RSS
Roots


comment on article Make a comment
print this article Print
email this articleE-mail

How American Des Bishop may yet save the Irish language from certain death

Des Bishop to the rescue as Irish language in danger of extinction

By
JOHN FAY
,
IrishCentral.com

Published Tuesday, October 20, 2009, 1:15 PM
Updated Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 7:38 AM

Vote now - Buzz this up!


How American Des Bishop may yet save the Irish language from certain death | IrishCentral




Read more: Des Bishop, Culture and Lifestyle, Irish Culture, Ireland, Language and Linguistics, Local Politics, Politics, China, Brian Meaney, Clare County Council
Making Irish fun: Irish-American comic Des Bishop might just be the man to rescue the Irish language
Making Irish fun: Irish-American comic Des Bishop might just be the man to rescue the Irish language

 

Last week a local Green Party councilor in County Clare aired his objections to the money that the Clare County Council has to spend translating official Council documents into Irish. Brian Meaney says that in these economically difficult times the County Council cannot “afford the luxury of translating official documents into Irish.”

To Councilor Meaney Irish is a burden, something that must be borne and he’s not alone in that view.

For many (most, probably) the view that Irish is a burden, a source of resentment even, begins in school. Irish in school has been mandatory since the 1930s and if the intent of the project was to create a vast majority of people who start off life with a hatred that gradually fades to an angry indifference to the nation’s first language then it’s been a tremendous success. However, clearly, that’s not what was hoped for by the language’s supporters at the time the state was created.

Many of those who helped found the new state were committed to the revival of the ancient mother tongue. Breathing new life into the Irish language was part of the great project to create a new Irish Ireland, one where ancient Ireland's traditions were esteemed.

Yet, fully three generations of Irish people have been schooled in Irish and still Irish as an everyday language has continued to decline. Virtually nobody speaks the language outside a few pockets in remote areas where it never fully died out in the first place. This has to rank among independent Ireland's greatest failures.

From all that I've heard in the time I've lived here, the language was – and still is – taught all wrong.

Many older people associate Irish with cracks over the knuckles for getting some element of the complicated grammar wrong. People my age invariably associate Irish with the dreary, depressing life-story of an old woman whose early 20th century life was of zero interest to those who were interested in punk music and American movies.

Today, many students complain about the imposition of having to learn a language “nobody speaks” or grumble angrily about those who get extra points in the all or nothing Leaving Cert because they went to an all-Irish secondary school.

The distaste for Irish starts well before secondary school, however. One of the great difficulties with the language is the early emphasis on spelling. I know from watching my own children that when they’re learning how to spell steep, sweep, weep and sheep in English they're supposed to master dalta, cathaoir, póstaer and múinteoir. The Irish words never fit any pattern, the fadas (accent marks) are essential and the words are long. From the age of seven or eight children associate Irish with something difficult, requiring lots of extra effort compared with English.

1 2 Next page >

Vote now - Buzz this story up!


How American Des Bishop may yet save the Irish language from certain death | IrishCentral


print this article Print
email this articleE-mail


Be the first to make a comment.







remember me on this computer
forget your password?     
IrishCentral.com is also home to Irish Voice and Irish America magazine