Law & Irish

Deranged96

I'm just looking for a little feedback on law and Irish. I'm a 6th year.

I'm kinda torn between law and French and law and Irish: I'm leaning more so to Law and Irish as I came to the conclusion that no matter how good my French is I'll always be a foreigner in France. I believe Irish would be more fulfilling personally.

Anyway the only reason French is still in with a shout is because I'm not actually that good at Irish, I'll get the HC1 I'd say but only just about.

So what standard of Irish would I be up against? What are the course and lecturers like? Is irish thought more organically than in the LC or do you just sit through lectures in Irish and absorb the language that way?

Thanks for any replies

Paz-CCFC

I'm a graduate of Law and Irish and I'd highly recommend it. I was interested in doing law and I love Irish, so it was an easy choice for me.

If you're in an English-speaking school, then the core hours of Irish are about the same (Law and Arts being two course with about 15-20 hours a week, leaving plenty of time to study in the library).

How organically you learn it depends on you. The basic lectures are more or less listening to someone for the whole thing, but the tutorials and language lab/speaking classes are a bit more engaging (the latter a lot more, depending on what lecturer you have). Those two are basically meant for you to take what you learn in the big lecture halls and build on it in smaller groups. There are a host of other things you can do in the university to build on it - you can do free (€40ish, but you get it back at the end) weekly speaking classes with Ionad na Gaeilge Labhartha (they're more casual than with the Irish department), you can go to the Gaeltacht with them in the summer (at a nominal cost), you can join the Irish society, an Chuallacht, to do events etc. It's basically what you make of it: if you do the bare minimum, it won't be the best; if you're in the thick of it, it'll be much more natural.

On the level of Irish you have now, I don't think that'd be a bar to studying it. It was an easy transition for me, because I went to an Irish school. There are some people from English schools who flourish. There are others who bomb and hugely struggle with the Irish. The latter, though, I've found have been people who seem to have no interest at all, barely come to lectures, would never bother speaking Irish. If you put in the work, you'll do well. Something which is much easier if you like the subject.

You'll also study some interesting Irish legal topics that you wouldn't study with the other law courses. You'll get a encounter language rights, the status of Irish in the law (it's given priority over English in this country), how different conflicting languages are dealt with (ie, in the EU, having to balance twenty odd official languages, of which one is Irish) etc.

The 3rd year is a work placement/erasmus year. The erasmus is in Montana in the US, where you study in the university and get some legal experience with one of the judges (I'm not 100% on this one, as I didn't do it, but it's meant to be a great place to go). The placement includes solicitor/barrister offices, Irish language groups, the Attorney General's office etc. You can mix and match between them - one term erasmus, one working; two terms working, with two different offices etc. They can offer you some great experience and you get a huge leg up versus someone who does the three year BCL course. This can be huge when it comes to applying for traineeships after or just general CV building if you want to work outside the legal sphere.

I don't think Law and French would be a bad course, either. It's a huge language to have, being one of the main ones in the EU, and the language of the ECJ. I've heard the erasmus is brilliant, as well. Also, there are two other law courses: Law Clinical and Law International. They're both more law-orientated without the language, but the former has a year's work placement and the latter a year's erasmus.

Mar eolas ginearálta duit ar an teanga, dá mba rud é go bhfuil suim agat, tá fóram Gaoluinne ar Boards d'arb ainm Teach na nGealt. Molaim duit úsáid a bhaint as. Bheadh sé thar a bheith áisiúil le haghaidh na hArdteiste i mbliana agus le haghaidh do chuid staidéir sa choláiste má théann tú le Dlí is Gaeilge. Mol an teanga agus tiocfaidh sí.

Go n-éirí go geal leat.

Deranged96

Thank you so much man

Richmond Ultra

Deranged96 wrote: »

I'm just looking for a little feedback on law and Irish. I'm a 6th year.

I'm kinda torn between law and French and law and Irish: I'm leaning more so to Law and Irish as I came to the conclusion that no matter how good my French is I'll always be a foreigner in France. I believe Irish would be more fulfilling personally.

Anyway the only reason French is still in with a shout is because I'm not actually that good at Irish, I'll get the HC1 I'd say but only just about.

So what standard of Irish would I be up against? What are the course and lecturers like? Is irish thought more organically than in the LC or do you just sit through lectures in Irish and absorb the language that way?

Thanks for any replies

The current UCC Irish officer John Prendergast does that course. He'd love a chat with you if you've any questions. You'll get his details on the SU website.

A person below spoke about getting involved in Irish. I was in the chuallacht for two years and in that time we travelled to Donegal, Dublin 3 times, Kerry twice just to name some of the places. If you join a society you'll get a lot out of it. I did collaborations with a whole host of organisations such as Cork City FC, Gael taca, Kurgan, Seo Linn just to name a few through Irish songs I did. There "rather be" "biodh craic again" and "ho hey".

The Irish is very basic for the opening weeks like you'll do seimhiu etc for the first few weeks.

Montana is brilliant. UCC students helped to set up a hurling team over there.

If you want any peoples contact details i.e lecturers or students then please pm me and I'll sort you out.

Richmond Ultra

Deranged96 wrote: »

I'm just looking for a little feedback on law and Irish. I'm a 6th year.

I'm kinda torn between law and French and law and Irish: I'm leaning more so to Law and Irish as I came to the conclusion that no matter how good my French is I'll always be a foreigner in France. I believe Irish would be more fulfilling personally.

Anyway the only reason French is still in with a shout is because I'm not actually that good at Irish, I'll get the HC1 I'd say but only just about.

So what standard of Irish would I be up against? What are the course and lecturers like? Is irish thought more organically than in the LC or do you just sit through lectures in Irish and absorb the language that way?

Thanks for any replies

The current UCC Irish officer John Prendergast does that course. He'd love a chat with you if you've any questions. You'll get his details on the SU website.

A person below spoke about getting involved in Irish. I was in the chuallacht for two years and in that time we travelled to Donegal, Dublin 3 times, Kerry twice just to name some of the places. If you join a society you'll get a lot out of it. I did collaborations with a whole host of organisations such as Cork City FC, Gael taca, Kurgan, Seo Linn just to name a few through Irish songs I did. There "rather be" "biodh craic again" and "ho hey".

The Irish is very basic for the opening weeks like you'll do seimhiu etc for the first few weeks.

Montana is brilliant. UCC students helped to set up a hurling team over there.

If you want any peoples contact details i.e lecturers or students then please pm me and I'll sort you out.