The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
WHAT NEXT FOR THE IRISH LANGUAGE?
TÁ Seachtain na Gaeilge buailte linn arís, agus, dá bharr sin, tá an seac ceist céanna á phlé arís: cad é an scéal lenár dteanga dhúchais amach anseo?
THE KERRYMAN: “Even though Corca Dhuibhne is seen as a strong Gaeltacht region, I find most people our age speak English to each other. Would you feel comfortable starting a conversation in Irish with someone your age? I’m not sure I would, to be honest!”
TOMÁS: “I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable, I’ve grown up with Irish around me all my life! But, unfortunately, I only speak Irish to a small number of people my age in Corca Dhuibhne.”
CIARA: “I wouldn’t say I feel uncomfortable, but there’s only a handful of friends I’d speak Irish to straight away if I met them; I’d be more naturally inclined to speak English.”
THE KERRYMAN: “But we all have Irish, and it’s supposed to be our language around here, so why do we use English?”
CIARA: “I think there used to be too much pressure to speak Irish and speak it to a high standard – and that led them to speak English instead! Perhaps we took Irish for granted too, which helped English become more popular amongst young people locally. Thankfully, I think both those problems are easing off a bit”
THE KERRYMAN: Let’s go outside Corca Dhuibhne for a minute. We all did Irish in [NUI] Galway; what kind of reaction did you get from young people from other parts of the country when you spoke Irish to them?
Tá ár dteanga i ngleic an t-aos óg, agus dá bharr sin thóg ár tuairisceoir Tadhg Evans an bhfeachtas ar láimh labhairt le beirt cainteoir dhúchas ó Chorca Dhuibhne - Ciara de Mórdha agus Tomás
I never felt uncomfortable speaking Irish to my classmates in Áras na Gaeilge [the Irish language building].
TOMÁS: “Neither did I. I spent more time in Áras na Gaeilge than I did anywhere else in college; I felt at home there because I heard Irish all the time.
“Sometimes you’d get funny looks from non-speakers passing by when they heard Irish, but other than that I never felt out of place speaking Irish on campus.”
THE KERRYMAN: I found when I was there, I could be talking Irish to one person in the class, but then I’d turn around to someone from Corca Dhuibhne and switch to English – did ye ever find that?
TOMÁS: “Yes, unfortunately, and it baffled me. I had a couple of friends from Corca Dhuibhne in NUIG, and we always conversed in English. I think the problem is the mindset.”
THE KERRYMAN: But why did we use English only with Gaeilgeoirí from Corca Dhuibhne? Did the people from other Gaeltachts do that too, or was it just us?
CIARA: “They did actually. The people in my class from Connemara, for example, spoke a lot of English to each other, but Irish to everyone else!”
“Experts promoting the language have identified that as a common problem, and are looking at ways of battling it. Mac an tSaoir - maidir leis an dteanga inar tógadh iad ón gcliabhán.
Fuinneadh agus fáisceadh Ciara agus Tomás sa Ghaolainn. D’fhsadar suas i mBaile an Fheirtéaraigh, agus
If you got kids talking Irish to each other from age three or whatever, they would probably speak Irish to each other for the rest of their lives.
“It’s like this: I studied French for a while, and when I met my French teacher out and about on campus, we spoke French – even though English was our first language!”
THE KERRYNAN: Whatever about the Gaeltachts, things seem to be getting better elsewhere. Can the Gaeltachts learn from that?
TOMÁS: “Yeah, the language is strengthening everywhere else, especially in the cities, where people are clubbing together and creating opportunities to use Irish.
“I think that might relieve some of the pressure on the Gaeltachts too. I think people around here felt pressure to preserve the language – it was as if we were Gaeilge’s last hope of surviving, and that was a big ask to put on our shoulders!”
CIARA: “When I was in college I used Irish all the time – and the people I spoke to weren’t all from Gaeltachts originally. Far from it, actually.
There’s a revolutionary movement happening out there! I have a friend going to UCD, and she said there’s a massive Irish club there, and it’s the same in many other colleges!
Things are better today than they were ten years ago. People had a negative perception of Irish because the material in bhain an mbeirt acu céim amach sa Ghaeilge in Ollscoil na Gaillimhe i 2015.
D’fiafraigh An Kerryman a thuairimí a roinnt leo maidir leis an dteanga i cCorca Dhuibhne, agus lasmuigh.
classrooms was dated, but those promoting the language identified a need to drag Irish into the 21st century, and they’ve done that successfully.
Initiatives like Seachtain na Gaeilge and Coláiste Lurgan have proven Irish can modernise; it’s gone from being unfashionable to cool in just a few years.”
THE KERRYMAN: We’ll come back to Corca Dhuibhne to finish up. Do you see a future here based on its use by young people today?
TOMÁS: “Right now, no, but things change quickly. The language lost many speakers inside one generation because of the Famine. But, on the flip side, if we placed the right foundations we could just as easily revive the language within one generation!”
CIARA: “I think it has a future here! We know now we have to work to keep it alive, but we’re doing that. I work at a preschool in Clochán - traditionally seen as one of the weakest parts of the Gaeltacht - and we teach the kids through Irish because that’s what their parents want. Because of that positivity from parents, many young people in Clochán are now fluent speakers.
“The big thing for me is getting people using Irish with each other from a very young age, and creating more opportunities to use Irish in a social setting. If we do that, I think it has a chance!”