a question i would like to hear everyone's answer to

I would remove it from schools and ban any state promotion of it. Drive it underground. The current policy has Irish on life support. It has helped prevent total eradication but its not going to achieve much else.

Eventually many people might turn to it voluntarily as it would become counter cultural and may become a peaceful cultural alterative to the soullessness of modern life. The original zeal and enthusiasm of the 19th century cultural revival might be looked at again with some profit. The example of Modern Wales might offer some practical pointers.

We need to look to other countries that have successfully revived a language.
One such example is the revival of spoken Hebrew from no native speakers to 8.3 million residents of Israel.
Only half of those who speak it in Israel use it as their first language, but it is widespread as the second language.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revival_of_the_Hebrew_language#Revival_of_spoken_Hebrew

I agree with Mal, we need to all individuals use it as a start.
Is fearr Gaeilge bhriste ná Béarla cliste:)

Guím as Gaeilge.

An chuid is mó den am.



NB(giota beag Gaeilge)

A proposal from the late Desmond Fennell:


‘Most of us don’t want to speak Irish, but we like to have Irish in our lives’, writes the provocative Desmond Fennell, in one of his concluding essays in his just published autobiography.* ‘We cherish Irish, the surveys show, as a precious part of our national heritage. We are glad there are Gaelscoileanna, a Ráidió na Gaeltachta and a TG4; that the destinations of buses are shown in Irish as well as English, and to hear that there is a magazine of news and comment in Irish on the internet. We would not like everything in Ireland to be in English only’.



But, he warns, there are other examples where a minority language receives much the same treatment, but is fading out of sight like the sun setting on Galway Bay. Poor old Latin. It is a dead language but still taught in thousands of schools. A Latin online daily bulletin gives the world’s news and carries ads. A radio station broadcasts the news weekly in Latin. Latin enthusiasts organise social gatherings. But despite all this, Latin remains a dead language. Is Irish sinking fast the same way too?



For a minority language under pressure by a dominant language, and to have a chance of living into the future, it needs to have a sizeable self-renewing community speaking and writing it. Surveys also show that former Gaeltacht districts are shifting from Irish to English. The Irish language has no such dynamic community. Fennell suggests that it is time to declare a language emergency.


The most valuable achievement of the Irish language movement to date is that there are now several thousand men and women throughout Ireland who speak and write Irish well. They display as wide a vocabulary as the average educated user of any other European language. ‘They are a national treasure because they embody the Irish language alive today. Indeed because of their wide diversity of circumstance and occupation, they embody it more fully than any Gaeltacht did.’



Echoing the example of the Irish language movement (Conradh na Gaeilge ) of more than a century ago, which successfully brought the language into the lives of thousands of Irish people, Fennell suggests that a similar tactic today may produce even better results. Invite one thousand people, who are already at ease speaking Irish in their daily lives, to form a cohesive group or community. Others could be admitted following an annual examination. They would agree on a name for the community, to speak Irish in their homes, and hold general and regional conventions. They would wear a discreet badge so they could identify themselves to each other and to people generally.


The badge would become a mark of positive distinction. The annual entrance examination for new members would become a big national occasion. ‘It would provide a prestigious goal for Gaelcholáistí and for university places in Irish. Apart from holding annual conventions, this body of Irish language perpetuators would carry out its remit simply by living, speaking and writing Irish, and growing annually.’



The writer believes that all this is doable. Such a movement would be the nearest thing possible to replace the dwindling Irish-speaking minority who are at present opting to speak English. ‘I can think of no reason why it should not be done. If it is not done, Irish will be well on the way to becoming a dead language; a language spoken or written in classrooms, on radio and TV, or as the cúplaí focal of politicians and on the designation signs of buses. All this reminding us, symbolically, like the reproving ghost, of the language we could have kept alive.’

Don't apologize, Connacht, that was an excellent post.

totally agree

Most prominent Irish speakers are now firmly progressive ideologically. As are many catholics, with the enthusiastic blessing of the current papacy.

If you could magically turn Ireland into a Gaelic speaking country overnight it would still be a progressive nirvana. It may be an intrinsically good thing to revive the native language but the bulk of our people reject much of the faith and cultural values of that vanished Gaelic Civilisation.

Irish Conservativism is in an even more dire state than the language.