Wouldn’t pay too much attention to those census figures Eoin. I’d say with quite a few of those there interpretation of speaking Irish on a regular basis is saying “Go raibh maith agat” having received their change in a shop!

Well said reg

Who else said they spoke a bit of Irish on the census out of sheer pride and resentment? ;)

Here’s more tax payers money for the toilet! If you want the country speaking Irish the first thing you got to do is put an out and out ban on ever speaking it!!
Every thing else has failed!
Who’s with me! Ban Irish ever been spoken again!

Please don’t reproduce

The word is ‘being’,Dan.I still don’t think your education was a waste of my tax and insurance contributions.Go n-éiri leat.

Like religion is today considered child abuse because forcing kids to learn something completely bolox is child abuse the same goes for Irish. Kids should be learning languages for the mid 21st century. If you’re an adult and you want to learn a soon to be extinct language then that is your choice but for children like religious crap it needs to be stripped out and replace with modern languages science and IT. I can speak Irish but I always thought why aren’t we learning languages that will be dominant in 20-30 years. Irish is never even going to be useful here. The language is on artificial life support and needs to be turned off to die or flourish on its own. And to those of you who say its live and well less than 1% (fact not gov stats propaganda bull)of the population is not a thriving language.

Yes let’s beat Irish into them, then they’ll appreciate it. That’s that the education system has been doing for years. This proposal is only more of the same old let’s force the people to recognise their language guff. If Irish were the language of the people it would be spoken by the people. It isn’t and it isn’t. For a those who enjoy it as a hobby, good luck to you. As for the rest of us, leave us alone.

Aontaím leat a Sheáin! Bheadh an Ghaeltacht nua seo foirfe le todhchaí Na nGael Óga a bhuanú!

Beidh oraibh labhairt le Cumann an Chloigthigh ar dtús!

As a D4 Protestant snob, I agree.

Agree in part about the way Irish is taught being part an issue. But thriving languages aren’t taught they’re aqcuired in the home, the teaching happens through the language (i.e. immersion education). No matter how passionate, motivated, well-resourced and educated our Irish teachers are and might be in the future unless we grow the numbers of people who choose to bring their children up speaking Irish in the home then we’ll be trying to fill a bucket of water with a sieve.

Naíonraí, Gaelscoileanna & Gaelcholáistí (immersion schools) are much better than english medium schools in terms of their success rate regarding Irish speakers but the numbers leaving gaelscoileanna/Gaelcholáistí and not using their Irish on a day-to-day basis (socially, professionally or in the home) far outnumbers those that do continue to use it.

Giving increased status to the language in certain areas will help in this process of reversing language shift but intergenerational language transfer is the key.

Not to mention joining you’re local Irish language GAA team! https://www.facebook.com/nagaeiloga

Why teach it at all?

Maith thú a Peadar. Tá an scél deas agus an tabhachtach.
Gerard Grooters
Isiltír

Níl aon áit fágtha amach as an réachtaíocht seo go fóill a Dhaithí. Is féidir le ceantar ar bith a bhaineann na critéir amach an stádas a ghnóthú. Rud an-dearfach go deo. Ar aghaidh linn!

Ná bí buartha a Dhaithí, nuair a bhéas Na Gaeil Óga CLG ar an bhfód ar feadh tamaillín eile beidh Baile Átha Cliath ar fad ina Ghaeltacht!!!(“,)

Ehhhhhhhh Bleedin Conas a ta tu bud?

Close but not quite right, a direct translation of that is “How are you bud”!!

An bhfuil tú ceart ansin bud?

@Agent – Best laugh I’ve had all day ;)

Hi Sinead.

I agree with you. I’m an alumnus of Coláiste Chilliain and a member of Muíntir Chrónáin – an organisation dedicated to promoting the Irish language in Dublin. Our cultural centre Áras Chrónáin plays host to language and music classes every week and is the social hub for a substantial community of Gaeilgeoirí in Clondalkin, Rathcoole, Lucan and surrounding areas.

The work that has been done to foster a love of an Ghaeilge and of Irish culture in Clondalkin has been immense since the late 1970s and, should legislation allow for “certain levels” of Gaeltachtaí, then Clondalkin is a prime candidate for such status.

Let’s not forget that an “artificial” Gaeltacht was established in Ráth Chairn in Meath some decades ago. Why not have a vibrant urban Irish community, just like in Belfast at the moment?

Thanks for highlighting the need to talk about this constructively.

Little Deco from Clondalkin might wear a shell tracksuit but it was the scumbags in suits and ties that f*cked this country, well done lads you are a class act…… and to all those omadon’s above who have nothing constructive to say I hope it gives you great pleasure in putting someone down and having a laugh at their expense, it must make you very proud

Peter i left what now seems a stupid comment above, i retract it totally as i had completely forgot about the aras and the great work that is done there, my mother does that craft fair there every christmas and i was there once or twice with friends from round towers GAA, I remember being in the company of so many ordinary people who found delight at the ease at which they were able to converse in our native language and it was only when i had posted the comment above that i realised that i hadnt thought it through at all.
fair play to you and your like for all the hard work done to keep what is a unique language alive

take a pill it’s just a bit of craic, that’s all we have left.

I don’t care who you’re with or what you think

That’s right bring us back to the múinteoir dictator days

brón orainn, nach dtuigeann…

Hi all,
I’m with Dermot on this one. Would love to see constructive commentary on this rather than jibes and insinuations about the people of the area.
Personally, I know a lot of people who were educated in the fantastic schools in Clondalkin. The article shows that there are currently about 1,500 kids being taught through Irish in the town.
I’m not saying everyone should agree that the area should be designated as a Gaeltacht but we could debate the issue here…
Cheers,
Sinead

sinead you cannot blame people for ridiculing this idea, and having a laugh, regardless of how many people are speaking irish or are being thought irish in the area, when people hear ”gaeltacht” they immediately think, picturesque scenery, ”bean an ti”, ceoil agus craic, agus rira agus rula bula!! a gaeltacht attracts tourists and i can only imagine the laughs of the gardai when ”brad, and charleene” from ohio on their first trip to ireland march into clondalkin garda station complaining of the the views in Neilstown and the fact that they were mugged at knife point ant the thief didn’t even do it ”as geailge”!!

APOLOGIES FOR ALL THE SPELLING MISTAKES!!

no sense of humor,whats that in irish?
Ta me boring!!!!

Feck me! The fun police have pitched up!

Sorry to say this but, 50% of you guys have lost your sense of humour! FACT!

Doesn’t that mean….”I need to go for a leak there….bud”!!

you should try and mark a player from round towers!! i was full back and the whole full forward line used to run us ragged and they talked constantly as gaelige, at one stage after a bit of a row i was insulted as gaelige, and having a pint with the man after the match i told him i couldnt help but be imprressed!! :)
………to this day he wont tell me what he called me….. i can hazard a guess tho!!

Thats impressive, Its a handy trick alrite. The girls I heard where usin Irish to talk about how hot a bloke, who was in earshot, was…… Not me in case ur wonderin :(

Mickey

“Bud” is short for “buddy” which, according to http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/buddy comes from:

“Colloquial butty (1802), meaning companion, also the form of an older dialect term meaning workmate, associated with coal mining. Itself believed derived from booty fellow (1530), a partner with whom one shares booty or loot. [1]“

Can you speak Irish?

Ignorant remark. There is eating and feeding but you can’t beat the bit of breeding.

Hi Mr Paul Shakespeare Lanigan. So you say the locals can’t even speak English? The pot calling the kettle black. My 7 year old niece pointed out your mistake.

@Sean – you have to lighten up and stop taking things so seriously.

….and shouldn’t your 7 year old niece be at school or is she mitching off again? :-)

How snobby and immature.

abair hello le mo chara beag

Yes there’s quite a bit of this going on at The Journal!

No, the Irish for penis is “bod”, the diminutive of which is “boidín” (roughly pronounced as “budgeen”).

My girlfriend went to school in Italy – they study Latin the way we study Irish. They are incredibly proud of Latin and it’s place in their country’s (and Europe’s) history, and don’t reserve the same amount of vitriol some people here do for Irish. And Latin truly is a ‘dead’ language. Irish has a TV station, and a few radio stations (the excellent Radio na Life serves Dublin), and is far more vibrant than many other languages.

Of course if you don’t speak any Irish, you would think there are far fewer speakers – we all also speak English so it’s understandable when you don’t notice us.

As for Irish being ‘useful’ – it is incredibly useful to study something that you don’t (initially at least) like. Education isn’t entertainment, and when you get to college you will be forced to study many things you don’t like. Having studied and excelled at a language like Irish, especially if you don’t speak it at home, is an incredibly worthwhile experience to have.

It’s also a part of your history and culture – I hope you grow out of the mindset that only attaches a monetary value to things, you créatar bocht! :-)

Peace.

What’s Sanskrit?

Actually Sanskrit is more useful. I suppose we’ll still be learning (mostly nothing ) Irish while the rest of the world learns Russian, mandarin and Spanish languages that actually matter.

@ Paul – what’s stopping them from learning those languages too? I studied English, Irish and French in school and went on to study Russian in college. I am now fluent in English, Irish, Russian and Manx and can speak or read French, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Finnish, Slovakian, Bulgarian, Spanish, and Scottish Gaelic to varying degrees.

That’s not the point, that’s like saying music or sinning is pointless.

What do you mean if it had been somewhat modernised? The language is modern. Pretty much every technical, biological, mechanical, engineering, etc. term that exists in English also exists in Irish. Fair enough, many may have been borrowed from English or other languages, but then look at English where c. 75% of the language isn’t even English anyway, but simply borrowings from other languages. I think, rather than jump on the anti-Irish language bandwagon with an apparently complete lack of knowledge of the language, you should perhaps educate yourself on it first. And if you think people don’t use it day-to-day, take a little trek down to the heart of the Galway, Kerry or Donegal Gaeltachtaí where you’ll find that plenty of people converse in it on a day-to-day basis – they don’t seem to have any problem expressing modern thoughts and ideas to their neighbours in Irish.

It is a modern language. As is every language currently spoken.

Hence, its called modern.