SnaG Trilogy Postscript
As Irish Language Week comes to a close…
…I wonder the future of the Irish language.
Is Gaeilge becoming obsolete?
Is it merely an academic exercise dreaded by students across the island?
Are the Gaeltachts reduced to being tourist attractions?
I confess I do not know.
But the signs of the times seem to point to a diminished need to understand and speak the language. That’s sad, I think.
Looking eastward, though, I’m encouraged by Wales and their fierce national pride reflected in a seemingly healthy Welsh language. So it is possible.
Well, ironically being only a non-Irish-speaking-blow-in, it’s my sincere hope that the Gaeilgeoir* does not become an antiquated notion.
*English = Irish speaker, learner of Irish
I suppose it has something to do with tourist dollars, which is really sad. Since it’s Americans who seem to travel so much, I have to assume that the only Americans representing us have been the ethnocentric demanding jerks we’re always portrayed as in foreign films; the “why can’t these people speak English like real people” type. (Sigh) If it’s any consolation, they’re just as ethnocentric, demanding and jerks over here as they are when they travel. They’re just not really the majority.
14 Mar 2008 at 12:54 pm
Hello there
I found your blog some time ago and now I have to leave a little comment about the Irish Language Week. I am studying Celtic Studies since 2006 and I also started learning Gaeilge at that time. At the moment, a teacher from Ireland is holding a course for us at university and she told us about the Irish Language Week. Our professor even got a mail from someone if we (the students) wanted to say some words to a camera team that is touring through the whole world searching for non-irish people learning Gaeilge. I think it would have been funny, but I am afraid we are not good enough yet.
I think the whole problem started very early, when the Normans came to Ireland, and the people started (or were forced to start) to speak English. I guess nowadays Gaeilge has an old-fashioned touch, which makes it difficult for the teachers in school. Which student wants to learn a language which is only spoken by old people when English is so much easier?
Well, just two cent from a German girl who never set a foot on Irish ground in her life, but who propably speaks Gaeilge much better than most Irish people
14 Mar 2008 at 7:22 pm
Do you have Irish language channels over there, like they do in Scotland? You guys also have more than one language, right? You have Gaelic as well as … Irish / Celtic or something, right?
15 Mar 2008 at 4:02 pm
I don’t have much to say about Irish Language Week except that I hope that the language doesn’t die. I suppose it will eventually become a novel thing.
Your pictures have inspired me to order Darcy O’Gill and the Little People AND The Quiet Man to watch this week.
16 Mar 2008 at 6:07 pm
Thankfully I can report that the Irish language is alive and well in all parts of the country. I have friends with whom I only speak to in Irish. There are many families in Dublin where Irish is their first language. Let’s hope that will continue.
17 Mar 2008 at 10:39 pm
What a shame it would be if the language fell along the edge of the road some day never to be bothered with or picked up by the youth of Ireland. So many of the Native American languages are now all but lost and only spoken or understood by the elders of the different tribes. Even those have become few.
18 Mar 2008 at 9:03 pm
hopefully the language(s) will continue on through dedicated speakers/keepers of it until the next cycle of language interest comes around. hope your day was fun. take care.
19 Mar 2008 at 3:40 am
it is me again
if you ever want to visit an irish course, and if the teacher is called maire ni chualain from galway, please say hello to her from the german girl with the little bear and the little tiger. “an chailin go maith”
19 Mar 2008 at 4:51 pm