Commentator slated after claiming Irish should compete for Britain at London Olympics

The G.A.A. is also a great example of how the Irish Culture is preserved, and growing, it is also moving out onto other continents such as the hurling teams formed by US servicemen after watching the sport on tv at Shannon airport. 100,000 people in Croke Park on the first and third Sunday in September, and thousands involving their children in hurling, camogie, football and handball with clubs all over Ireland, not bad for an amateur sport....

Well that is the state of .."journalism" in the United States...mostly ignorant wholly opinionated people trying to force their views on others...

Are we really to now claim wk that Irish students dislike learning their language more than any other subject? The one thing I can guarantee you and I would bet the house on it is that even years after an Irish student left school the ONE question they would still be able to ask is where's the bathroom, or may I use the bathroom since that was usually required to be asked in Irish to get to leave the class room. CK is way off the money for the figures who speak Irish on a daily basis and provided no sources for them, and I backed up my figures with a citation for proof, which was over 4 times what he stated, and for half a million less citizens than he claims are in the country, does not include the second language figures which are over 1.7 million or the daily speakers in school. As for my *absurd claim* you have been unable to disprove it perhaps your bias will not allow it of you, considering that Irish is a mandatory subject and you can only not learn it if you have a learning disability, it is spoken on a daily basis in classrooms all over Ireland, even if the students do not like it :-) Their dislike does not prove they do not speak it. You seem to hold the Irish in such disdain, and speak of them with such thinly veiled hatred why even visit Ireland?

IrelandNorth and all. Tragically two ongoing attacks are directed towards Irish culture. One from outside and the other from within. A national addiction to American and British media . TV channels are saturated with imported soaps and sport – even encroaching onto TG4 all be it with commentary in Irish. Best selling newspapers are the Brit rags the ‘Irish’ Sun, Mirror and unbelievably the Irish Mail – the Brit version once headlined’ Would you rather be a pig than be Irish?’ The ‘Irish’ editions of these papers give a totally different commentary on Ireland to that of the Brit versions. Incredibly the Irish Mail is supporting a campaign to clean up O’Connell Street ahead of 2016. Keep the natives happy. Gaelscoileanna and TG4 Many complain about the expense involved in promoting the language adding that it is of ‘no value’ in modern Ireland? How many support that view and what are their true motives?

sirpeter, Thank you for your response. PayPal the ending of the MPLSI and concerns over the standard of teaching Irish and other languages have all been in the news in Ireland in the last few weeks so are relevant to the topic which evolved on this thread. PayPal claim that the ‘missing’ languages required in Dundalk are German – which you say is taught – and Dutch and Nordic languages...presumably not taught? PayPal seem none too pleased having to cover the shortfall importing 500 staff - incurring costly relocation expenses. Do IDA/Government Departments not discuss with companies language requirements and identify problems? This issue seems to have come out of the blue. Will it go unnoticed by other global companies? Will they be reluctant to locate to Ireland? Surprised at a remark about PayPal paying crappy money are the Irish really that picky. 14% unemployed and according to the CSO 100 a day emigrating. We know Irish is taught for up to 14 school years. You have not given your view as to why it is not more widely used post school years as revealed in the Census data.

Free Tasmania. Aussies Out! Da guys stock-in-trade is controversy. He's paid to yank people's cranks. PS A Kerryman ordering a beer in a Dublin pub 'as Gaeilge' would be unlikely to be understood by a Polish, Lituanian, Estonia, Nigerian or Chinese barman or lounge girl. Dundalk PayPal staff are foreign because taking calls from their countries of origins, as well as being cheaper to hire than locals. Purest form of colonialism is linguistic. Get people speaking your language and you've got them thinking your thoughts. Many natives put off Irish by vengence with which it was taught by Christian Brothers - yet still love it. Oppression strengthens native tongues. Liberation may spawn lassitude. A Gaelic revival is reemerging with Radio na Gaeltachta (Rad-ee-ooo nah Gale-tacht-ah!)/Galtacht Radio). Telefís na Gaeilge (Tele-fiche nah Gale-geh)/Irish Television. Foinse - Irish Independent supplement, as also with The Irish News. Ach, da meach cúpla Gaeilgoirí ar an ait seo, cen fath nach raibh siad ag scribh dar teachtairi fein as Gaeilge? Beidir go bhfuil cúpla daoine ba mhaith libh é a leibh. Ach "my cuntry(!), Ciara. Cá bhfuil an 'o'. Agus cad atá tú ag smaonaimh nuair a bhí tú ag scríbh seo?

Didn't see many Aborignals on Team Aussie - Russel!

A good example of the occupational hazzards of continuing to talk after blowing a fuse in your cognitive faculties. Makes the 1980s virtual-persona 'Max Headroom' seem positively articulate by comparison. Obviously hasn't heard of geography-of-scale. Tasmania vs Australia. USA vs Hawaii. Would his argument not be more correlative with Australia and New Zealand. Wonder how the Kiwi's might respond. Cut back of the Fosters - Russel! Or are MI6 paying him to fly kites.

Cad e an t-am cheart woundedknee.BTW bozo latin was compulsory in most secondary schools in Ireland you ignorant fool.BTW the language is the soul of the nation.

Hairymollie you are easily perplexed.It's easy to know why PayPal had difficulty recruiting staff.They pay crappy money. And there has always been a language learning system in place in Ireland.My own daughters have four languages.Irish,English,French and German.You need French or German to go to college in Ireland.So kids are learning two languages in primary school/elementary school(Irish and English)And three languages in secondary school/high school (Irish,English and French or German)Also they learn Irish for one reason.It's our native language and you need it for certain jobs in Ireland.Also many people all over the world claim certain parts of their education is of no use to them.That's a stupid argument made by stupid people who have limited interests and a limited capacity to learn.Also some people like Joe Horgan think a load of sh*t.A nation is more than just having a living language.They have traditions,culture,sport,history,religious beliefs,social habits...Hairymollie why are you quoting dumb people?Don't you have any mind of your own? No wonder your confused and perplexed.Now fu*k off and try and understand your own nations mindset.Or even your own mind for that matter.

Ciaradexy - You are so right. It doesn't matter if you are Irish American, Irish-born or from the Irish Diaspora in Britain, then you are Irish. If not, then you're not Irish. Simple.

Ciara – you have asked ‘why bring language into it’. Well its because we are perplexed and are trying to understand the modern Irish mindset.For years many Irish born have claimed that there is no point in learning the Irish language as ' it is of no use to us' and we are told European languages are of more ‘value’ . So why do you think PayPal in Dundalk is having to recruit staff from overseas due to a lack of Irish staff with language skills. Of 1000 recruits 500 are being brought in at great expense. The company say this would not have been the case if the Irish education system already had a language learning system in place. Oh dear! Can you explain?

Ciara, Thank you. Once again you have kindly raised the question of who ‘owns’ Irish nationhood. Joe Horgan has also made observations about language and nationhood and how some people think that without a living language you don’t have a nation. That the one sure way to conquer a people is to take away their language and replace it with yours. Losing a language and a nation. Do you think that is happening Ciara? Is anyone else familiar with Joes writings?

You're right, Mollie. I walked thru Trinity College Dublin a while back and I said to myself "Wow, how come there are so many American girls here?" It was only after listening a little more that I realized that the "Americans" were actually young Irish girls. The accent of the young Irish middle class female is now almost indistinguishable from that of their US West Coast counterparts. Hiberno-English is a bogus invention that the Irish trot forward when people ask what have they done with their native language.

Ciara – It is interesting that you mention ‘Irish accents’ . I wonder if anyone has noted in recent years a lot of young Irish are starting to sound like the English and the old Hiberno English speech and expressions are going out of fashion. I am reminded of observations by writer/journalist Joe Horgan that the slight, watered-down Irish accent is most sought-after the one that is in effect most aping an English one.” Professor Terry Dolan, on Hiberno-English also notes the changes in the traditional Irish way of talking English. He puts it down to too much American and UK TV and the intonation favoured by some OAR-T-E presenters.