Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE GOVERNMENT IS to fund US and Canadian students to travel to the Gaeltacht to learn Irish.
Minister of State for the Irish Language, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, Joe McHugh has announced today that he has sanctioned funding of €726,604 to support the teaching of the Irish language in America and Canada.
As part of the fund, which is part of the Fulbright Commission and the Ireland Canada University Foundation (ICUF), awards are to be given to American and Canadian students who visit Ireland during the summer months to attend intensive Irish language courses in the Gaeltacht.
“This funding awards American and Canadian students the wonderful opportunity to spend some time in the Gaeltacht regions during the summer learning the Irish language, gaining an understanding of the richness of the language and also getting a taste of local life,” said the minister.
Strengthen bonds between countries
He added that it is hoped the Irish language programmes will strengthen the strong cultural connection between the United States of America and Canada.
The minister said the funding will also be used help Irish language teaching assistants from Ireland to attend third level institutions in America and Canada.
In addition, the Subsidiary Fund for Third Level Institutions Abroad, which was set up in 2006 to assist the provision of Irish language courses as part of the academic programme in universities abroad, will continue.
Thus far, over 40 institutions around the world have availed themselves of the scheme – in America, Canada, Australia, China and Europe – to make Irish language classes available to their students.
McHugh said the schemes “will help to inform the academic community in America and Canada about the Irish language and its rich heritage as one of the oldest vernaculars in Europe. As a result of this, the Irish language will have equal status to other European languages being taught abroad”.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Smells of FAS escapades to me. Probably from “connected” families.
How many kids from Irish working class areas are sponsored for Gaeltacht hols.?
@William Kelly: quite a few were when I went anyway
@William Kelly:
How many working class kids want to go? We live in the real world.
You couldn’t get mine to go with a cattle prod
My guess is that these students will after just a month have a better functional spoken level of Irish than most Irish teenagers after the school curriculum they follow. Unless the Dept of Education can tick the boxes in exams and examine the oral Irish in a manufactured rote fashion they are not happy. Why can’t the emphasis be on the fun and the craic be on the ability to actually speak the language ( Des Bishop and Hector have both shown the way) With the confidence to speak the language comes the confidence to pick up other languages .
@Dave Phelan: maybe if it wasn’t force fed to children and teachers didn’t ridicule those that struggled like I did.
I’m 40 years old and I despise the language for that simple reason. It’s only use seems to be as a stick to beat me with
@Karl: I totally understand the sentiments you express. They are a symptom of the mentality of the Department of Education and their inspectorate and their insistence that curriculum change is driven only by their focus on the exams and their bell curves of results. The urgent need is to take the focus from the text book and rote learning and focus on the fun and craic of being able to speak the language.
I was at a big family barbeque hosted by an East European couple recently – he is Czech, she Latvian and a lot of their workmate friends are from all over the former Eastern block. English and Russian were the common languages.
There were about 10 kids from a few families at it and they could all speak to me in Irish better than my own!
Just another language to the two or three they grow up with to them.
Funny that government will pay student from us and Canada to learn Irish language, but none of the Irish people I know is able to speak Irish language themselves. Probably better option would be to high up the level they learn in schools. And definitely make sure they are able to Speak Irish after. My daughter is 4 and is able to speak Irish up to her young age. But none of my neighbors kids are even interested. Sad to see how Irish people let their own language go away. 4 y old girl can speak 3 languages even if Irish is not her heritage language. I’m sick of Irish people’s telling me o that’s such great thing. She’ll make sure our Irish language will never disappear. But their kids don’t speak basics at all. Irish people shouldn’t rely on foreign kids to make sure their heritage is alive
@Andrzej Maliszewski: What a fantastic reply. We can learn so much from your wonderful attitude to language. Thank you
@Andrzej Maliszewski: Languages are such an important part of who we are and where we have come from as a people. It is important that we value this part of our culture as much as the music, dance, sport, mountains, valleys etc. that belong to us. We are not just a western county of England or an eastern state of the US. Obviously, we have much in common with them, but we are Ireland and we are unique. Ádh mór ort agus ar do chailín óg.
@Andrzej Maliszewski: Well said. The Irish are horrified when people ask us are we British when abroad. They boo England in the world cup and yet don’t bother with our own language.
A nation of hypocrites.
@Ciara Ni Mhurchu: what use is it?
Am I likely to be greeted in Irish anywhere else in the world? No. Simple as.
Learn a living language that has genuine advantages to it or at least make Irish optional.
My kids can opt out and by God they will, time better spent on other areas and they won’t suffer the teachers insults like I did
There are plenty of actual Irish people who’d love an opportunity to learn Irish!
They’d be better off learning Esperanto !
And the great Irish language money pit continues
Could they not be put through the Varadkar School of journalism instead ?
Co-Sponsored by Big Dennis.
There are plenty of actual Irish people who’d love an opportunity to learn Irish!
@Ciara Ni Mhurchu: that’s what Irish classes in schools are for…and there are (or at least were) scholarships available to go the the Gaeltacht. I got it 2 summers in a row, awarded via the school so ask.
Our own children cant speak the language but here we are giving tax payers money away to foreign kids ,what an absolute disgrace ,Its high time we got the learning process right in our own back yard .
This is an absolutely dreadful idea. First of all, the students in question will only be here briefly and will NOT have opportunity to practice their Irish once returning. Some small number of them might remember a few phrases in a year or two, but that’s about it. How does that further Ireland’s ends? Don’t we have enough tourists already?
Secondly, Ireland’s teaching of Irish to adults, having participated in it for several years now, really needs to be examined closely. Adults don’t learn language like children, they need a framework and rules and tons of practice. Grammar is the rules, and frankly Irish grammar books, at least the 5 or 6 we’ve found, aren’t great, lots of errors and inconsistencies. One can argue that the ‘design’ of Irish grammar rules, relies way too much on Latin grammar ‘made to fit’ to a model for Irish. Government would spend its money well on improving teaching in Ireland of Irish to adults, rather than this touristy-thing described in this article. Bad idea, waste of money.
@Matthew Kaufman: But of course they will have the chance to use it. There are millions more fluent Irish speakers in the US than there are here.
Ridiculous!
@Desmond Lyons: please elaborate?
I want to learn irish effectively so much so that i can be a life long extra in Ros Na Run.
Put that money towards bringing a foreign language to our kids. One they can use abroad.
Spain, France, Italy, etc all take advantage of the EU language scheme whereby native English speakers work in the schools helping the kids practice English.
They play games, go on excursions and have normal conversations in English and it works. They learn the language and how to use it
It’s coming home
have your say