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A Second Revivial of the Irish Language.

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  • #32
    An Coilean
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,285 ✭✭✭An Coilean


    Sir_Oracle wrote: »
    Maybe 'plan' wasn't the right word, but either way it seems to me to be a step in the right area. When it was suggested that it would be possible, there were a lot of voices from Clondalkin suggesting they'd be very much in favour of it. I seem to remember hearing that there's going to be a good bit of housing for irish-speakers put up in Ballymun as well in effort to turn that into a gaeltacht area (admittedly, I'm not sure how successful that would be).

    Indeed, as it happens the Ballymun housing thing is actually just a group of people who decided to do it themselves, much like the shaws road gaeltacht in Belfast
    Hard to know how it will turn out, but ballymun is a fairly good place to do it, there are more Irish speakers around that place than Connemara.

    Fair enough, if its not financially viable then it can't really work. Perhaps an online newspaper or something, then? My point is more that there's little enough in the way of high-quality journalism in Irish, and that putting some in place might be another step towards 'normalising' the use of the language. However, if it simply won't sell, then there's not much to be done. All the same, I think an online one (thus being free) would be a good idea, but then again there is the issue of who is to fund it.

    Foras na Gaeilge can fund it, they were happy enough to pay 400,000 a year for a print newspaper, if they pay the same to an online one you could really have something as the cost of actually printing the thing would not be there.



    Maybe you're right, that might be more feasible, as given what happened with the students refusing to speak irish in Dingle, opposition can't be ignored


    Well actually that was only a handfull of students several of which were former students.
    It came about because the Irish medium school was merged with an English medium school and it was decided to make the whole thing an Irish medium school.

    But yes, better to aim for increasing the % of fully Irish medium schools while still allowing parents the option of an English medium school if they want than trying to force Irish medium on everyone.

    As for teacher training, I would say it would be better to leave the current system in place and open a new primary school course totally through Irish for those looking to teach in the Gaelscoil sector. It has to be recognised that quite a lot of those who want to be primary school teachers have very little interest in Irish.
    Doint the Irish language course would be an advantage to those students who have an interest in Irish as it would allow them to teach in English and Irish medium schools, while those going through an English medium course would generally be limited to English medium schools.


  • #33
    Sir_Oracle
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7 ✭Sir_Oracle


    An Coilean wrote: »
    Indeed, as it happens the Ballymun housing thing is actually just a group of people who decided to do it themselves, much like the shaws road gaeltacht in Belfast
    Hard to know how it will turn out, but ballymun is a fairly good place to do it, there are more Irish speakers around that place than Connemara.

    How are there so many in Ballymun? Are there gaelscoileanna up there or something?

    It'd be a great boost to the area if they managed to turn it into a gaeltacht disctrict. My only concern would be that while there may be irish speakers living there already, I can't see a lot of people opting to move there with the reputation the area has (e.g. if you were told there were houses going in Ballymun, would you move there?)



    An Coilean wrote: »
    Foras na Gaeilge can fund it, they were happy enough to pay 400,000 a year for a print newspaper, if they pay the same to an online one you could really have something as the cost of actually printing the thing would not be there.

    Yeah, that could work. The one up in the north, Nuacht 24, is basically a version of that already, and it seems to be getting on well, so I see no reason one wouldn't be viable in the Republic.

    Actually, I wonder if there's any college in the country offering degrees in Journalism with Irish? If demand for irish media increases, it might be handy to have people trained as journalists who also have fluent irish


    An Coilean wrote: »
    As for teacher training, I would say it would be better to leave the current system in place and open a new primary school course totally through Irish for those looking to teach in the Gaelscoil sector. It has to be recognised that quite a lot of those who want to be primary school teachers have very little interest in Irish.
    Doint the Irish language course would be an advantage to those students who have an interest in Irish as it would allow them to teach in English and Irish medium schools, while those going through an English medium course would generally be limited to English medium schools.


    You've hit the nail on the head there, that's a good idea! It'd make it actually more attractive to do the Irish course; then, if there's more teachers who've done the course than there are places in gaelscoileanna, chances are more gaelscoileanna will open to accomodate it, which would be a big help.


  • #34
    An Coilean
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,285 ✭✭✭An Coilean


    Sir_Oracle wrote: »
    How are there so many in Ballymun? Are there gaelscoileanna up there or something?

    The Gaelscoil movement pretty much started in Ballymun, there are two Gaelscoils in the area now.
    It'd be a great boost to the area if they managed to turn it into a gaeltacht disctrict. My only concern would be that while there may be irish speakers living there already, I can't see a lot of people opting to move there with the reputation the area has (e.g. if you were told there were houses going in Ballymun, would you move there?)

    The Irish housing there at the moment is not provided by the council, its a group of people who agreed to start an Irish speaking community and then got a morgatage to build their own house there.
    Actually, I wonder if there's any college in the country offering degrees in Journalism with Irish? If demand for irish media increases, it might be handy to have people trained as journalists who also have fluent irish


    UL do an Irish and New Media course, not just aimed at journalism, but it is part of the course.

    There are other courses that have Irish and Journalism as part of it in other colleges too.


  • #35
    deirdremf
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,374 ✭✭✭deirdremf


    Originally Posted by An Coilean View Post
    In relation to the Broadsheet, who is going to pay for it? Foras na Gaeilge funded a much more modest newspaper up until recently but cancled it due to it not being a viable enterprise. The readership is not there to support a full blooded broadsheet like the Times.
    As for the second national Irish language Raidio Station, I would agree, but it is not likely to recieve much official support currently, however have a look at Raidio na Life if you are in Dublin (or online if not) Or Raidio Rí Rá for that matter, also online.
    Fair enough, if its not financially viable then it can't really work. Perhaps an online newspaper or something, then? My point is more that there's little enough in the way of high-quality journalism in Irish, and that putting some in place might be another step towards 'normalising' the use of the language. However, if it simply won't sell, then there's not much to be done. All the same, I think an online one (thus being free) would be a good idea, but then again there is the issue of who is to fund it.
    In my opinion, this is a bit of a red herring. A newspaper is a very expensive business, and they all would go under if they had no advertising.
    All of our English-language newspapers are heavily subsidised by the government and its many arms, through the advertising they place in the papers. And even then, I'm not sure how many of them actually turn a profit.
    When the government finds that the Irish-language newspapers don't have a large enough readership, what they are really saying is that they don't want to spend their money on that particular project. And this very often happens for political reasons, in the sense that the newspaper might have the wrong political outlook, or whatever, so they close it down. They could pretty much do the same to the Independent or the Times in the morning if they wanted to, by withdrawing their advertising, but those papers are part of the consensus, so they will remain for a while yet.


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