Decline of the Irish Language?

Question

So, what would you guys say the main causes are/were.

I'm not ignorant to this - I just want to hear what some Irish folk have to say about it.

Answer 1

i do believe things and attitudes are changing especially at school level when it comes to Irish children starting school are learning Irish in a fun new and exciting way which makes it more enjoyable to them children now in primary are alot more interested in the language because of the way it is taught it all has to do with attitude of the educational board and i feel they have learned from past mistakes and want children of today to embrace their national language and enjoy it my son is in primary school and they enjoy learning Irish because of the way it is taught to them today i think it is an important part of our culture and heritage for our children to experience.i think people maybe have had bad experiences of learning Irish at school years ago but things have changed and why destroy it for our children who are the adults of tomorrow

Answer 2

I think the main causes are that firstly no one can speak it (or at least not many people) because of lack of enthusiasm with learning the Irish language. It is such a boring, dull, hard subject at the school that most people I know did not enjoy at all.

I don’t know whether it’s a good thing or not, but I think the sooner it dies, the better (and yes, I know the amount of thumbs down I’ll get for that but that’s my opinion).

Instead of learning Irish in primary school, I think it should be compulsory that we learn a foreign language like French/German/Spanish etc. instead. A language that people can speak, it will be useful and you can eventually be fluent in it.

= )

Answer 3

the english. we would speak it now, if the english didnt murder us for doing it.

Answer 4

The Irish language almost died  out for the same reasons that many other minority languages in Western Europe have declined  Scots Gaelic , Welsh , Breton , Fresian to name a few. English became the dominant language of trade.government , education and the legal system under British rule. Additionally the Potato Famine of 1845-48 hit the west of Ireland and the poorest tenant farmers hardest and these were the people who still spoke Irish. Continued depopulation and emigration throughout the nineteenth century continued the trend until we were left with Irish being spoken only in the gaeltacht areas in Kerry , Connemara and Donegal With the Celtic cultural revival of the late nineteenth / early twentieth century Irish became an integral part of the nationalist movement. Following the establishment of the Free State the new government set about attempting to revive the language. This was instituted by adding Irish to street signs and compulsory Irish teaching in schools and using Irish as another official language of government. In practise this went with a fanatical social conservatism  and a particularly joyless version of catholic piety , sexual repression and economic depression. Unfortunately for the Irish language all this official effort was submerged by the rising flood of US/British dominated mass media and popular culture. With the increasing engagement of Ireland in the global economy . fuelled in part by being an English speaking  workforce, the prospect of the Irish Language being he primary language of Ireland seems farther away than ever. It's a bit of a shame really as the Irish language has quite a lot going for it and it is a part of who we are. Now almost thirty years later I wish I'd actually listened at school

Answer 5

irish isn't spoken anywhere else in the world except for remote parts of the west of ireland

parents discouraged their children from speaking it as it was seen as backward so their kids could get jobs in the uk,america,australia etc.

it's thought in a very bad way(rammed down our throats)i was put through 14 years of learning it and can't speak a word on the other hand i went through  8 years of french no  i speak it fluently,thatt's an example of how bad it's thought

it's really a useless language because no other countries speak it,it's still useless no matter which way you try to dress it up.

in my opinion it's an awful language it's very harsh to the ear

Answer 6

The causes for the decline of the irish language are as follows and happened between the mid 1800's and 1900's

(im studying this for my leaving cert)

1. During the famine people needed to emmigrate to other countries for better lives and jobs, to do this they needed to speak english so many never bothered to teach their children how to speak it.

2.Only the smallest regions of ireland were fluent, Ghaeltachs such as connemara and kerry, as the years went on the people were forced to speak english or be brutally murdered by the RIC or the Black and Tans.

3.The introduction of english sports such as rugby and football replaced the traditional hurling and gaelic football so this alienated many irish people from their heritage and began speaking even more english.

4.The irish language was mainly associated with Catholics/Nationalists and Rebels, while english was associated with Unionists, Protestants and Those who gave into british rule. To speak irish was dangerous back in that time

5.Even the way it is still taught in school today!you spend 14 years learning it and then your tested on some **** poetry and stories in your final two years.Everything you have learned goes out the window and all those verbs that have been beaten into over your life are forgotten.The teaching of the language has to be fun otherwise nobody will lear it and i think that irish will be dead in 200 years.

Answer 7

1)well irish isnt spoken anywhere in the world apart from ireland.

2)english is the most important language to learn all around the world, so its useful. and people where taught whatever language their parents spoke

3)young people are seeing the irish language as useless because unless you want to be a teacher or study irish, you really dont need it to a certain extent.

4)Some politicans want to make irish an optional choice for secondary school

....in a way id like to see the irish language around for a good while. Im average at it i enjoy it anyways.

what i think they should do is, make irish compulsary to learn, but maybe not an exam subject due to amts failing the leaving cert.

or even make it a core exam subject for junior cert(like now) and then make it compulsary to learn at leaving cert and not an exam.

you still get the knowledge

Answer 8

Irish is still spoken in Canada, in Newfoundland, as well as in some Gaeltacht areas in Ireland itself.

I am slowly bringing my own knowledge of the language back by watching TG4, the Irish language channel. I didn't use it for years because I was learning other languages.

I think a huge obstacle to learning the language is how it's taught. It could be made fun, it doesn't have to be dry and difficult at all. I have worked as an English language teacher and this is a difficult language, but it can be made fun and interesting - why not do the same for Irish?

It's true that the Norman invasion and subsequent English settlement of Ireland did a great deal of damage to the Irish language. This cannot be ignored. However, this also added an element of mysticism and poetry to the English language that had been played down a lot in the Age of Reason - it has been said of the English that 'They took our language and destroyed it, but we took theirs and made it more beautiful'. The finest English in the world is now spoken in Ireland.

I'm watching the redevelopment of the Irish language with great interest.

Answer 9

well my farther is irish (bell fast) he is in his 80 Ty's i Wald say that the Irish language has been declining fore years mainly because like any other ethnic language lack of use and natural progression

Answer 10

the actual decline of the irish language is due to the hedge schools, not the british to the extent that most people believe

At a percentage the british are 15% responsible, but it is the irish ourselves that made the decline more rapidly.

People sending their children to hedge schools insisted that they were taught english so as to emigrate as english would help them find employment.

Although the factors of emmigration could be layed at the door of the british, it is the irish who insisted to speak english, we dont see thuis problem with the welsh do we!