Is the Irish language still a political issue in Ireland ?

Question

It sure was linked with the fight for independance. But what about the situation nowadays ? Irish politicians don't seem so keen on speaking Irish, do they ? It's strange because when I first went to Ireland, I saw many things were written both in English and in Irish but Irish people themselves often can speak it. Is one of you a native Irish speaker, by the way, I just want to check if there are many of them

Answer 1

I'm Irish and living in Ireland, and no, I'm not a native Irish speaker. You're right, there aren't many of them around ... but I think that the number of schools which teach through Irish has grown considerably over the past 20 years, I only knew of a few in the country when I was a teenager, now there is one is every good-sized town. The teaching of the language has had to undergo major changes, and is still undergoing major changes.

During the nineteen nineties Ireland got its first Irish language television station, initially called Telefis na Gaeilge and nicknamed TnaG, this became TG4 only we actually call it TG ceathair (you say 'kah-her', and this means 'four').

It's not really a political issue at the moment, given that it's no longer compulsory for going to NUI universities, but you do need it to get into the civil service and primary school teaching.

Irish politicians are like politicians anywhere in the world - they'll speak whatever language they think their voters want to hear. Plus there are now so many people from so many other countries living and working in Ireland, that the government has had to get a lot of necessary information translated into Polish and Russian and Czech and languages like that. But I like it that we've become more multicultural, Ireland was too insular for far too long.

Answer 2

One political issue is that millions of euro have recently been spent on translating various government policy documents & reports into Irish and rarely if EVER is one of these ordered. But it's got to be done, whether or not there's any demand. Just one instance of Irish Language political correctness gone mad.

Answer 3

Do you mean Southern Ireland or the North

Answer 4

There are some Irish with black hair (as opposed to red) who are called "black Irish" precisely because Spain invaded Ireland, another Catholic country, well before the Middle Ages, and hence, the physical similarity. Sounds like you know an awful lot already. However, Spanish invasions of Great Britain were repelled, so any physical similarities there I would imagine would be with intermarrying a Spaniard or Basque or a black Irishman or woman.

Answer 5

although its not widely spoken its not dying out completely we have plenty of primary schools teaching children through Irish and judging by the demand of these schools there still plenty of interest in the language and its growing.

Answer 6

I JUST HOPE THE IRISH DON'T LOSE THEIR NATURAL ACCENT, AS IT IS BEAUTIFUL TO THE HEAR........
MY OPINION.... THAT IS............