Gaeilge Fanaticism in YOUR Trinity Student Union

Kevin_rc_ie

Roundtower2 wrote:

it is quite funny that many of the Irish ministers and MEPs who campaigned for its official status won't be able to understand the documents that will be produced as gaeilge. But it is our primary language and with the growth of gaelscoileana presumably will be a language that will be more used in the future. Personally i'd love to be fluent in the language; it is a much nicer language than english.

i think irish sounds crap. i'm much happier i'm fluent in english and have bits and bieces of gaeilge then the other way around.

masteroftherealm

Ah come on irish is such a morefluent and musical language. english is such a guttral and germainic language!

Kevin_rc_ie

no i don't think so. i also think irish literature and poetry are quite rubbish too. however, i am terrible at the language and totally unread but meh.

foxybrowne

Is fuath liom Gaeilge, ach is maith liom cupán deas tae.

Kevin_rc_ie

Kevin_rc_ie wrote:

no i don't think so. i also think irish literature and poetry are quite rubbish too. however, i am terrible at the language and totally unread but meh.

If you're referring to Leaving Cert Poetry, the following scenario seems to be in a lot of the poems we looked at anyways.

Poor lad writes poem. Expresses undying love for woman, most likely is wealthy. Love is unrequited, heart is broken by vile wench who would realise that poor lad is really a lovely lad at the end of it all if she gave him a chance. Poor lad always vows to love woman until his time on earth comes to an end (or another poem has to be written). Hurts so much that he wants to kill himself, but struggles on with the pain as he sees woman with another man.

Or something along those lines. I like having a bit of the language, though my level of Irish is fairly pitiful for 11 years of it.

rsynnott

While it's a nice idea to do things bi-lingually, it would certainly be very unfortunate if things started getting done in Irish alone. As the OP mentions, more than half the country can't speak it, and that number is only going to grow with immigration. And REQUIRING bi-linguality for official posts, as this would seem to suggest, would automatically exclude those who couldn't speak it or make things very difficult for them. Nice idea, in theory, but completely unworkable.

gom

Angry Banana wrote:

That's anectodal. I never said there was a direct correlation between how good you are at Irish and your Leaving Cert point. But Irish is mandatory and TCD has the highest points in the country. I think the link is pretty obvious.

I know people get 50,000 points and do 17 honours subjects and get a D2 in pass Irish but my point was that there is surely a higher proportion on people with the language in the "higher-achieving" (I know that sounds obnoxious but I couldn't come up with a euphemism) institutions than in the general population.

And I know the LC is a joke, but it's a joke that makes a lot of people learn Irish.

Actually Irish is not mandatory for TCD. You can substitute it with Latin. I know several folks who have done just that.

punka

gom wrote:

Actually Irish is not mandatory for TCD. You can substitute it with Latin. I know several folks who have done just that.

From here:

To be considered for entry to the University you must have the following qualifications:

1.
2. A pass in English
3. A pass in mathematics and a pass in a language other than English or a pass in Latin and a pass in a subject other than a language

A pass in three further subjects

Where the statement of results for an examination is in a language other than English, applicants are required to submit a certified true translation of the statement as well as a certified copy of results with their application

So if you have Latin you can get in without passing Irish, maths, or a modern language.
And they say the classics are irrelevant....