An tAmadán Gerard O'Regan / The Foolish Gerard O'Regan
The only evidence that Gerard O'Regan's weird attack
on Irish speakers (Irish Independent, 15th June) was written in 2013 and not 1973 is his reference
to Facebook (which, not uncoincidentally, is how I stay in touch with scores of
my Irish speaking friends).
He's right to note that the Irish education system has
often presented an artificial Irish, which Mr. O'Regan and many others consequently
fold into a bizarre "Peig and Jigs and Turfsmoke and Grammar" image
of traditional Ireland. But there's a bright side: the Department of Education
has greatly improved the teaching of Irish, to such an extent that Mr.
O'Regan's friend "Andrea", who has just done her Leaving Certificate,
is now capable of holding basic conversations in Irish, even if it's
"stilted and exam based". Had Andrea done her Leaving Cert in 1973,
even an A in upper-level Irish would have been absolutely no guarantee of
spoken ability.
Mr. O'Regan says that Andrea will have no use for her
Irish. I'm going to be in Dublin this summer, and my two small Irish-speaking
children need a babysitter. Andrea, with reasonable spoken Irish and a good
education, sounds like a fantastic candidate. Perhaps Mr. O'Regan could put her
in touch with me?
Now, please give poor old Peig a rest. She has as much
to do with my Modern Irish as Wordsworth has to do with Modern English.
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D'fhoilsigh an Irish Independent leagan den litir seo, ach níl teacht éasca uirthi ar a suíomh féin. Tá sé ar fáil trí Gaelport, ámh.
Labels: Department of Education, gaeilge, Gerard O'Regan, irish, Irish Independent, Peig
Tvuítáil, Tweetáil, Tuítáil, nó Giolcadh?
A chara, – Peter McGuire (“G’tweet? G’wan ourra
that, say students”, June 6th) will be glad to know that members of the
Irish language community have been arguing about a good Irish version of
“tweet” for several years now. The official recommendation is “tvuít”,
which is in line with the Irish phonological system, but most of us have
gone with the ungaelicised “tweet” (“Tá Peadar ag tweetáil arís”). A
creative rearguard insist on “giolcach”, however, since that’s what a
bird actually does!
This will all come as news to
the Department of Education, which assumes we don’t exist and simply
makes up words to suit its presentation of Irish as an unauthentic and
artificial second language. Its presentation is, alas, grist to the mill
of uninformed journalists, who tell us without evidence that “Irish has
always struggled to fit in with the popular kids” and who apparently
see the language as little more than Peig and a few seanfhocail.
In
fact, Irish is spoken vigorously across the country and around the
world. We have our own cool kids, thank you very much, and don’t feel
the remotest need to “fit in” with speakers of other languages. – Is
mise,
BRIAN Ó BROIN, PhD, Department of English,
William Paterson University,
New Jersey, US.
Labels: Cool, Department of Education, Éire, gaeilge, Ireland, irish, Irish language, Irish Times, Peter McGuire, Social Media, Tweeting, Tweets, Uncool
Peter McGuire, an Ghaeilge, agus an Irish Times
A snide idiot by the name of Peter McGuire published a foolish attack on the Irish Language in the Irish Times several days ago. I responded with
this letter.
Judging from
this blog entry (an unpublished letter to the Irish Times several months ago), it seems to me that this Peter McGuire fellow is developing a track record. Worst of all, he appears to be a FOLKLORE lecturer at UCD! Given that he lectures in a university department that safeguards one of the biggest folklore collections in all of Europe, most of it in Irish, does he feels inadequate?
God help his students.
Labels: Béaloideas, Folklore, gaeilge, Irish language, Irish Times, Peter McGuire, UCD, University College Dublin
