Schools told not to accept psychologists’ reports for Irish exemptions

I agree, I don't think anybody on here thinks that is the goal. I do think having larger cohort of the population that are comfortable in reading and speaking Irish is a worthy aspiration for the language.

When I went on J1 and wanted to speak to my fiends about yanks we spoke Irish..When I went travelling and were buying knock off rubbish from some dude me and my buddies discussed this in Irish.

When my kids were small and me and my wife wanted to talk about them we would do it in Irish.

I am far from fluent but have enough to make it if not daily certainly weekly usage and would enjoy the opportunity to use it some more.

Okay, I don't agree with the "White Flight" concept. you'd hear it often. Maybe they wanted an opportunity for their children to be Bilingual. That was certainly my reason for selecting my local Gaelscoil. that and the that the local English language school was not coeducational. I think segregation of sexes at primary (or secondary) level is asinine and harmful to society even if it's considered beneficial for some individuals.


I absolutely reject this statement. I am not a republican nor am I particularly nationalistic.

The constitution, the very founding document of the state is written as Gaeilge. That document sets out the official language of the country as both Irish and English. If there is a contradiction between the Irish version and its English translation then the Irish version takes primacy

Linking it to republicanism is both wrong and fucking wrong.

As it happens I don't believe that Tír gan teanga, Tír gan Anam. I don't believe it of anywhere else either not Brazil, not Wallonia not French Canada.

An Irish person is no less Irish for not speaking the language. As much as they are not less Irish for not playing Hurling or the Úileann pipes. But the language belongs to us all, not the republican movement and not a mysterious Cabal Irish speakers either.


I have more respect for the posters as MOE and Dan and a few others have done, who openly say they think the language is dead than take this bullshit position.

I'm okay with you having a different opinion from me. People Either think that language acquisition is important or they do not.

I happen to hold a different position. That learning the language in and of itself is worthy and education should go a bit beyond crafting an economic unit that a business can use in future. It'd be a dark day If the children of Ireland studied Chinese as has been suggested here in preference to Irish.

You can make the same "utility" argument about studying poetry or literature or even in a world where a supercomputer sits in your pocket about maths..But all those arguments are also in my opinion are deeply flawed and wrong headed.

The benefits of Bilingualism are many and well studied


Primarily it is thought that if you teach kids a second language before age 6 or 7 the parallel paths it creates in your brain mean language acquisition becomes easier for 3rd or 4th languages. There isn't really that much divergence in the literature. The actual language studied is less important.
Super post El-G (y)
 
It's not my language. I feel no connection to it whatsoever.
Thats your choice

Same as you may feel no connection to GAA like many out there. Same as you may feel no connection to other aspects of Irish culture, poetry, literary stuff, dancing, whatever - we are all adults.. up to you.

One of the things I will never get my head around is the rush to abandon Irish culture and rush headlong towards the absolute empty shit America has been spoon feeding us for decades
 
Last edited:
One of the things I will never get my head around is the rush to abandon Irish culture and rush headlong towards the absolute empty shit America has been spoon feeding us for decades
America has its fair share of empty shit, that's true. But what's also true is it has one of the richest cultures in human history. The music, films and art of America are unparalleled in the modern world.
 
America has its fair share of empty shit, that's true. But what's also true is it has one of the richest cultures in human history. The music, films and art of America are unparalleled in the modern world.
Fair point - I wasn't trying to suggest it was all shite, I watch plenty of American series etc and listen to a lot of the music myself. But so much of what they do over there is the opposite yet I notice so many people wanting to abandon what we have and dive head first into the abyss. The current crop of kids are going to be a case study in this - they dont watch films and series, they watch content.. and the vast majority of this vacuous 'you'll never believe what happened next' type shite is made in the states. It has got to the point that the narration is often computer generated so that there are no accents or colloquialisms.. just generic vanilla brain bubblegum. My own kids watch this crap, this is their reference point in that regard and they love it for some unknown reason. My job is to make sure that they stay connected to real life and real things

Oh, dad, he just walked up to a poor guy and gave him a Lamborghini.. turn that immoral dickhead off now, we are going out to puck a ball :)
 
Last edited:
Fair point - I wasn't trying to suggest it was all shite, I watch plenty of American series etc and listen to a lot of the music myself. But so much of what they do over there is the opposite yet I notice so many people wanting to abandon what we have and dive head first into the abyss. The current crop of kids are going to be a case study of this - they dont watch films and series, they watch content.. and the vast majority of this vacuous 'you'll never believe what happened next' type shite is made in the states. It has got to the point that the narration is often computer generated so that there are no accents or colloquialisms.. just generic vanilla brain bubblegum. My own kids watch this crap, this is their reference point in that regard and they love it for some unknown reason. My job is to make sure that they stay connected to real life and real things

Oh, dad, he just walked up to a poor guy and gave him a Lamborghini.. turn that immoral dickhead off now, we are going out to puck a ball :)
My nephew is the same. Ai-generated voices narrating ai-generated content. He's big into sports, though (participating), and he loves reading, but I've seen other kids sitting in front of the youtube reel feed for hours. You'd have to wonder what it'll do to them, that untethered-from-humanity kind of content.
 
My nephew is the same. Ai-generated voices narrating ai-generated content. He's big into sports, though (participating), and he loves reading, but I've seen other kids sitting in front of the youtube reel feed for hours. You'd have to wonder what it'll do to them, that untethered-from-humanity kind of content.
That would be both of mine - I have no great worries as they are both heavily involved in sports so there is balance there, but there is also no doubt that this shite is just spam

You do get the odd funny moment out of it though.. I cant remember who was playing but a PL match was on the TV at home recently and the ref gave a penalty to one of the teams. The young fella turns around and tells me the keeper will definitely go early and dive to his left. Sure enough the keeper does exactly that and when I asked why he was so sure he told me that he had seen one of those shorts on that keeper that showed he guessed and went left 85% of the time or something along those lines, so the striker should have also known and gone the opposite side! He would give you similar stats for various strikers from the spot etc.
 
That would be both of mine - I have no great worries as they are both heavily involved in sports so there is balance there, but there is also no doubt that this shite is just spam

You do get the odd funny moment out of it though.. I cant remember who was playing but a PL match was on the TV at home recently and the ref gave a penalty to one of the teams. The young fella turns around and tells me the keeper will definitely go early and dive to his left. Sure enough the keeper does exactly that and when I asked why he was so sure he told me that he had seen one of those shorts on that keeper that showed he guessed and went left 85% of the time or something along those lines, so the striker should have also known and gone the opposite side! He would give you similar stats for various strikers from the spot etc.
Precocious whippersnapper!
 
I agree, I don't think anybody on here thinks that is the goal. I do think having larger cohort of the population that are comfortable in reading and speaking Irish is a worthy aspiration for the language.

When I went on J1 and wanted to speak to my fiends about yanks we spoke Irish..When I went travelling and were buying knock off rubbish from some dude me and my buddies discussed this in Irish.

When my kids were small and me and my wife wanted to talk about them we would do it in Irish.

I am far from fluent but have enough to make it if not daily certainly weekly usage and would enjoy the opportunity to use it some more.

Okay, I don't agree with the "White Flight" concept. you'd hear it often. Maybe they wanted an opportunity for their children to be Bilingual. That was certainly my reason for selecting my local Gaelscoil. that and the that the local English language school was not coeducational. I think segregation of sexes at primary (or secondary) level is asinine and harmful to society even if it's considered beneficial for some individuals.


I absolutely reject this statement. I am not a republican nor am I particularly nationalistic.

The constitution, the very founding document of the state is written as Gaeilge. That document sets out the official language of the country as both Irish and English. If there is a contradiction between the Irish version and its English translation then the Irish version takes primacy

Linking it to republicanism is both wrong and fucking wrong.

As it happens I don't believe that Tír gan teanga, Tír gan Anam. I don't believe it of anywhere else either not Brazil, not Wallonia not French Canada.

An Irish person is no less Irish for not speaking the language. As much as they are not less Irish for not playing Hurling or the Úileann pipes. But the language belongs to us all, not the republican movement and not a mysterious Cabal Irish speakers either.


I have more respect for the posters as MOE and Dan and a few others have done, who openly say they think the language is dead than take this bullshit position.

I'm okay with you having a different opinion from me. People Either think that language acquisition is important or they do not.

I happen to hold a different position. That learning the language in and of itself is worthy and education should go a bit beyond crafting an economic unit that a business can use in future. It'd be a dark day If the children of Ireland studied Chinese as has been suggested here in preference to Irish.

You can make the same "utility" argument about studying poetry or literature or even in a world where a supercomputer sits in your pocket about maths..But all those arguments are also in my opinion are deeply flawed and wrong headed.

The benefits of Bilingualism are many and well studied


Primarily it is thought that if you teach kids a second language before age 6 or 7 the parallel paths it creates in your brain mean language acquisition becomes easier for 3rd or 4th languages. There isn't really that much divergence in the literature. The actual language studied is less important.

Anyone on here is unfortunately irrelevant (including myself !). The problem is the Irish Language lobby have an undue, over-emotional bearing on the narrative, which ironically, is causing huge damage to the language, and of course politicians are too craven in dealing with them. IIRC

I find it humourous that people talk in terms of either speaking the cupla focail in some situation abroad, or "would like to speak it some more", and that's entirely laudable but that's not the basis for imposing it as a compulsory LC subject.

As with everything, I'm sure there are those who buy into the culture of wanting their kids educated in a Gaelscoil, as there were those who were swayed by having to mix with foreigners' kids with poor english, but this was a common topic during the mid 2000s. I do completely agree about the segregation of sexes, and that's another hangover of the past whose days are numbered as well.

The constitution, the very founding document of the state is written as Gaeilge. That document sets out the official language of the country as both Irish and English. If there is a contradiction between the Irish version and its English translation then the Irish version takes primacy

The constitution was brought in by the same people who were category A in nationalism ffs ! What else did you expect ? Linking it to republicanism is reflecting reality, where even today up north, Republicans use the Irish language as a weapon against unionists, yet 5,000 say they speak Irish every day.

I have zero problems with you having heartfelt wishes for the Irish language, but the majority of the Irish population don't have the same yearnings apart from platitudes. Most are exercised about having to do Irish to the LC, hence the increasing numbers of kids looking for the exemption, and attempting to block them from getting the exemption is a bit like the East Germans trying to rebuild the Wall, because people were leaving.

"The benefits of Bilingualism are many and well studied" - Yes absolutely, so why has our learning of other foreign languages been so shit over the decades ? Learning Irish has been an utter failure, and the Irish Language lobby trotting that phrase out is laughable, when the numbers of subsequent learning of other languages has been appalling. I also believe teaching languages to kids in Primary School is vital, and am glad that the Government have taken the first tiny steps in that regard. What's killed Irish is the built up hatred over their years in school, when the kids themselves see the lack of usefulness, coupled with the ineffectual teaching and above all, the protectionism of the Irish Language lobby who block change.
 
EVENT GUIDE - HIGHLIGHT
Patrick McDonnell (Savage Eye) Plus Guests
City Limits, Coburg St.

26th Apr 2025 @ 8:30 pm
More info..

Cork Voices Of The Irish Revolution

St. Peters Cork, Today @ 10am

More events ▼
Top