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DETRACTORS SAY THE Irish language is on its last legs, held together by government grants, a handful of fanatics and a cúpla focal served up each year on St Patrick’s Day.
This judgment has become a mantra for Irish people who have bad memories of learning the language at school.
Demands are made for an end to compulsory Irish, the process by which pupils spend twelve years learning the language but cannot manage a simple conversation in it.
Census figures
Census figures published a fortnight ago seem to back up this opinion, revealing a decline in the number of Irish speakers even inside Gaeltacht areas, the tobar or well which nourishes and replenishes the language.
Raidió na Gaeltachta, (RnaG) the Irish language radio station, spent several days bemoaning the statistics while Sean Kyne, junior minister for the Gaeltacht, donned his body armour and dutifully took the flak, wriggling out of every argument with a Beckettian flourish.
An entirely new approach is needed.
Learning Irish again
Over the past year I travelled the length and breadth of Ireland, gathering opinions and experiences from people who have and haven’t learned the language, who love or loathe an Ghaeilge.
I began to learn Irish again, one focal at a time, curious to see how far I could go with it. The outcome is Coming Home: One man’s return to the Irish language, a journey which begins with the death notices on RnaG.
I discovered that just a few generations ago, Irish was the language of everyday life, of love-making, of putting your kids to bed, the language of farming and fighting and poetry. The language declined and almost disappeared, beaten out of schoolchildren, associated with poverty and hardship. In its place came English, the language of possibility.
The Easter Rising in 1916 and the Irish Republic which followed, gave prominence to the Irish language but responsibility for its resurrection was offloaded onto the schools. The rest, as they say, is history, painfully imprinted on the bodies and minds of schoolchildren.
Planet Gaelach
It came as some surprise then to discover “Planet Gaelach”, a world of enthusiasm and excitement for the Irish language, hiding in plain sight, just under the radar of the English speaking majority.
The weekly meetups in cafes in every town and city, the pop-up Gaeltachts, where people conjure up a Gaeltacht wherever they are, gardening sessions and Gaelic football, as Irish comes alive in dynamic and informal settings. A peaceful language revolution is underway.
I combined RnaG with a slow reading of contemporary fiction, the likes of Alex Hijmans, a Dutch-born Irish speaker who lives in Brazil and writes fiction in Irish. I found a Múinteoir-Mentor as I call it, someone willing to “adopt” me and put up with my scratchy pidgin language until I developed smoother notes. No money ever changed hands between us.
You are never far from an Irish speaker, but you need a “Gaeldar”, to find them, as they don’t usually have a fáinne tattooed on their foreheads.
Irish is on the move
Irish is on the move as thousands of children attend Gaelscoileanna, Irish language primary schools, learning the easy way, by immersion. Their parents, many of them from the “lost” generation, have discovered a grá for a language that never stood a chance first time round.
Perhaps the most startling discovery on this journey has been the realisation that successive Irish governments, led by Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael, have been obstacles to the progress of the language.
In the north of Ireland, the situation is dramatically different. In the Newtownards road, the heart of loyalist Belfast, more people signed up for Irish classes last autumn than on the Fall’s Rd, the home of Republicanism. The first Gaelscoil in Belfast opened with nine pupils in 1971, followed by Coláiste Feirste, the nearby secondary school, which now has 650 pupils.
Bring the language to life
Last week a handful of brave souls, belonging to “Misneach”, an Irish language activist group, briefly occupied the offices of the Department for Gaeltacht affairs in Dublin. Their demand is simple, “Saol trí Ghaeilge atá uainn”, we demand the opportunity to live our lives through Irish.
The hour has come for a generation of instigators and creatives to get to work, bringing the language to life while also calling time on the government bluff.
Some combination of naíonraí, (pre-school education), easy going non-judgmental public displays of affection (ciorcal comhrá, pop-up Gaeltacht etc) along with a guerrilla campaign of action which would, for once and for all, force the government to facilitate citizens wishing to conduct daily life in either of the two official first languages of Ireland.
At that point the census figures will tell another story.
Michael McCaughan is an Irish writer and journalist best known for his work in Latin America. He has written for the Irish Times, the Guardian, Hot Press, Village Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Sunday Telegraph. His latest book is Coming Home: One man’s return to the Irish language, (Gill, March 2017). His website is cominghometoirish.com.
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Locals not angry at the locals who did this, but blame the government instead for using the wrong sort of paint.
Classic.
@alphanautica: how are they supposed to do that? Guard the bridge?? There are already laws against this but no Gardai to patrol and look out for this. Using anti-graffiti paint even on the interior of the bridge should have been considered it looks awful.
@Deborah Behan: weird concept I know, in this day and age, but some of the artists involved would have parents living in the local community who might exercise some influence over their charges.
@alphanautica: I thought that too. However, the only quote in the article from a local is one condemning the others for the graffiti.
@alphanautica: yeah, those FG swines keeping all that anti graffiti paint for their rich pals on the south side of dublin. Only the cheap B&Q stuff for us northsiders!
@alphanautica: good point, except that the graffiti writers are not local
@Rip Van Winkle: and how do you know that ?
@Rip Van Winkle: you cannot say that for a fact that it wasn’t local ..
@alphanautica: Graffiti is not restricted to “bad” parenting , these so called artist do this for attention , if there efforts are painted over immediately and this can be done by volunteers , these kids will stop using this bridge for their vandalism
So the community is angray that the taxpayer didnt pay extra fo prevent the community from destroying it’s stuff.
@Neal Ireland Hello.: How do you know it wasn’t vandals from other part of town / country ?
@Neal Ireland Hello.: the kind of tags there aren’t locals. Spray paint isn’t cheap. Ussually kids from nicer areas you roll in. Put a few crap tags down and skate or cycle off.
I’am sure most cyclists would be relieved to cross the bridge without being beaten, stabbed, and mugged by the natives rather then complaining about the paintwork.
@Dave Hogan: Cyclists don’t use it….. While it’s a great idea it’s an inconvenience to the “morning commute” cyclist.
@Ian Breathnach: where’s your evidence that cyclists don’t use it?
@Dermot Lane: they’re too busy clogging up roads the length and breadth of the country and not pulling the f@ck over!!!! Look at them in their skin tight leotards with the crack of their fat arses shown to the world!!! Get out of my way fatty!
@David: Ranty McRant head… here’s a chill pill, go take it!
@Dub_Right: found a cyclist
@Dave Hogan: That is a disgraceful comment
@David: Main reason no body uses it is there is no way to get on to it. They haven’t connected it to a cycle lane. To use it you need to take a left and then a right off the main road. It then leads to another road that you take a right to take back on to the main road you came off.
It is decidedly inconvenient
What’s the story with the littering there too!!!!!
Visited Japan last year. would never see vandalism or littering there. too much pride in their country. pity it’s lost here
@James O Donoghue: Japan is very nice country indeed but people there are simple nutters and I would never swap life here and there to be honest.
@James O Donoghue: wait till Luas is joined every gemhead and scanger invading the rest of Dublin sterilisation for the lot of them I say !!!!
The standard of graffiti in this area is shockingly poor. If anything this highlights the need for a larger spend on Art in our school system
@Zx5vZulB: they’d have to go to school to get any use from it..
Surely they should be angry at the people who have so little regard for new things that they ruin them for everyone by vandalising them…
@Jennie Conneely: father no good mother no good how could you expect the child to be any good!!!
I worked with a roads authority and anti-graffiti paint is not worth a ball of blue.. Useless.. when graffiti is painted on it a special chemical has to be used to get the graffiti off.. its as much hassle and as expensive as if anti-graffiti paint hadn’t be used..
That yoke needs a bit of colour. Pity the vandals weren’t a bit more arty.
@Missyb211: or, commission an up and coming artist
It’s their own Gurriors , oops – sweet children who are doing this – bless them , because they know not what they do !
If you brought up your children correctly with respect for others property and a civic spirit this would not be happening !
@Mike Howard: Hey would you like a bigger brush to tar everyone in that area with?
@Mike Howard: you haven’t got a clue what you’re talking about. I lived in the area for 7 years I assure you the local heads aren’t into the graffiti scene. It’s predominantly kids from middle class backgrounds who go out and tag/bomb all along the rail lines. The locals suffer the graffiti and your ignorance
Catch them doing it, make them repaint the bridge and bill them the cost of materials.
I was scrolling down, just awaiting to see a pic of an evoke tag and look! what a surprise.
The city centre is ruined with that word everywhere.
Serious fines and possible judicial sentences need to start being given out to discourage kids from doing this, it’s rampant at this stage.
Excuse me for not being surprised? And when McDonald’s in Rathmines decided to redecorate several years ago, what wallpaper did they choose? Something that looks like the graffitied buildings in Chicago!
They should also ask questions about which of their neighbors are throwing bags of rubbish on the bridge.
Should just pay the cost of anti graffiti paint to street artist to paint the bridge. Some idiot was bound to doggie they might be less likely if it was already painted with street art representing the area.
You can be guaranteed that if this was in Malahide, Howth, Foxrock, Mount Merrion that this bridge would be free of these paint scrawls(hardly graffiti) and no rubbish would be left there just like that…
The Bridge is horrible looking anyways and won’t be used!
@Dub_Right: ha I’ve live in Howth. Everything gets graffitied at some point here. EVERYTHING!.
The only difference here is that the council clean it off pretty fast compared to “other” areas(Read: less well off areas)
Dosco scrubbing brush and bottles of Cif handed out to the locals ?
Not only bad graffiti but dumping rubbish bags as well Sh!€hole
The bridge does still work.
Surprisingly I don’t see any used syringes lying around in the photo
have your say