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FORMER KERRY TD Jackie Healy-Rae has today ruled out running for the presidency.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie this morning Healy-Rae said that after spending so long working as TD “up there” in Dublin he wanted to “stay a free man and stay out of it”.
He had first been mentioned as a possible candidate back in April when he told Radio Kerry that he was considering it, pointing out that never in his life had he lost an election.
The fact that he spoke to Radio Kerry on April Fool’s Day led some to believe that Healy-Rae was joking but he insisted that it was no joke.
However today he said “no, no, no, no way” when asked about the possibility of joining the race for the Áras.
Healy-Rae stepped down as a TD for Kerry South at the last election. His seat was taken by his son Michael Healy-Rae.
Asked which candidate he would be backing for the Autumn election, he said that he wasn’t sure yet but added that he was disappointed that former GAA president and Fine Gael MEP Sean Kelly had decided not to run:
He’d do a good job there. I was really disappointed to see he wasn’t running.
Asked about the controversy surrounding independent candidate David Norris whose old media interviews have forced him to clarify his views on everything from pederasty to the age of consent, Healy-Rae said he hadn’t got an opinion on the matter.
He added that he hadn’t “a clue” which candidate he would back: “I haven’t even thought about it.”
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Sad to see. I didn’t want to learn it years ago. But to be honest I would love to be able to speak it now
@Michael o Dwyer: Other for some romantic notion: Why?
I just try to understand the reasons for spending time on a language very, very few speak in daily life.
Yes’ it’s part of Irish history, but not much part of todays Irish culture – more something to sell to tourists, I guess.
@Wolfgang Bonow: “It hath always been the use of the conqueror to despise the language of the conquered and make him, by all means speak the language of the conqueror. The tongue being Irish, the heart must needs be Irish. The tongue being English the heart must needs be English.’” Edmund Spenser 1599.
Is maith an coilíní é an Sasanach gan amhras!
@Sean Sean: that ship has sailed a chara.
@Sean Sean: If the best you can do is replying with an over 400 years old quote, I take it a proof how irrelevant Irish is today for almost the entire Ireland.
Take away the billions in funding and money making, and less than a tiny minority would care and spend time on it.
Time to move on.
@Wolfgang Bonow: Sam Beckett left Ireland saying the locals don’t give a fart in their corduroys for anything like culture. Plus ça change.
@Injustice Cop: You maybe right but not without consequence. Not that that will trouble you a chréatúir.
@Wolfgang Bonow: Like Norwegian or Lithuanian you mean?
Lets be sensible about it, and just make it an optional subject.
Other languages more useful and important
Simple fact
@Ian Cryan: Absolutely correct. Why I do understand the sentimental reasons for parents wishing their kids do Irish in school, in real life, there’s not much use for it at all.
@Ian Cryan: Irish is important because it’s a unique part of Irish culture.
@Wolfgang Bonow: are you Irish
It was very poorly taught during my education not so long ago. It was expected that we should know it and we were mistreated.for not understanding it. Had it been treated like any other foreign language, more people, including myself, would have done much better. Arrogance on the states behalf but all it does is call into question antiquated teaching methods and antiquated topics. If you want people to study Irish, teach it well, make it interesting and worth their time. Beating the history and culture drum only gets you so far.
@Injustice Cop: But at least a foreign language holds the possibility of being useful.
There may be job opportunities, apart from being useful for travel.
Gaelic?
No use at all. for the vast majority.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: I agree
Knowledge of pulse and dynamics in music, oxbow lakes and long division don’t get used on a day to day basis. While Irish might not be used daily either, at least knowledge of it connects us to our past and our culture.
@ecrowley ecrowley: all the things you mention are used daily and as such contribute to our lives in pretty significant ways
@Alan: You use long division regularly? Like not with a calculator? How do you use your knowledge of oxbow lakes?
@ecrowley ecrowley: imagine I was an engineer, a musician, imagine I live in one of our great flood plains. Now do you see the use of these things? Two of these things apply to me. So, there you go.
@Alan: Ok so, from that I can glean that you are none of those things therefore YOU yourself don’t use those things you learned in school on a daily basis either. I didn’t say the knowledge of them wasn’t used, they’re just not used by the vast majority of people on a daily basis. As is the argument of those complaining about the use of Gaeilge.
@ecrowley ecrowley: but you are making a case for Irish, not routinely spoken. So I can’t see the point you are making.
@Alan: My point, very simply, is that we all learned many things in school that the vast majority of us don’t use at all since leaving school.And just because that’s the case, doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth learning in the first place.
Such cynicism! Had Irish been treated as Hebrew was in Israeli schools after 1948, practically the entire country would now be bilingual and more intelligent as a result of it. Bilingualism makes your brain create fresh, new pathways to store and understand and gives you additional frames of reference in problem-solving, not available to monoglots. Society used aspire upwards, rather than dumbing everything down to the lowest common denominator. That makes progress difficult. We, the Irish, need to save our ancient national language from extinction, even if it is not in widespread use. It’s part of us. It’s unique to the Irish, sets us apart, linguistically and culturally, defines us (in a way). If the Scottish and Welsh work to preserve their ancient languages (and they do), why shouldn’t we, as fellow Celts, preserve ours? Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam..
@Antaine (aolbfs): I agree up to a point. Yet if the state can’t be bothered, neither can I as we have more practical things to focus on and have never felt that close to my own culture, especially the negative association I have with Iriah from poor teaching.
@Antaine (aolbfs): Follow Israels example? 40,000 dead so far this time not enough?
@Injustice Cop: Shouldn’t it be the parents’ job rather than the state’s?
@Antaine (aolbfs): You won’t find Welsh or Scottish mandatory at A level.
Studying for Irish at age 18 is a waste of a young person’s resources..
I have no ambition to be on Ros Na Run…why else would you need Irish?
@Dan The Man: “It hath always been the use of the conqueror to despise the language of the conquered and make him, by all means speak the language of the conqueror. The tongue being Irish, the heart must needs be Irish. The tongue being English the heart must needs be English.’” Edmund Spenser 1599.
Is maith an coilíní é an Sasanach gan amhras!
@Sean Sean: classic nationalist drivel. Are you suggesting that to be truly Irish you have to speak the Irish language?
@Alan: I’m quoting a British imperialist. You think it’s drivel. I’m suggesting it would be odd to hear a Dane or a Greek etc. denigrate their own language. Or to take them seriously as an independent nation.
Do you still need a D in Irish to get into the Guards? Or has that been replaced by knowing how to do the Macarena?
Like Latin, Irish is to a large extent, a dead language. In the modern world English is the Lingua Franca and Irish is not likely to be relevant in the long term!
@Brian Hunt: Nach milis and íoróin, “Laidin” (marbh) and “Lingua Franca” a lua le chéile!
@Sub Justice: Is ea!
My kids had to endure the same terrible teaching methods as I myself had to, spelling tests on a Friday of words that are forgotten the following week, fada in the wrong place and it’s a fail, with no focus on firstly being able to speak the language.
Im certainly no expert on the subject but it didn’t work forty years ago and it doesn’t work now. Surely they can convene a special task force ,or maybe a citizens assembly ,definitely have a few meetings about it anyway,with a report, yes a report ,that will sort it.
Hopefully this will change in a few years, seems to be more Gaelscoils and they are teaching how it should have been thought. You basically went from nothing to an hour a day in primary school rote learning something no one really understood the ones that did had someone speak in the family, to learning poetry in first year in secondary school, shock horror when it starts floating in the water for most people.
Gaeilge should be a subject offered to people who have a real interest in the language. It is now more important to concentrate on a European language for students which will enhance better job prospects outside Ireland.
Hardly surprising, it’s a dead language
@Fintan Pox:
D’fhéadfadh sé a bheith marbh duit, ach ní dóibh siúd againn atá líofa sa Ghaeilge.
It also has other uses getting past the Journals strict censorship.
If Irish is so important, why is it being taught so poorly? Why is there so little benefit from learning it apart from divisive heritage claims that work for some and not for others as well as dubious claims around improved employment opportunities? I feel like the only practical reason to learn Irish is to get ones kids into a gaelscoil because it just happens to be better than the school closer to home. That is not a noble reason.
What I cannot fathom or understand is how many students who get an exemption from Irish for whatever reason are perfectly happy studying French, German or Spanish! And I firmly believe the problem with Irish in schools is the way it is taught. LC students are still frequently made to learn essays off by heart!! And the reason for that is the way LC essays are marked. Only about 20% of the marks are given for content or argument or structure while about 80% of the essay marks are given for the quality of the Irish. So, ignore the title of the essay and just use all those ‘stock paragraphs’ which you have learned by heart.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: There’s a practical use for the languages you mentioned, except for Irish. This is the big difference.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: I agree in part, your point on teaching. However there is little case to be made that Irish is more useful, as useful or anywhere near as useful as any other language being taught for the LC. Polish would be far more useful.
It’s a tad vain glory with so many not speaking it, yet it representing (undemocratically) so much space and airtime. My small scared body memories of it almost being shouted at us in tough gutteral. And yet the ladies on TNG speak it beautifully.
I still blame Peig! Miserable old trout ruined Irish for generations of us
It might be an idea to try and consolidate the many versions of Irish we have.
Kerry v Galway v Donegal Irish sound completely different and as someone that learned Galway Irish find the other versions are very difficult to understand.
Irish is a compulsory subject but so is Maths and English. I don’t see anyone complaining about those!
Is French compulsory in France?
@Padraig O’Brien: read the comments. Maths and English are more useful than what many perceive as a dead language. The benefits of English and Maths are objectively more beneficial than Irish for the majority of people. Not everybody wants to achieve a PhD in Irish Literature.
Teachers are no longer allowed to beat it into kids
FFS. What nonsense are these kids and parents listening to? Irish for for the Leaving is the easiest points you can get.The comprehension is the equivalent of 2nd year English.
@Ronan Mc: your comment smacks of hubris
@Ronan Mc: I respectfully disagree. Any subject is easy if you have an aptitude for it. And whoever decided to put Peig on the LC should be banished to an island with no electricity.
“It hath always been the use of the conqueror to despise the language of the conquered and make him, by all means speak the language of the conqueror. The tongue being Irish, the heart must needs be Irish. The tongue being English the heart must needs be English.” Edmund Spenser 1599.
Is maith an coilíní é an Sasanach gan amhras!
@Sean Sean: Bualadh bos.
You still need Irish got one of those lovely jobs with 20 hour weeks and 16 weeks holidays a year with a free lunch thrown in too
Make it compulsory and ram it down their throats like it was in my day….
For someone reading all these comments after having a few pints,
I’d love to be able to speak my language.
PS
Went back to night school 3 times to try and learn it,
PPS
MAYBE IM JUST THICK.
I hated Irish until I got a teacher who was in love with the language. my teacher modernised Irish, slang, jokes about the texts, chat about fellas, crossovers with our local accent/history. the improvement was huge. I found the negativity of my parents generation harping on about peig also warped my own view
My mum has 0 Irish, she left school as a child. Has no idea what Samhain, bainne, Éire or dubh linn mean, only link is the accent. You think that won’t impact a culture and way of thinking? This should be the norm? I googled phrases shes uses like bunkum which came from Buanchumadh, it’s sad
Many people I’ve met from different countries joke about Irish people not having culture as is, comments here proud of this and think they’ll learn Spanish? Nah, look to Britain as proof.
I agree with the Fine Gael proposal , Irish optional after Junior Cert.
Too many new Irish with zero interest to learn
One language for all
@Thesaltyurchin: English, I assume?
I have no problem with children being exempted from languages because of learning difficulties, but the exemption should be for all taught modern languages – if you can’t take the exam in Irish then you shouldn’t have the option to sit Spanish, French, German, etc. That would weed out those gaming the system and depriving their children of an education in the national language.
I sense an upcoming storyline….right after Zammo or whatever his face is enacts his master plan for having the dirt dine on him, and then gaslit.
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