Time to dump Irish

The Invader merely explains how the situation came to be The USA was also a victim of The Invader. Lots of places were victims of The Invader. Doesn't counter my point. Language is a personal thing and the historical presence of An Invader does NOT mean YOU get to choose it for someone else.

Case in point - my language is English. You can say its not all you want, but it would be a fallacy.

Isn't it arrogant to say you know more about someone you've never met than they do about themselves? Broadly speaking?

No its arrogant to try to twist other people's words. Broadly speaking.

Irish IS the language of my forefathers. No question about it. Unless you want to go back to the language of the cavemen like the other poster.

Oh there was a point??

Not soon, probably never, its a mini industry in a way. Anyone that stands to lose anything won't want to let it go and the romantics etc won't either.

I personally don't like it, dislike the sound of it

(suspect I inherited that from my father who went to a secondary where they were taught through Irish about 60 yrs ago.... after having very little experience of it before + I'd never say it to him but he's gifted in terms of technical things etc and completely shite when it comes to language and meaning, constantly mispronouncing English never mind irish and misunderstanding meanings etc etc yet he could probably build, fix or engineer nearly anything if he put his mind to it....he absolutely loathes irish though, rightly or wrongly he feels it robbed him of opportunities, never fails to complain about commentary in irish on GAA matches which I find amusing)

However I don't think it should be jettisoned, it is a point of difference, something unique to the island....I'd often bemoan how americanised our culture is becoming/has become and how retarded some of our teenagers act.....then again I could be entering the old man shakes fist at clouds stage of my life!😅

Your challenge to the previous poster is correct, but students already speak English.

Having poetry in a language students are already struggling to speak is a bit bizarre - and this is before we get to the issue of how poetry is helping promote useage of Irish by teenagers.

Leaving Cert Irish is probably the worst enemy to any Irish revival, but as has been said previously: that's unlikely to be the genuine goal of the people paid by the State to bring it about.

I know you didn't, but my point is that IS the key difference, and I accept the point you made to the previous poster.

Yeah, fair enough, I should have responded to.his post and not yours (or both, or neither!) but it was more making the point than attacking either of you.

Apologies :)

How exactly do you mean it 'influences how we think'?

Agree with your second paragraph

Third is a nice little buzzphrase that comes up all the time in this topic but is not really accurate - plenty of countries around the world without a language - e.g. Brazil. The phrase arrogant in it's dismissal.

Personally, I blame Peig Sayers for the demise of the language. 🤣

Brazil has one official langauge and its not Brazillian. That official language is the first langauge of something like 95% of the population. You could argue some indigenous peoples speak their own langauge, but they aren't a country.

Its a nice little buzzphrase for conversations like this - makes it sound like it's a big deal when, to a lot of us, it's just a tool for communication. Ultimately, though - harmless and wolly, as you put it. But doesn't stop it from being arrogant.

I never implied that it was threatening (or at least, never intended to).

It's all a matter of degree. A bit like evolution, European Australians split from their European roots from 250 years ago or so and their language and culture have developed in their own direction since. Time and the level of ongoing interconnection with their roots (and other languages and cultures) influence how distinct their identity becomes. Aboriginal Australian's go back another 60,000 years or so.

Similarly European settlers in America go back 500 years give or take, and as is said of the UK and USA "Two countries divided by a common language" Although closely related, they have developed in their separate ways.

It's all a matter of degree. Our language is part of what gives us a distinct iidentity, part of what makes the world such a diverse and interesting place. To lose our language would be to lose part of that.

Where are you from is about far more than geography.

That's fine - you just send your kids to the Gaelscoil and it can be abolished as a necessity elsewhere. Wins all round.

Simple question then - is Brazil a country without a language? If not, then what is the language?

Arrogance always rattles my cage, as you put it, and I don't feel the need to defend this attribute.

I agree with your last paragraph, but that's the same everything. I'd love to be able to play the piano, for example, but...

No one blames anything though. We all know we cant because we didn't want it bad enough and weren't that interested. C"est la vie.

But every country has a language, if that's the standard.

Unless you're telling me what he's actually saying, is: a country without a linguistic means of communication is a country without a soul.

Odd. Also, not exactly wisdom.