Modern Irish in TCD?

curlyclodagh

Hi I'm thinking of putting down Irish and French in Trinity as my first choice on my CAO. I'm worried, however, that my standard of Irish isn't good enough to do an entire course as gaeilge. I'd say I'm a B1-A1 student.
I just have a couple of questions about the course:

- How high does your standard of Irish need to be to do Modern Irish in Trinity?
- Will most of the people on the course have gone to a gaelscoil for primary/secondary school?
- How much literature is covered on the course (v. roughly speaking obviously )

I absolutely adore Irish, and I'd love to do a degree in it. I'm just apprehensive that I won't be good enough. Any feedback whatsoever on the course would be very much appreciated.

Go raibh míle!

lfqnic

Hi

The standard varies wildly. Some people are very good, some can't string two grammatical sentences together. Every year there'd be a good handful of gaelscoil kids but they wouldn't be the majority. Most people will come in with imperfect school Irish - you aren't expected to be a gramadach monster or anything, but you will be expected to improve as you go.
It is really up to you how fast you improve - put your all in to it and it'll pay off, pretty quickly. They know who makes an effort and who doesn't. Don't get demoralised if you find the first six months tough going. Stick at it, do as much extra curricula stuff in Irish as you can (the cumann, extra classes, tutoring kids in Irish etc).
The literature component is fairly hefty, between modern and earlier stuff (if you do modern Irish you'll still do stuff like caoineadh art uí laoghaire, cúirt an mheán-oíche and fiannaíocht). It's really interesting if you like reading, but they don't go easy on you so it can be a huge challenge to dive in to Máirtín Ó Cadhain. TOTALLY worth it though, the literature is the best thing about it
It's a small, friendly department - the staff are very nice people, and we have a few leading scholars in the field which doesn't hurt. Traditionally people would tend to go to UCD to do Modern Irish (pound for pound our staff is more directed to the older side of things) but I can totally recommend our department anyway. I've heard less positive things about the French department, but I wouldn't know anything for a fact.
Btw, if you're really enthusiastic about Irish but the commitment feels a bit over-ambitious, you could consider Irish Studies, but you'd not be able to do French in that case. It would be Irish and then courses in History mostly, with some English and a fourth, more conceptual course thrown in for good measure.

Ádh mór

curlyclodagh

lfqnic wrote: »

Hi

The standard varies wildly. Some people are very good, some can't string two grammatical sentences together. Every year there'd be a good handful of gaelscoil kids but they wouldn't be the majority. Most people will come in with imperfect school Irish - you aren't expected to be a gramadach monster or anything, but you will be expected to improve as you go.
It is really up to you how fast you improve - put your all in to it and it'll pay off, pretty quickly. They know who makes an effort and who doesn't. Don't get demoralised if you find the first six months tough going. Stick at it, do as much extra curricula stuff in Irish as you can (the cumann, extra classes, tutoring kids in Irish etc).
The literature component is fairly hefty, between modern and earlier stuff (if you do modern Irish you'll still do stuff like caoineadh art uí laoghaire, cúirt an mheán-oíche and fiannaíocht). It's really interesting if you like reading, but they don't go easy on you so it can be a huge challenge to dive in to Máirtín Ó Cadhain. TOTALLY worth it though, the literature is the best thing about it
It's a small, friendly department - the staff are very nice people, and we have a few leading scholars in the field which doesn't hurt. Traditionally people would tend to go to UCD to do Modern Irish (pound for pound our staff is more directed to the older side of things) but I can totally recommend our department anyway. I've heard less positive things about the French department, but I wouldn't know anything for a fact.
Btw, if you're really enthusiastic about Irish but the commitment feels a bit over-ambitious, you could consider Irish Studies, but you'd not be able to do French in that case. It would be Irish and then courses in History mostly, with some English and a fourth, more conceptual course thrown in for good measure.

Ádh mór

thanks a mill for the reply! It's just such a tough decision cuz I'm debating between Irish and Spanish (to go alongside french) and I know for a fact that Spanish is one of my best subjects so I'd be able to cope at 3rd level, but Irish can vary a little bit more. I didn't go to a gaelscoil for either primary or secondary school so I'm not at an advantage that way :P

Ravelleman

A word of warning, based on the experience of a number of my peers who were studying Irish with another language, you will most likely struggle to go on Erasmus if that is something you want to do. I don't know the exact rules regarding this but two people I know who studied Irish and Spanish were not allowed to go on Erasmus, even though one eventually went on to do Spanish in fourth year.

curlyclodagh

Ravelleman wrote: »

A word of warning, based on the experience of a number of my peers who were studying Irish with another language, you will most likely struggle to go on Erasmus if that is something you want to do. I don't know the exact rules regarding this but two people I know who studied Irish and Spanish were not allowed to go on Erasmus, even though one eventually went on to do Spanish in fourth year.

That's not too much of a worry for me, an erasmus isn't really something I'd be wildly interested in :P I'd only do it if it was a course requirement!

Ravelleman

It would be worthwhile - again from my experience, the difference between the levels of those who go away and those who stay can be quite pronounced, especially if you take Spanish as a beginner.

You should consider this.

curlyclodagh

Ravelleman wrote: »

It would be worthwhile - again from my experience, the difference between the levels of those who go away and those who stay can be quite pronounced, especially if you take Spanish as a beginner.

You should consider this.

Hmmm, you make a good argument. Definitely something to consider in terms of practicalities etc. Thanks for the input!

languagenerd

Ravelleman wrote: »

It would be worthwhile - again from my experience, the difference between the levels of those who go away and those who stay can be quite pronounced, especially if you take Spanish as a beginner.

You should consider this.

Very few TSM people go on Erasmus though. I think maybe 5 people out of my Spanish class and around 8 from French went. You have to do it in 2nd year of TSM (most departments don't allow a full Erasmus in 3rd year due to finals) and a lot of people found that it was too early to go. TSM students tend to go away for the summers instead - you have to spend a minimum of 8 weeks in a country where that language is spoken anyway.

Definitely, though, if you want to do an Erasmus, don't pick Irish (as very few places do Irish degrees outside of Ireland).

nicnac

I did modern Irish in TCD in the mid 90's. The advise below is spot on. It is an interesting enough course. I was pretty much a fluent speaker from a young age having spent a lot of summers as a child in Irish colleges.

The standard does vary wildly. If you have your honour in honours Irish then I would not be concerned about being able to handle the course. I found the department extremely good. If you were having difficulty or needed extra assistance or guidance they could steer you in the right direction.

In second year they had a massive course on Scots Gaelic, interesting to see the similarity between Indo European languages etc.

My second subject was in the Business School, I'm not sure I would have liked to continue for a fourth year with the Irish - 3 was enough for me so I majored in my other subject.

Enjoyable course though.

lfqnic wrote: »

Hi

The standard varies wildly. Some people are very good, some can't string two grammatical sentences together. Every year there'd be a good handful of gaelscoil kids but they wouldn't be the majority. Most people will come in with imperfect school Irish - you aren't expected to be a gramadach monster or anything, but you will be expected to improve as you go.
It is really up to you how fast you improve - put your all in to it and it'll pay off, pretty quickly. They know who makes an effort and who doesn't. Don't get demoralised if you find the first six months tough going. Stick at it, do as much extra curricula stuff in Irish as you can (the cumann, extra classes, tutoring kids in Irish etc).
The literature component is fairly hefty, between modern and earlier stuff (if you do modern Irish you'll still do stuff like caoineadh art uí laoghaire, cúirt an mheán-oíche and fiannaíocht). It's really interesting if you like reading, but they don't go easy on you so it can be a huge challenge to dive in to Máirtín Ó Cadhain. TOTALLY worth it though, the literature is the best thing about it
It's a small, friendly department - the staff are very nice people, and we have a few leading scholars in the field which doesn't hurt. Traditionally people would tend to go to UCD to do Modern Irish (pound for pound our staff is more directed to the older side of things) but I can totally recommend our department anyway. I've heard less positive things about the French department, but I wouldn't know anything for a fact.
Btw, if you're really enthusiastic about Irish but the commitment feels a bit over-ambitious, you could consider Irish Studies, but you'd not be able to do French in that case. It would be Irish and then courses in History mostly, with some English and a fourth, more conceptual course thrown in for good measure.

Ádh mór