Read more: 'Hidden surge' could lead to single party Fine Gael Irish government says new poll
Hundreds of students marched on the Fine Gael party headquarters on Monday to protest party leader Enda Kenny's proposal to make the Irish language an optional subject for final high school exams in Ireland.
Earlier this month Fine Gael announced its strategy to make Irish optional for the leaving certificate, giving students the option to drop the core subject after their junior certificate.
The demonstrators staged a silent sit-down protest outside the Irish Parliament on their way to the Fine Gael headquarters. Symbolically protesters covered their mouths with red tape.
Aodhán Ó Déa, Irish language officer with the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), then handed in a petition with 15,000 signatures opposing the measure to the party headquarters.
He said, “We are angry about this and we won’t vote for Fine Gael if they continue with this policy. Enda Kenny is not happy to meet with us and we’re telling him that if you’re not happy to meet us Enda, we’re going to come and meet you and that is why we are handing in this petition to Fine Gael headquarters today."
A Trinity College Dublin student, Jen Ní Mhathúna, said that the policy was simply a way for Fine Gael to avoid the issue. She said, "It’s a lot easier in the short term to just do away with it and not have to deal with what the difficulties in teaching Irish are. In the long term it is absolutely detrimental to the language and the future of the language."
Cillian Hanaphy, another Trinity student said, "There's no evidence anywhere in the world that says you can restore a language by reducing its social status. It's an absolute cop-out. The language will die out eventually if this happens because students won't pick it. The curriculum needs to be changed - you can't just get rid of a language."
A telephone poll in Ireland, carried out by MRBI, should that 61 percent of Irish people are in favor of compulsory Irish being taught in schools. The poll questioned 1,000 people aged 16 and over. Two-thirds of these felt most subjects in elementary school should be taught through Irish so that children get used to using the language.
This survey was carried out last July for Irish teachers associations (Comhar na Muinteoiri Gaeilge, Conradh na Gaeilge, Gael Linn, Gael-scoileanna agus Comhdhail Naisiunta na Gaeilge). They delayed the publication until Fine Gael had released its proposal.
Read more: 'Hidden surge' could lead to single party Fine Gael Irish government says new poll
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.bridgetony52 | Feb 21, 2011, 05:44 PM EST
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.
FallsRNat | Feb 19, 2011, 06:52 PM EST
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
kurtjohnson | Feb 16, 2011, 09:32 PM EST
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.
sirpeter | Feb 15, 2011, 09:55 PM EST
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!!!
amkilshane | Feb 15, 2011, 05:51 PM EST
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.
WoundedKnee | Feb 15, 2011, 05:19 PM EST
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.
GeorgeDillon | Feb 15, 2011, 03:15 PM EST
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.
FallsRNat | Feb 15, 2011, 02:12 PM EST
let's leave the irish to ?????
tippboy | Feb 15, 2011, 02:03 PM EST
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.
AMERICAPHILE | Feb 15, 2011, 01:28 PM EST
ABOUT TIME THAT THEY PUT THAT LEPRECHAUN LANGUAGE TO BED!
EvelynDavey | Feb 15, 2011, 12:36 PM EST
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.
lawyer4 | Feb 15, 2011, 11:57 AM EST
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.
lawyer4 | Feb 15, 2011, 11:19 AM EST
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.
cillowen | Feb 15, 2011, 10:02 AM EST
fine gael they be - schmucks.
Jamcelt | Feb 15, 2011, 09:28 AM EST
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.
bunkerisland | Feb 15, 2011, 09:22 AM EST
Next only the Queen's English!
Portia777 | Feb 15, 2011, 09:04 AM EST
Take a language away from a people, and take away their sovereignity. We fought so hard to keep our own language under British Empire and its colonial policy and now our own servants- TD,s want to surrender on our behalf?
Taraskryne | Feb 15, 2011, 09:00 AM EST
Fine Gael would eliminate Irish and everything else good in our culture that FF failed to decimate. No votes for FG their true agenda is obvious.