I fully agree with you! And encourage Gaeltacht people to speak Irish to their children (which they don't always do nowadays).

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

I think one of the big stumbling blocks to people using it at home (outside of the Gaeltacht) is that many people do not feel competent or confident enough with it. Other people are afraid that their children will be seen as different to others on their street.

I firmly believe (and I speak from first hand experience with nothing but school Irish) that if people started off 'giving it a go' they would be amazed how far they would get. Yes, mistakes would be made, the tuiseal ginideach would be avoided more than it should, but those minor issues - and in the big scheme of things, they are minor - would pale in comparison with the kick - and I mean major kick - out of hearing your child calling out in their sleep in Irish instead of English. My four year old had her tonsils out last week and after the anaesthetic could only speak to the nurse in Irish. When she came around fully, she could obviously adapt again. This, from two parents, with nothing but school Irish and a few Irish courses, who took a notion seven years ago when we had our first child.

You will see by the questions that I post that I am still seeking some of the language of the home (amidst a million other things!), but while we are still learning ways to improve what we have, we have found alternatives to tide us over. I would recommend anyone with decent (even if somewhat limited Irish) to use Irish as much as possible with their children. There is no downside and many, many upsides! The benefits of bilingualism are considerable. And I agree completely that schools can do a lot of good, but for a language to survive, it needs to be out in the community.

By the way, I am in Kildare, not exactly a Gaeltacht heartland!

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there are parents who aren't competent at all and who teach poor Irish to their children too, so I think those who have "average" Irish should give a try, and Gaeltacht people even more so!

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Parents in Ireland with no Irish can put TG4 on for their children to watch the cartoons and other suitable programmes; they can buy cds with rhymes and songs as Gaeilge; they can send them to Gaelscoileanna (if there is one nearby); they can buy cd roms and download the few Irish language games available online. All of these opportunities to expose children to the language are available to all. I agree parents in the Gaeltacht should theoretically have the easiest time of all, but many seem to struggle with it. Is it easier to bring a child up through Irish in the Gaeltacht or in the Galltacht in 2012? The answer might not be so obvious.

Re the primary school discussion, I would think we have the right to have our children educated through Irish; I would love somebody not living close to a Gaelscoil, or living close to one without adaquate enough space for all the children who wish to go there, to challenge the government on it.

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Do you have the equivalent of "charter schools" in Ireland (i.e., partially publically funded schools that are run by a board of parents and teachers under a charter (hence the name) rather than by the local board of education)?

Redwolf

As far as I know, all schools are publicly funded here. A very small minority of schools also charge fees and are considered private, but they receive state funding; their teachers are paid by the state etc. Some are run by religious orders, others are not, but they all follow the same curriculum as set down by the state.

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why? Since they are the only people who speak Irish naturally, why would they have any difficulty? Would you have difficulty bringing your children up speaking English?

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

I am not questioning their ability at all; clearly they have the knowledge and are best equipped to do so. They seem to struggle for other reasons; I'm not sure what they are. A native of Conamara told me once that when the bus passed a certain point on the journey to Galway city, most people switched from speaking Irish to English, as if they was some shame associated with the language. Maybe that has changed now.

If people in the Gaeltacht were not struggling, the language would be thriving there and it doesn't seem to be. The growth in the language seems to be outside the Gaeltacht. It was also pointed out to me recently, although I do not know if this is true, that parents in the Gaeltacht rarely buy Irish language books for their children. I find it hard to believe. Maybe Bríd would have more to add to this discussion?

It is a struggle for many parents in the Gaeltacht to bring their children up through Irish; I'm not sure why that is.

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but it's not the same thing. The transmission of the language has been broken outside the Gaeltacht. It's as if I spoke English to my children, something will always be missing, in comparison to someone who has always spoken it and who has received it from native speakers who have received it from native speakers etc for centuries.
If Irish ever disappears in the Gaeltacht, Irish will become as Manx: a dead language that has been revived. Something will always be missing. Of course it's cool when a language is being revived, but it's much better to keep it alive, to keep the natural transmission going.



maybe because all children's books in Irish are in standard Irish and not in the Irish they speak? Sometimes there's a big difference. Like if you read a story to your child and if it's full of things you never use in your everyday life (there may even be words that they don't understand, for instance new coined words), it may be a problem.

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Is fearr Gaeilg na Gaeltaċta ná Gaeilg ar biṫ eile
Agus is í Gaeilg Ġaoṫ Doḃair is binne

Of course, I agree that it's better if native speakers pass it on instead of people who had been brought up through a different language. By the way, there are native speakers living outside the Gaeltacht too.


It is true that many books are written in standard Irish, but not all are. We have books/cds with different dialects - yes, I can even remember buying one or two by mistake in Donegal Irish!

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