Fine Gael’s proposal to make the Irish language optional at school is rejected - SEE POLL

Kurtjohnson – since you despise the language of Shakespeare, Dickens, Wordsworth, The King James Bible and all the other wonderful works written in the WORLDS PREMIER LANGUAGE, can we expect all your future posts to be in some pure indo-European language? If not we’ll have to assume you too are part of the phenomenon of degenerate Anglo mass consumerism/materialism.

Enda Kenny can speak perfect irish, he's just being a realist, the main language of commerce today is english, but in the next decade, it may be spanish & more than probably in the next 50 years chinese, while it is good to keep your own language, there is nothing to stop the state funding 'irish language' colleges for those people who want to continue learning it, however, from an economic perspective, it is right that the educational system has alternatives & i'm afraid that learning irish should no longer be compulsory. Here in the north the shinners made a great play for the 'irish' language to be compulsory, however, the uptake from students is poor, the DUP campaigned successfully for scots gaelic to be introduced, another language with a small uptake, however, in the new PC world, both are available, however, compulsory neither should be

It's a shame that there's not more enthusiasm for the preservation of one of the pure indo-european languages left (as distinguished from creole tongues such as english). I suppose it's part and parcel of the industrial estate Ireland phenomenon accompanying the importation of degenerate anglo mass consumerism/materialism.

I understand why people can't speak Irish or find it difficult. I also know the reason why. But Irish is part of our heritage and needs to be protected at all cost. Welsh made a come back in Wales.All subjects should be taught through Irish in elementary school..Problem solved. Kids who go to a gealscoil (Irish speaking School)have no problem.Plenty Irish speaking School's around,they have become very popular over the last 20 years.Enda Kenny..WTF!! I give up!!!

Its about time that learning Irish was optional. There was a time if you failed Irish you failed the whole leaving cert. It should have been taught in the context of Celtic Studies and I mean the full celtic story not the nationalist sanitized version.

The point that is being forgotten is that at least 20% of the students in Ireland are not of Irish ethnic stock. Many of them are not Irish citizens. These people have no interest in Irish. The proof is that when offered a chance to avoid taking Irish, they invariably opt to avoid the language. Sometimes they'll offer some garbage justification such as that they are not good at languages, but next thing you see them opting for French or Spanish, and doing quite OK. And their presence, even tho they're not studying Irish, harms the language, since they are often timetabled to sit at the back of the class "studying" while the Irish children take Irish. The result of having a dozen Russians, Africans and Romanians at the back of the class is indiscipline and mayhem, ruining the opportunity of the Irish children to learn something. It is absolutely inevitable that at some point in the near future the parents of settler children will agitate for Irish to be taken off the curriculum. You can't blame them--Why would they have any interest in it? Their ancestral language is Ewe or Tagalog or Polish etc. They're not Irish. There already was a case of this in Dingle. The parents of a Russian child demanded that their child not be educated thru Irish. I think the mother was a Russian, the father was Irish. The combination of foreign settlers allied to self-hating Irish will do what the British could not do in countless generations--kill the language. I am no longer a teenager, but I expect to live to see the death of the Irish language as the spoken vernacular of anywhere in the world. When that happens the Irish may as well crawl on the garbage pile of history, they'll have thrown away the only thing that made their lousy asses of any value to the rest of us.

As I have pointed out elsewhere on this site, the current policy is that Irish must be taught but it need not be learned. The result is that you have folks aged 18 leaving high school after say 13 years instruction in the language WHO ARE NOT ABLE TO COUNT TO TEN OR ASK YOU WHAT TIME IT IS tri Ghaeilge. That poses a lot of questions about these folks' intellectual ability, but it also raises the wider question of why the Irish are wasting their time with obligatory attendance at Irish class. Few issues bring out the fantasy world that the hypocritical Irish live in more clearly than the Irish language. I have made countless transAtlantic trips to Ireland, and on several questions I have chatted with Irish passengers sitting near me on the plane. Because they thought I was an uninformed Yank (I am neither--I am loyal to the Old Confederacy, dismantled illegally and violently in 1865) they tried to feed me the leprechaun diet they offer to American tourists. One item on this fools' menu is that the Irish love their ancient tongue, and lose no opportunity to speak it. The reality is, of course, that a sizable minority, perhaps as many as one in four, have a pathological hatred of the language, and insult it in the most stupid and ignorant fashion, while most of the rest are quite indifferent to it. Fewer than 5% have any interest in Irish. I say leave the language to those 5% and their children, and stop the stupid hypocrisy of forcing people like Tippboy (below) to learn it. If this guy wants to learn enough Chinese so that he can understand the orders barked at him by his Chinese boss, that's his choice. He's not untypical--maybe that's why his country is a bankrupt laughing stock, ruled by a coalition of gangsters and fools.

let's leave the irish to ?????

Fine Gael is not seeking to abolish Irish, just make it optional, what's wrong with that? If you love it - learn it, if not - don't! Personally I encourage my kids to learn German, Chinese and Spanish - far more useful in today's world! Oh, and I am proud to speak the Queen's English and speak it well and I look forward to welcoming that fine lady to our shores in May.

ABOUT TIME THAT THEY PUT THAT LEPRECHAUN LANGUAGE TO BED!

Don't give up your language. If everyone in Ireland speaks Gaelic and English you will be understood. In the US, there are places where I feel like I am in a foreign country. Our culture is being wiped away. Ireland is one of the most beautiful countries I have ever visited. Keep your uniqueness.

The proposal is to make learning Irish optional for the Leaving Cert. Forcing young adults to learn a language they are not interested in is a waste of time and resources, and also hypocritical. I don't much care for FG, but they're right on this issue. FACT: Ireland is an English-speaking country. Some of your correspondents should abandon their fantasies.

I can't believe students are protesting Irish being made optional. Having been forced to learn it myself and taught badly I would have been delighted if it had been an optional subject and ultimately would have got more points in the Leaving if I'd been able to take another subject.

fine gael they be - schmucks.

The Irish language must be kept alive. We didn't survive the blight that was England just to surrender our language to theirs. Someone needs to get their head out of their arse, to put it bluntly.