherokee ever heard of them? Or the Choctaw or the Shoshone, or how about the Aztecs their language is long forgotten. Hell consider back to the Spanish that is why they are so aggressive is because Spanish was already forced upon them once and they had to give up their native tongue already why should they do it again.




EDIT: Hey sorry if that came off wrong it was not meant to be in anger just trying to be supportive.

The choctaw have a place in the heart of Irish people they gave money to the famine relief a mere 16 years after they were forced to walked the trail of tears.

https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/michael/www/choctaw/retrace.html

Gaeilge in ireland is a funny bag of bones it is forced on people and they rebel then when they leave school they dont want to have anything to do with the language it is not the way to go for us.

What we need is proper support for gaelscoils every parent who want to raise there child through Gaeilge should have the support to do it.
Every department in the state should have a Gaeilge speaker in it so we can comunicate with the state as Gaeilge.
Every city in éire should have a culture gaeltacht quater like derry and belfast have to give people opportunity to speak it after school.
Gaeltachts should be respected and test should be given for any who want to move in to it not like what happened in ring gaeltacht
http://politico.ie/component/content/article/201-economy/4803-the-demise-of-ring-gaeltacht.html

phatrat1982

Well I guess I was over hyped earlier. What I meant was not force it on people like just make them use it not those who don't want but what I mean is if you want to use it just do so and make the companies cater to you that was what I was saying.



I guess it is different than Spanish because while it is wide spread and taught in our schools it still is offered as an optional class but never required class so that is different.


I guess it's just hard grasp for us.

What we need is proper support for gaelscoils every parent who want to raise there child through Gaeilge should have the support to do it.
Every department in the state should have a Gaeilge speaker in it so we can comunicate with the state as Gaeilge.
Every city in éire should have a culture gaeltacht quater like derry and belfast have to give people opportunity to speak it after school.
Gaeltachts should be respected and test should be given for any who want to move in to it not like what happened in ring gaeltacht
http://politico.ie/component/content...gaeltacht.html

Well I guess I am not entirely sure how it works because I have never been to Ireland I am signed up to go for a study abroad with my school but there is a long old waiting list so they told me two to three years before I get to go.

So the way I understand it is you have areas that are like our Indian Reservations where the language and culture are protected whereas in the rest of the country everyone is required to learn Gaeilge but they often reject it as being forced on them?

Honestly to tell you the truth until recently I never even knew Ireland had it's own native language I always just assumed that you always spoke English. In fact when I first started telling my friends I was learning to speak Irish they laughed because they thought that meant I was going to talk like that leprechaun from the Lucky Charms commercials.


Well sorry for hijacking your thread.

cytex

phatrat1982 wrote: »

Well I guess I was over hyped earlier. What I meant was not force it on people like just make them use it not those who don't want but what I mean is if you want to use it just do so and make the companies cater to you that was what I was saying.



I guess it is different than Spanish because while it is wide spread and taught in our schools it still is offered as an optional class but never required class so that is different.


I guess it's just hard grasp for us.








Well I guess I am not entirely sure how it works because I have never been to Ireland I am signed up to go for a study abroad with my school but there is a long old waiting list so they told me two to three years before I get to go.

So the way I understand it is you have areas that are like our Indian Reservations where the language and culture are protected whereas in the rest of the country everyone is required to learn Gaeilge but they often reject it as being forced on them?

Honestly to tell you the truth until recently I never even knew Ireland had it's own native language I always just assumed that you always spoke English. In fact when I first started telling my friends I was learning to speak Irish they laughed because they thought that meant I was going to talk like that leprechaun from the Lucky Charms commercials.


Well sorry for hijacking your thread.

not exactly like that the Gaeltachts are places in the country where the first langauge is Gaeilge they are like this because the areas they are in were to poor to bother invading the were isolated and more or less left to there own devices.

Gaeilge is alive and well in most places in Ireland it is a minority language but if you go looking for it you will find it in any county and not just in the gaeltachts.

Gaeilge is compulsory in schools but it is not taught for you to learn the language. it is taught badly you are assumed fluent in the language and get to study poetry and stories that are basically to hard for a learner. It is then that irish people learn how to hate the language and quite frankly i dont blame them irish in school is akin to tourture .

There is some people in this country that hate the language whole heartly goverment policy has done very little to promote the language but despite this it has recorded a growth in the last few years.

If you are intrested look for a program called "In the name of the Fáda" . It is about a irish comedian (originally from america) called des bishop learning the language he goes to a gaeltacht in conemara . It is very funny and does a good job of explaing gaeltachts and Gaeilge in éire. As well as how it is taught in schools.

phatrat1982

wow, that is all very interesting. I have heard of Des Bishop he did a remake of Jump Around which was a hugely popular song here when I was a kid. I will have to look for his program that sounds interesting. One question though is it kid friendly or is it like his comedy acts?

Mike 1972

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

Is there even a single mono-lingual irish speaker left? When was the last mono-lingual irish speaker?.

Depends on what you mean by mono-lingual.

Probably around one hundred years since the last native Irish speaker with NO English died

But its conceivable there could have been native Irish speakers without FLUENT English as recently as the 1970's.

Although recently I heard of a Polish guy who came to Ireland to learn Irish (not sure why but whatever floats your boat......) but didnt have much English.

Enkidu

Mike 1972 wrote: »

Depends on what you mean by mono-lingual.

Probably around one hundred years since the last native Irish speaker with NO English died

Nope, here's one alive and well in 1985:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K08vUnVpHcw

Go to 4:16.

But its conceivable there could have been native Irish speakers without FLUENT English as recently as the 1970's.

I met one this week.

cytex

phatrat1982 wrote: »

wow, that is all very interesting. I have heard of Des Bishop he did a remake of Jump Around which was a hugely popular song here when I was a kid. I will have to look for his program that sounds interesting. One question though is it kid friendly or is it like his comedy acts?

I Wouldn't say it is kid friendly Irish people like to use what sponge bob would call "sentence enhancers" a lot :P

DeBrugha

Is there even a single mono-lingual irish speaker left? When was the last mono-lingual irish speaker?.

Yes I know a man without English from Ross island Connemara, he knows words but can't do sentences.

conor.hogan.2

cytex wrote: »

I Wouldn't say it is kid friendly Irish people like to use what sponge bob would call "sentence enhancers" a lot :P

Well the English version is hardly kid friendly, the Irish translation is not either.

phatrat1982

yeah I did checkout someclips on Youtube it looked like an interesting show but their mother would kill me if I let them watch that show. I did download his song though that is a start.