Michael D.Higgins on new status of Irish: “Today is a day of opportunity, when the Irish language joins so many others with full status in the European Union. However it is up to all of us to seize this new moment and to ensure that the language means something.”

7 comments

  1. So endless reams of documents will have to be translated into Irish that nobody will ever read.

    Is this what it means practically?

  2. I think this is a good thing, and it does mean a lot to some people I appreciate that.

    But that being said I just don’t see the level of useability of the language changing without a complete change in the approach to teaching it and I don’t think that will ever happen honestly.

  3. I say it all the time and I’ll say it again, to inventive more extensive learning of Gaeilge there should be financial incentives.

    For example Like a tax credit, Irish speakers only apartment blocks/housing estates/streets, public transport card or literally any sort of decent financial incentive that’s obtained through means test of the language so as to where there’ll be some of sort of extra interest in keeping up learning Irish in schools, it’s shocking how dismisses it is even by parents and some other subject teachers because there’s “no benefit”.

    Edit: There’s a naivety here as to what actually motivates most people in this country.

  5. I’m not so sure. I love the Irish language but I can’t help thinking all the money spent translating documents no one will ever read could be better spent creating resources for learners.

  6. Why would people want Irish to be a bigger language? The majority of the country are native English speakers and learning any other foreign language would be much more beneficial. The only motivation is due to people wanting their own language for identity purposes, i.e. nationalism, which is imo always bad.

    People actively supporting Irish language need to see the examples around the world where different languages almost always create tension and discrimination. Additionally, it would also make Ireland less interesting for immigration.

  7. If they just stopped teaching it like its our first language in school then we would have way more Irish speakers. The issue is that your expected to know how it works from a young age but if you don’t then you fall behind very quickly.

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