Is the Irish language in danger of extinction?

Question

People in Ireland, or so I'm told, don't care about the Gaelic.

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

With the increased prosperity of Ireland which has brought with it the onslaught of international television, widespread access to the Internet and other English language media, the influx of multi nationals, the Irish language has an uphill struggle to remain a live language.

Following an analysis of Government statistics on Irish language by Galway/Mayo Institute of Technology lecturer Donncha O hEallaithe, was quoted by The Irish Examiner January 06, 2003 as saying that "at the foundation of the state 80 years ago, there were 250,000 fluent Irish speakers living in Irish-speaking or semi-Irish-speaking areas. That number was now between 20,000 and 30,000"

James McCloskey Professor of Linguistics at University of California, Santa Cruz in his book Voices silenced - has Irish a Future? / Guthanna in Éag - an mairfidh an Ghaeilge beo? says
"The effort to support Irish should ideally involve trans-national alliances with the marginalised and often impoverished groups who are trying to organise across the globe to resist the coercion of powerful national and international élites. The effort to support Irish is in fact one strand, or ought to be one strand, in an international effort to open cracks, however small, in the dreary homogeneity of culture and ideology created by global capitalism."

From 1 January 2007 Irish will become the 21st official language of the European Union, we have an Irish national radio service, an Irish-language television service and several Irish-language newspapers and magazines but it will be up to the man in the street (with a little help from friends) to make the revival of our native language, one of the oldest written languages in Western Europe, an ongoing success.

The treatment to date of the Irish language 'Gaeilge' as a compulsory school subject has in my opinion done nothing to instill a love of this beautiful unique language in non native speakers. It is treated as just another school subject, to hate while you have to learn the complex grammar patterns and to leave behind when school is finished. Native Irish speaking children brought up in an Irish speaking family within an ever increasing English speaking community rebel against the language due to peer pressure.

Irish as a language will only thrive when it is spoken on a voluntary basis, proven by the fact that there are more Irish speakers throughout the world than there are in Ireland. The Irish government has set up grants for international colleges to set up programs to teach Irish such is the interest in the language. At home government funding should be directed to the revivalists with the most impact who are also voluntary; clubs and Irish speaking schools from kindergarten to second level .


Sé Tír gan teanga - Tír gan anam: A country without a language is a country without a soul.

Source(s):

http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/200…
http://www.coislife.ie/books/academic/gu…

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

Clearly, this person is very well read, and subsequently well informed; however, it's sad to hear that the mother tongue is dieing.

Answer 2

I don't know, I'm with the Irish people, I don't care either.

Answer 3

i have heard differently, that in fact it is growing again, that there are signs in Gaelic in some parts of Ireland, and classes for kids. I hope someone from Ireland is able to give a personal report.

Answer 4

The schools still teach Gaelic, only about 10% of the country still speak it.My people were Tinkers or Travelers, a sub culture that had their own language based on the Gaelic. Origin of the Tinkers-unknown.

Answer 5

Celtic?