@breezeman199 You don't need to say "personally" when your next words are "I think" since it is then made clear that you are expressing your own idea. I take it you mean "left" rather than "lest" and "quiet" rather than "quite." There are a great many people in Canada who do not have English as a first language who are more than capable of communicating in English when they need to and they would probably make a better job of it than you have done. Having two languages offers many benefits too.
@UISTMAN59 My grammatical errors aside, it seems to me Ireland would be better off as a unilingual English speaking place. This is my view as a disinterested observer, that's all. I am not Irish or British. Don't confuse an individual learning another language (including sign) on his own, with state-sponsored and funded bilingualism. Believe me Canada would be a million times better off in every possible way if it had only ONE language and not two.
@UISTMAN59 Since you are being obtuse and defensive I don't think I'll bother to reply. These are characteristics I have noticed among Irish people, a needless and sudden turn toward nastiness. Intelligent, mature and confident people debate and discuss issues reasonably and do not engage in projectionism and pettiness.
@breezeman199 Talking of "a needless and sudden turn toward nastiness" I see that well displayed in your channel comment on the Jews. "Obtuse and defensive" are more characteristic of monoglot Anglo-Saxons than of any Irish people I have known and I doubt very much if you ever mingled with "intelligent, mature and confident people" and I'm not Irish. Good to know I riled you good and proper though.
The old language is not a barrier to modern progress: in 1948 the newborn state of Israel adopted the long dead Hebrew language as its official language. Since then Hebrew has blossomed, become a modern living language & Israel one of the most scientifically advanced, modern countries in the world
@freeman8128 I agree wholeheartedly that the Irish language is not a barrier to modern progress. The recovery of Hebrew from the brink of extinction is noteworthy but I wouldn't neccessarily hold up Israel as a shining example of being the best countries in the world.
@UISTMAN59 Israel is very small country surrounded by hostile neighbours & having to spend a major part of its resources on defence. Nevertheless in 63 years it has managed to transform a backward province into a leader of scientific & technological research & excellence especially in cybernetics & bioscience.
The Hebrew language was 63 years ago a dead language known only to scholars; today it is the common language of everyday life.
You spend 12 years of your life learning it in scholl yet when you leave you only have Coupla Focal at best. Something is seriously wrong with the way it is taught.
@Lousypenguin Do you not think the problem may lie with the pupils most of the time? No teacher was ever so bad that a diligent pupil couldn't learn something from them.
@UISTMAN59 Which is why 99% of the Irish population cannot speak Irish proficiently? The teachers, the curriculum, the whole learning aspect of the Irish language needs to be changed. But realistically besides the whole nationalistic aspect of the language it serves no purpose on the world stage in both employment opportunities or in Government. To say it's a dead language is an understatement. I'm born and bred in Dublin and in my 26 years on this planet I only heard Irish spoken once in Dublin
@Lousypenguin I don't get you. You say "To say it's a dead language is an understatement." then you say "the whole learning aspect of the Irish language needs to be changed." Is this so that people can learn the language or are you saying that they should give up teaching it? I presume that other languages are taught in Irish schools e.g. French and German. Are there no adults who speak these languages in Ireland and does the whole learning aspect of these languages also need to be changed?
@UISTMAN59 It's a dead language because not enough people speak it (Less than 1%) the whole teaching aspect of it has to be changed to help revive it, understand? They should also abolish the fact that Irish is compulsary for Irish Students, that way the kids learning it want to not because they have to. The only people who have a decent standard of Irish are those who go to gaelscoils and thats because they conduct every lesson with it not the normal 40 min classes everyone else gets.
@UISTMAN59 And no French, German, Spanish doesn't need to be changed because 1. More people find them easier to learn 2. The curriculum is easier to understand and more fun to learn 3. The Exam isn't as hard as the Irish one so getting an 'A' in honours isn't that difficult.
I speak better French than I do Irish, my sister speaks Italian, My friends speak German better etc etc... And in Irelands changing demographics It's of more benefit to know a European language than irish anyway.
It's funny to think that the Gaelic speaking Irish that moved to Scottish cities for work during the industrial revolution, along with the Gaelic speaking Scottish highlanders, ended up being socially pressured into raising their children as Scots and English speakers because Gaelic was seen as working class, Catholic, a mark of the outsider and an undesirable trait. You'd have thought the only other Gaelic speaking nation would have kept the language alive instead of killing it. Och well.
The sad fact about irish is that the most dramatic decline in its use has occured SINCE the British left. I go to the rpublic a lot (I live in Co Down) and it's taught in every school there and is generally regarded as a pointless, unwanted chore.
@barnbersonol True, but it's very possible that it has nothing to do with Britain being there or not, but with the realities of modernity and a globalised planet where English is the world language. I'm a Dubliner in my early 30s and I feel the Irish state made the mistake of having Irish visible almost only in school with little chance of engagement with the language outside of school. Therefore, it became seen as a school subject & if you spoke it on the street u were somehow a nerd & a swot
@bacabu30 And yet the Scandinavians persist in speaking an ancient language and they're at the forefront of the modern world. They don't seem to be aware of any paradox.
@barnbersonol True, & I never meant to imply that I thought there was anything 'un-modern' about speaking Irish, Scandinavian languages or any other language for that matter. I am merely pointing out the reality that Ireland's other national language, English, also happens to be the number 1 language of the modern, globalised world. This is what the Irish language was always up against. English isn't a national language in Scandinavia & also the Scandinavians never stopped speaking their own.
@barnbersonol I'm afraid that's untrue. The largest decline occured in the 1800's. In the beginning of the 1800's, Irish was the majority language in Ireland. After the famine hit, which took 1 million lives (most of the Irish speakers), it became a minority language. Schooling forbid Irish, and as English became the majority language - Irish was discouraged. It is true, that since the inception of the Free State, education has failed - but because of poor methods with no focus on spoken Irish.
the New World Order wants to destroy such a beautiful language. If the language does not allow you to express certain things then you just plain can't get it across.
@RMCrowley The English language clearly enables complete freedom of expression. There is no "New World Order" stopping you from saying whatever you want to say. It seems to me that you are a monoglot English speaker who just hates the English language. What language is it thtat is not allowing you to get "certain things" across? How do we know that it's not down to your own lack of eloquence. The survival of minority languages is a different matter entirely.
Perhaps he was referring to when Collins said "How can we express our most subtle thoughts and finest feelings in a foreign tongue?". Don't be so quick to write him off. You put quotations on NWO as if it's a myth, despite top politicians plainly saying we are entering a New World Order. Furthermore, a revival of our language will be harder now than ever because of this increasingly globalized world. National Identity isn't exactly something that is respected nowadays.
@mfitzp It's a fair bet that you have French speaking ancestors and that whoever "they" are, it's a fair bet you don't listen to "them" so they didn't succeed in making you listen to "them." "Political b******" probably covers just anything you don't agree with and it's doubtful if you ever argued with anybody about euphemisms. Meanwhile the Irish language continues its decline.
@UISTMAN59 Good reply. "Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives. The English reading public explains the reason why." - Joyce
@mfitzp Sometimes Joyce has to be taken with a pinch of salt. I don't think sins have been committed by anyone in a previous life :-) James Joyce wrote a lot of things though and one of the best lines in Ulysses is "Force, hatred, history, all that. That's not life for men and women, insult and hatred. And everybody knows that . it's the very opposite of that that is really life" Peace be with you :-)
@SuperAbraham1234 In Switzerland Public use of German is 74 % whereas it is the mother tongue for approx. 63.7 % , for French, the mother tongue of 21 % but the mother tongue of 19.6 % and for Italian it is the tongue of approx 4 % whereas 6.6 % of public usage and for Romansch respectively 1 % and 0.5 %. For Austrians who do not speak German Austro-Bavarian is largely mutually intelligible with German. Hardly the same as the Irish situation then , is it?
Colonisation's greatest weapon is psychological manipulation that empties the minds and undresses the colonised physically too. Colonisers cheated the Irish into shortening their Cultural costumes so that now, instead of the LONG traditional Irish women's costume, women now tap dance with ridiculously SHORT dresses that make them look like the Moulin Rouge ladies' dancing. Traditional dance used to be simple and DANCABLE for all, especially elderly men and women in the villages.
@LanguageLuo Thank you for subscribing to my channel but I wdon't altogether agree. Traditional dance used to be simpler " and dancable for all," and in truth it still is, but I think Riverdance and other "modernising" influences on both Irish &Highland dance, while "Popularising" the genre , which have introduced the dances to new audiences can't simply be blamed on "colonisation." - after all , Irish dance's development is primarily down to organizations such as The Irish Dancing Commission.
@UISTMAN59 Thanks for the notes. The Language and Dance of a people are inseparable and identical. When the Language of a people's dance is foreign then that Language is one of imposters and can only lead to extinction. The ancients used to say that the feet and steps of a dancer listen to, follow and PRESERVE the Culture of the ancestors.
@LanguageLuo The ancients were not always right. For example The polka is unquestionably a foreign dance but it is a favourite in Sliabh Luachra amongst Irish speakers. Many Scottish and Irish set dances developed from Continental quadrilles etc. If the Language and Dance of a people were inseperable then traditional Scottish step dancing in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia (Canada) would never have would not have gone beyond the boundaries of the Gaelic speaking districts there - but it has!
@UISTMAN59 Every people on planet Earth have got THEIR OWN ancestral dances and songs which the ancients used to dance in villages before the arrival of colonial powers.Ancient Cultural dances and songs NEVER CHANGE. Songs talk about everyday life of a people when at sea or in the fields etc. Dances are also gestures and expressions of the sea, birds, animals,forests etc from perspective and interpretation of a PARTICULAR people. Dances and songs bear names of villages which have created them.
@LanguageLuo You are quite wrong. "Ancient Cultural dances and song" assuredly do change. There must be few if there indeed any, languages in existence today which have survived "unchanged" from earliest antiquity, and there are many dances and songs that do not bear the names of villages which have created them - it is clear that many songs are of unknown origin unless you are saying that these are not songs or dances, which would be absurd!
@UISTMAN59 Some people claim that the PAST is not part of the FUTURE and that Human Beings should discard their origins and ancestral identities. However, planet Earth existed in and belongs to the PAST, the Sun too. Human Beings existed in and belong to the PAST for they are only reincarnations of their ancestors. Existence of Space, Universes and Mankind is an eternal CIRCLE.
Note: The Hebrew returned to their ancestral homeland, Israel and took back their Language after 2000 years.
@LanguageLuo Why do you argue against "colonisers" and "psychological manipulation that empties the minds" if it is true that the existence of man is an eternal circle. Why worry about what "colonisers" do at any given time since on that basis your own remote ancestors may also have been guilty of being "colonisers" several times over in the "eternal circle" - Can you show me that you yourself are not attempting "some psychological manipulation that empties the mind"
I will learn it, and I will speak it to my children and they will go to a gaelscoil and gaelcolaiste. It's the most important gift I can give to both my descendants and my ancestors.
Believe me, English is easy to learn as a second language compared to Irish and most other languages, it's very simple. I know because I teach it as a foreign language.
We are still taught Irish to pass the Leaving Cert Exam. This is an extremely outdated way for testing languages especially. All it does is force teachers to force memorised answers down your throat before you even learn how to speak the language half-fluently. What a Joke! This is NOT how they learn languages in most European countries (hink how well some countries speak English) . The debate on cumpulsory Irish for the LC is a FALSE DEBATE - as we urgently need to reform the LC system.
1. @spacemonkey103Irish can be saved if somehow they manage to make people to talk it in their homes with eachother and their children. Irish must be make a living language again. SAw vids made by Irish students learning in Gaeltachts with comments made by them to each others afterwards. Of course that was in English. I even wrote a comment "why do not chat in Irish with each other?" This is the problem: they can learn it perfectly in the school or Gaeltachts if they not use it with each other.
2. This should be taught to them: Irish is not just a language, it is the language of their nation! Everybody should be very aware of this. It will be so great if after learning it, those who know it, never to talk in other language with each other, parents to talk in Irish with their children, etc. In this way Irish language could become Irelands 1. language again, like it was some 100s of years ago. It seams impossible, but even totally death languages were brought in use again.
3. For example Hebrew language was death as a spoken language from the 1. milenium AD. And after Israel was made in 1948, Hebrew became a living language again as the language of Israel. This shows that it is possible to make a language to reborn and to make it a national language again.
@szalard youve romanticised the language. after all its just a language, no different from any other. also there are parts of ireland where irish was never spoken eg. viking towns. at the moment its about the 3rd or 4th language of ireland and there really is no reason to raise it up. ireland will lose all its prosperity if we all suddenly started speaking ireland.
@rory198 Vikings came in Ireland before Irish? Hmm. As I know Vikings came in Ireland in 8. century AD, the Irish came between 8. and 1. century BC. It is funny to hear what you said from an Irishman. If you were from Danemark, Norway, or even England, I could understand you. And why would Ireland loose its prosperity if, by wonder, it starts to speak Irish? Is any logic in this? You speak like somebody who hates Irish and Ireland very much.
@szalard no im irish and very proud of it but am embarrested by these relentless attempts to restore the country to the dark ages. the language would cripple the country because the english language is a huge attraction for foreign investment. also everything in the world is done through major languages. its no coincidence that the most powerful/rich countries in the world all speak major world languages.
@rory198 Ohh man, I do not understand you. You want so much to be colonized and enslaved by international companies that you are ready to sacrifice your language... That is sad...
@szalard its not my language- iv never willingly spoke it -like most people. i dont know how you dont understand, its very simple; it isnt good for anything. and if by 'enslaved', you mean being given every possible advantage, then yeah thats what i want.
Some of the poorest countries also speak these "major world languages" - e.g English French Spanish so that a specious argument against a nation having its own national language. We can be thankful that not all Gaels in Scotland and ireland are "embarrested" by their native tongue - long may they continue to speak "ireland." :-)
@UISTMAN59 the vast majority of english speaking people worldwide have a far higher than average standard of life. i just dont understand this need to appear to be different to everyone else.
You probably think that all historical writings in your country should be translated into English (or maybe just burnt.) You are entitled to your opinion. Meanwhile I should point out that speakers of English as a second language will soon outnumber those who speak it as a first language, so it is by no means neccessary to give up speaking Irish or Gaelic just to get on in the world.
I hate how people who say that changing to English was a good thing, make the huge presumption that monolingualism is normal & the ONLY way (over 60% of the world is bi- or multilingual)
Look at other SMALL countries like Sweden Norway Denmark and Holland, where people speak excellent English but hold onto their original languages! & mysteriously !!! have a high higher standard of livinng despite this "huge disadvantage" as Gaeilge's critics describe it in the Irish context.. Explain?
Bolox. Look at Scandanavian countries who speak great English and hold onto their own languages too. Oh yeah... sure... medieval dark ages and poverty abound in Sweden! Famine in Denmark! Black Plague in Norway! I hope my 10 Euro a month to Concern a month makes iot to the poor wretches!!!
You make the false presumption that monolingualism is the norm. Globally it isnt. You presume people can only have one language in their head. Wrong.
@Glgebhrste The curse of the Irish in this regard is that they speak English as a first language.
However fluent Scandinavians, or indeed any other Europeans BECOME in English, it is never their maternal language like it is in Ireland. They can and do always fall back on Norwegian, Swedish, German, French... indeed Welsh, no?... when it comes to matter of home and hearth...
How pathetic that the Welsh, of all people, have a thriving NATIVE LANGUAGE while Irish in Ireland... withers.
@giannisacco "The curse of the Irish in this regard is that they speak English as a first language". This is not a "curse" but a conscious choice, as described in the video.
You write "How pathetic that the Welsh, of all people, have a thriving NATIVE LANGUAGE" but offer no justification of this extremely disrespectful outburst. Why is this "pathetic" and why "of all people" ?
@UISTMAN59 - Forgive me, when writing in a heated mood like I was, I tend to assume that what's clear to me is naturally clear to everybody.
I say it's pathetic that the Welsh "of all people" have a thriving native language because unlike the Irish they have been wholly conquered, as it were, by the English. Like the Scots they are part of the UK, which is really nothing more than England writ large. Despite this Welsh thrives, while Irish withers despite Ireland being a sovereign nation.
@giannisacco I say "good on the Welsh that they have a thriving native language" Its not easy to maintain small languages since there are only some 193 internationally recognized sovereign states including all member states of the United Nations, and Vatican City, and ten other states which have de facto sovereignty or independence, but approximately 6900 languages currently spoken around the world,
@giannisacco Wales & Ireland have had rather different histories though, and Ireland arguably fared far worse at the fate of the English than the Welsh did - who were Protestants. This meant that the Bible was translated into Welsh around the 15th century - this did Welsh a great service & helped to secure it. Irish didn't have this luxury. Also, by the 19th century, around a third of the whole population and almost all native Irish speakers either died or emigrated during the Great Starvation.
@bacabu30 Although there may have been a few manuscript copies in Welsh, the complete Bible wasn't translated into Welsh until well into the 16th century. At this time the Welsh were by no means Protestants. An Irish translation of the New Testament was begun by Nicholas Walsh, Bishop of Ossory, continued by John Kearny, his assistant, and Dr. Nehemiah Donellan, and the Bible in Irish was printed in 1602 and Scots Gaels used this version until the NT was translated into Scottish Gaelic 1767.
@UISTMAN59 I don't know enough about it to comment further. Unless I'm mistaken, I think the bible that was translated into Irish was the Anglican one and I thought I heard before that it wasn't even the complete bible that was translated. The RC church discouraged the use of Irish, with a preference for Latin and some English. Catholics were also strongly discouraged to read the bible (in whatever language) in those days by the RC church. Most Welsh people, on the other hand, were Protestants.
@rory198 so you think it has to be one language or the other? That's nonsense. Why not have both? As if anyone would be kicking the English language out or anything! Duh.
Any nation that embraces the antagonism of two or more opposing languages deserves to die. The only reason so many other people know English as well as their native language is because of the wrecking ball that is globalization. You can see these people also embrace the anti-culture that is americanization. The whole bloody system is rotten and designed to destroy any potential national dissent. It's working, because most people are docile to a world controlled by international financiers.
Basically what I was saying in the first line was the majority members of a nation need only be knowledgeable of their own language. I disagree with the notion that the Irish people should know both Irish and English. I am of the opinion the Irish language only is sufficient for the Irish people.
@Northbound89 Are you against English being taught in schools right across the world, where English isn't the main spoken tongue or national language? Are you opposed to people learning any languages other than their own country's?
@mafketays I have never met an anti-immigration complainer who spoke better Irish than me... they usually speak none, and watch British football, wear the English teams Jerseys, eat in McDonalds and watch American sitcoms for entertainment..
The Anti-Immigration platform trying to associate themselves with the Irish language Movement is pathetic and completely insincere. Cén fáth nach scríobhann do chiníochas as Gaeilge má is grá leat an teanga chomh méad?
At 4:25 "same goes for teaching ot the Irish language, if colonasation is compulsion...."
In Sweden, Swedish and English are compulsary; in Denmark, Danish and English are compulsary; in Iceland, Icelandic and English are compulsary. Why the feck shouldn't Irish and English be compulsary in Ireland?
No English oppression nor heavy-handed government intervention has killed the Irish. No, the culprit is the good old Celtic fatalism and pessimism which reifies the worst possibilities of the imagination. Kill the cultural whinge! Speak a language of strength and open potential to one's children, and see that language thrive.
@Shufei I don't understand Irish people's belief that only one language is possible. If you look at it globally bilingualism and multilingualism are the norm, and monoglots are the abnormal ones. Only in English speaking countries and maybe Russia and France is this seen backwards. "Celtic Pessimism" killed the lnguage? WTF? More like a false hoice between languages when you can actually have both anyway. Your comment seems to presuppose this false choice also.
I insist: In Catalonia native and many non native catalan speakers talk to their sons in catalan even with a weird accent, but children learn catalan and speak catalan each other out of class. IF you love your Irish language: SPEAK TO YOUR CHILDREN IN IRISH, then Irish will be their mother tonge.
This is the absolute truth. Speaking your mother or father's tongue would then be as natural as breathing. There were too many well-meaning parents who spoke a "secret language" and sadly deprived their children of their linguistic heritage.
If you want your Irish language to survive, you have to talk at home Irish to your children from birth, EVEN IF YOUR IRISH IS NOT FLUENT. BELIEVE ME!!. This is what people have done with catalan. A language learn at school as a subject is treated as a foreighn language.
This time the photos are not mine - but I do agree that they are very good. This was a programme recorded years ago. It just seemed a good time to post it now.
Náire ar na tuismitheoirí Éireannacha nár fhoghlaim an Ghaeilge nár mhúin agus nach múineann í dona bpáistí!
We should all keep our indigenous languages and teach our children those languages which are needed.
AlexderFranke 1 month ago
Is breágh liom an Ghaedhilge.
Londubh1 1 month ago
Personally I think Ireland would be better off if it just lest Irish die a quite death. Having English as a first language offers many benefits.
breezeman199 4 months ago
@breezeman199 You don't need to say "personally" when your next words are "I think" since it is then made clear that you are expressing your own idea. I take it you mean "left" rather than "lest" and "quiet" rather than "quite." There are a great many people in Canada who do not have English as a first language who are more than capable of communicating in English when they need to and they would probably make a better job of it than you have done. Having two languages offers many benefits too.
UISTMAN59 4 months ago
@UISTMAN59 My grammatical errors aside, it seems to me Ireland would be better off as a unilingual English speaking place. This is my view as a disinterested observer, that's all. I am not Irish or British. Don't confuse an individual learning another language (including sign) on his own, with state-sponsored and funded bilingualism. Believe me Canada would be a million times better off in every possible way if it had only ONE language and not two.
breezeman199 4 months ago
@breezeman199 If all you want is a unilingual state then why shouldn't all Canadians speak French?
UISTMAN59 4 months ago
@UISTMAN59 Since you are being obtuse and defensive I don't think I'll bother to reply. These are characteristics I have noticed among Irish people, a needless and sudden turn toward nastiness. Intelligent, mature and confident people debate and discuss issues reasonably and do not engage in projectionism and pettiness.
breezeman199 4 months ago
@breezeman199 Talking of "a needless and sudden turn toward nastiness" I see that well displayed in your channel comment on the Jews. "Obtuse and defensive" are more characteristic of monoglot Anglo-Saxons than of any Irish people I have known and I doubt very much if you ever mingled with "intelligent, mature and confident people" and I'm not Irish. Good to know I riled you good and proper though.
UISTMAN59 4 months ago
The old language is not a barrier to modern progress: in 1948 the newborn state of Israel adopted the long dead Hebrew language as its official language. Since then Hebrew has blossomed, become a modern living language & Israel one of the most scientifically advanced, modern countries in the world
- The same could happen in Ireland & Wales.
freeman8128 4 months ago
@freeman8128 I agree wholeheartedly that the Irish language is not a barrier to modern progress. The recovery of Hebrew from the brink of extinction is noteworthy but I wouldn't neccessarily hold up Israel as a shining example of being the best countries in the world.
UISTMAN59 4 months ago
@UISTMAN59 Israel is very small country surrounded by hostile neighbours & having to spend a major part of its resources on defence. Nevertheless in 63 years it has managed to transform a backward province into a leader of scientific & technological research & excellence especially in cybernetics & bioscience.
The Hebrew language was 63 years ago a dead language known only to scholars; today it is the common language of everyday life.
freeman8128 4 months ago
You spend 12 years of your life learning it in scholl yet when you leave you only have Coupla Focal at best. Something is seriously wrong with the way it is taught.
Lousypenguin 4 months ago
@Lousypenguin Do you not think the problem may lie with the pupils most of the time? No teacher was ever so bad that a diligent pupil couldn't learn something from them.
UISTMAN59 4 months ago
@UISTMAN59 Which is why 99% of the Irish population cannot speak Irish proficiently? The teachers, the curriculum, the whole learning aspect of the Irish language needs to be changed. But realistically besides the whole nationalistic aspect of the language it serves no purpose on the world stage in both employment opportunities or in Government. To say it's a dead language is an understatement. I'm born and bred in Dublin and in my 26 years on this planet I only heard Irish spoken once in Dublin
Lousypenguin 4 months ago
@Lousypenguin I don't get you. You say "To say it's a dead language is an understatement." then you say "the whole learning aspect of the Irish language needs to be changed." Is this so that people can learn the language or are you saying that they should give up teaching it? I presume that other languages are taught in Irish schools e.g. French and German. Are there no adults who speak these languages in Ireland and does the whole learning aspect of these languages also need to be changed?
UISTMAN59 4 months ago
@UISTMAN59 It's a dead language because not enough people speak it (Less than 1%) the whole teaching aspect of it has to be changed to help revive it, understand? They should also abolish the fact that Irish is compulsary for Irish Students, that way the kids learning it want to not because they have to. The only people who have a decent standard of Irish are those who go to gaelscoils and thats because they conduct every lesson with it not the normal 40 min classes everyone else gets.
Lousypenguin 4 months ago
@UISTMAN59 And no French, German, Spanish doesn't need to be changed because 1. More people find them easier to learn 2. The curriculum is easier to understand and more fun to learn 3. The Exam isn't as hard as the Irish one so getting an 'A' in honours isn't that difficult.
I speak better French than I do Irish, my sister speaks Italian, My friends speak German better etc etc... And in Irelands changing demographics It's of more benefit to know a European language than irish anyway.
Lousypenguin 4 months ago
It's funny to think that the Gaelic speaking Irish that moved to Scottish cities for work during the industrial revolution, along with the Gaelic speaking Scottish highlanders, ended up being socially pressured into raising their children as Scots and English speakers because Gaelic was seen as working class, Catholic, a mark of the outsider and an undesirable trait. You'd have thought the only other Gaelic speaking nation would have kept the language alive instead of killing it. Och well.
TheXand19 5 months ago
The sad fact about irish is that the most dramatic decline in its use has occured SINCE the British left. I go to the rpublic a lot (I live in Co Down) and it's taught in every school there and is generally regarded as a pointless, unwanted chore.
barnbersonol 10 months ago
@barnbersonol You are absolutely right.
UISTMAN59 10 months ago
@barnbersonol True, but it's very possible that it has nothing to do with Britain being there or not, but with the realities of modernity and a globalised planet where English is the world language. I'm a Dubliner in my early 30s and I feel the Irish state made the mistake of having Irish visible almost only in school with little chance of engagement with the language outside of school. Therefore, it became seen as a school subject & if you spoke it on the street u were somehow a nerd & a swot
bacabu30 6 months ago
@bacabu30 And yet the Scandinavians persist in speaking an ancient language and they're at the forefront of the modern world. They don't seem to be aware of any paradox.
barnbersonol 6 months ago
@barnbersonol True, & I never meant to imply that I thought there was anything 'un-modern' about speaking Irish, Scandinavian languages or any other language for that matter. I am merely pointing out the reality that Ireland's other national language, English, also happens to be the number 1 language of the modern, globalised world. This is what the Irish language was always up against. English isn't a national language in Scandinavia & also the Scandinavians never stopped speaking their own.
bacabu30 6 months ago
@barnbersonol I'm afraid that's untrue. The largest decline occured in the 1800's. In the beginning of the 1800's, Irish was the majority language in Ireland. After the famine hit, which took 1 million lives (most of the Irish speakers), it became a minority language. Schooling forbid Irish, and as English became the majority language - Irish was discouraged. It is true, that since the inception of the Free State, education has failed - but because of poor methods with no focus on spoken Irish.
SeanOBriain 5 months ago
the New World Order wants to destroy such a beautiful language. If the language does not allow you to express certain things then you just plain can't get it across.
RMCrowley 1 year ago 3
@RMCrowley The English language clearly enables complete freedom of expression. There is no "New World Order" stopping you from saying whatever you want to say. It seems to me that you are a monoglot English speaker who just hates the English language. What language is it thtat is not allowing you to get "certain things" across? How do we know that it's not down to your own lack of eloquence. The survival of minority languages is a different matter entirely.
UISTMAN59 1 year ago
@UISTMAN59
Perhaps he was referring to when Collins said "How can we express our most subtle thoughts and finest feelings in a foreign tongue?". Don't be so quick to write him off. You put quotations on NWO as if it's a myth, despite top politicians plainly saying we are entering a New World Order. Furthermore, a revival of our language will be harder now than ever because of this increasingly globalized world. National Identity isn't exactly something that is respected nowadays.
Northbound89 4 months ago
they stole our language so we'd have to listen to them spew their political bullshit and so we'd argue with eachother over euphemisms.
mfitzp 1 year ago 2
@mfitzp It's a fair bet that you have French speaking ancestors and that whoever "they" are, it's a fair bet you don't listen to "them" so they didn't succeed in making you listen to "them." "Political b******" probably covers just anything you don't agree with and it's doubtful if you ever argued with anybody about euphemisms. Meanwhile the Irish language continues its decline.
UISTMAN59 1 year ago
@UISTMAN59 Good reply. "Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives. The English reading public explains the reason why." - Joyce
mfitzp 1 year ago
@mfitzp Sometimes Joyce has to be taken with a pinch of salt. I don't think sins have been committed by anyone in a previous life :-) James Joyce wrote a lot of things though and one of the best lines in Ulysses is "Force, hatred, history, all that. That's not life for men and women, insult and hatred. And everybody knows that . it's the very opposite of that that is really life" Peace be with you :-)
UISTMAN59 1 year ago
this is sad
in every other country in europe except for austri and swizaland
i don't know how to spell it
SuperAbraham1234 1 year ago
@SuperAbraham1234 I don't understand the point you are trying to make about Austria and Switzerland.
UISTMAN59 1 year ago
@UISTMAN59 they have to share a language with germany and just like ireland shares a language with england
SuperAbraham1234 1 year ago
@SuperAbraham1234 In Switzerland Public use of German is 74 % whereas it is the mother tongue for approx. 63.7 % , for French, the mother tongue of 21 % but the mother tongue of 19.6 % and for Italian it is the tongue of approx 4 % whereas 6.6 % of public usage and for Romansch respectively 1 % and 0.5 %. For Austrians who do not speak German Austro-Bavarian is largely mutually intelligible with German. Hardly the same as the Irish situation then , is it?
UISTMAN59 1 year ago
LONG COSTUMES
Colonisation's greatest weapon is psychological manipulation that empties the minds and undresses the colonised physically too. Colonisers cheated the Irish into shortening their Cultural costumes so that now, instead of the LONG traditional Irish women's costume, women now tap dance with ridiculously SHORT dresses that make them look like the Moulin Rouge ladies' dancing. Traditional dance used to be simple and DANCABLE for all, especially elderly men and women in the villages.
LanguageLuo 1 year ago
@LanguageLuo Thank you for subscribing to my channel but I wdon't altogether agree. Traditional dance used to be simpler " and dancable for all," and in truth it still is, but I think Riverdance and other "modernising" influences on both Irish &Highland dance, while "Popularising" the genre , which have introduced the dances to new audiences can't simply be blamed on "colonisation." - after all , Irish dance's development is primarily down to organizations such as The Irish Dancing Commission.
UISTMAN59 1 year ago
@UISTMAN59 Thanks for the notes. The Language and Dance of a people are inseparable and identical. When the Language of a people's dance is foreign then that Language is one of imposters and can only lead to extinction. The ancients used to say that the feet and steps of a dancer listen to, follow and PRESERVE the Culture of the ancestors.
LanguageLuo 1 year ago
@LanguageLuo The ancients were not always right. For example The polka is unquestionably a foreign dance but it is a favourite in Sliabh Luachra amongst Irish speakers. Many Scottish and Irish set dances developed from Continental quadrilles etc. If the Language and Dance of a people were inseperable then traditional Scottish step dancing in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia (Canada) would never have would not have gone beyond the boundaries of the Gaelic speaking districts there - but it has!
UISTMAN59 1 year ago
@UISTMAN59 Every people on planet Earth have got THEIR OWN ancestral dances and songs which the ancients used to dance in villages before the arrival of colonial powers.Ancient Cultural dances and songs NEVER CHANGE. Songs talk about everyday life of a people when at sea or in the fields etc. Dances are also gestures and expressions of the sea, birds, animals,forests etc from perspective and interpretation of a PARTICULAR people. Dances and songs bear names of villages which have created them.
LanguageLuo 1 year ago
@LanguageLuo You are quite wrong. "Ancient Cultural dances and song" assuredly do change. There must be few if there indeed any, languages in existence today which have survived "unchanged" from earliest antiquity, and there are many dances and songs that do not bear the names of villages which have created them - it is clear that many songs are of unknown origin unless you are saying that these are not songs or dances, which would be absurd!
UISTMAN59 1 year ago
@UISTMAN59 Some people claim that the PAST is not part of the FUTURE and that Human Beings should discard their origins and ancestral identities. However, planet Earth existed in and belongs to the PAST, the Sun too. Human Beings existed in and belong to the PAST for they are only reincarnations of their ancestors. Existence of Space, Universes and Mankind is an eternal CIRCLE.
Note: The Hebrew returned to their ancestral homeland, Israel and took back their Language after 2000 years.
LanguageLuo 1 year ago
@LanguageLuo Why do you argue against "colonisers" and "psychological manipulation that empties the minds" if it is true that the existence of man is an eternal circle. Why worry about what "colonisers" do at any given time since on that basis your own remote ancestors may also have been guilty of being "colonisers" several times over in the "eternal circle" - Can you show me that you yourself are not attempting "some psychological manipulation that empties the mind"
UISTMAN59 1 year ago
I will learn it, and I will speak it to my children and they will go to a gaelscoil and gaelcolaiste. It's the most important gift I can give to both my descendants and my ancestors.
Believe me, English is easy to learn as a second language compared to Irish and most other languages, it's very simple. I know because I teach it as a foreign language.
rabbitwho 1 year ago
Does anyone know where this excerpt comes from? it actually seems quite an interesting documentary
VJVE1945 1 year ago
We are still taught Irish to pass the Leaving Cert Exam. This is an extremely outdated way for testing languages especially. All it does is force teachers to force memorised answers down your throat before you even learn how to speak the language half-fluently. What a Joke! This is NOT how they learn languages in most European countries (hink how well some countries speak English) . The debate on cumpulsory Irish for the LC is a FALSE DEBATE - as we urgently need to reform the LC system.
spacemonkey103 2 years ago 4
1. @spacemonkey103Irish can be saved if somehow they manage to make people to talk it in their homes with eachother and their children. Irish must be make a living language again. SAw vids made by Irish students learning in Gaeltachts with comments made by them to each others afterwards. Of course that was in English. I even wrote a comment "why do not chat in Irish with each other?" This is the problem: they can learn it perfectly in the school or Gaeltachts if they not use it with each other.
szalard 2 years ago
2. This should be taught to them: Irish is not just a language, it is the language of their nation! Everybody should be very aware of this. It will be so great if after learning it, those who know it, never to talk in other language with each other, parents to talk in Irish with their children, etc. In this way Irish language could become Irelands 1. language again, like it was some 100s of years ago. It seams impossible, but even totally death languages were brought in use again.
szalard 2 years ago
3. For example Hebrew language was death as a spoken language from the 1. milenium AD. And after Israel was made in 1948, Hebrew became a living language again as the language of Israel. This shows that it is possible to make a language to reborn and to make it a national language again.
szalard 2 years ago
@szalard youve romanticised the language. after all its just a language, no different from any other. also there are parts of ireland where irish was never spoken eg. viking towns. at the moment its about the 3rd or 4th language of ireland and there really is no reason to raise it up. ireland will lose all its prosperity if we all suddenly started speaking ireland.
rory198 2 years ago
@rory198 Vikings came in Ireland before Irish? Hmm. As I know Vikings came in Ireland in 8. century AD, the Irish came between 8. and 1. century BC. It is funny to hear what you said from an Irishman. If you were from Danemark, Norway, or even England, I could understand you. And why would Ireland loose its prosperity if, by wonder, it starts to speak Irish? Is any logic in this? You speak like somebody who hates Irish and Ireland very much.
szalard 2 years ago
@szalard no im irish and very proud of it but am embarrested by these relentless attempts to restore the country to the dark ages. the language would cripple the country because the english language is a huge attraction for foreign investment. also everything in the world is done through major languages. its no coincidence that the most powerful/rich countries in the world all speak major world languages.
rory198 2 years ago
@rory198 Ohh man, I do not understand you. You want so much to be colonized and enslaved by international companies that you are ready to sacrifice your language... That is sad...
szalard 2 years ago
@szalard its not my language- iv never willingly spoke it -like most people. i dont know how you dont understand, its very simple; it isnt good for anything. and if by 'enslaved', you mean being given every possible advantage, then yeah thats what i want.
rory198 2 years ago
Some of the poorest countries also speak these "major world languages" - e.g English French Spanish so that a specious argument against a nation having its own national language. We can be thankful that not all Gaels in Scotland and ireland are "embarrested" by their native tongue - long may they continue to speak "ireland." :-)
UISTMAN59 2 years ago
@UISTMAN59 the vast majority of english speaking people worldwide have a far higher than average standard of life. i just dont understand this need to appear to be different to everyone else.
rory198 2 years ago
You probably think that all historical writings in your country should be translated into English (or maybe just burnt.) You are entitled to your opinion. Meanwhile I should point out that speakers of English as a second language will soon outnumber those who speak it as a first language, so it is by no means neccessary to give up speaking Irish or Gaelic just to get on in the world.
UISTMAN59 2 years ago
@rory198
I hate how people who say that changing to English was a good thing, make the huge presumption that monolingualism is normal & the ONLY way (over 60% of the world is bi- or multilingual)
Look at other SMALL countries like Sweden Norway Denmark and Holland, where people speak excellent English but hold onto their original languages! & mysteriously !!! have a high higher standard of livinng despite this "huge disadvantage" as Gaeilge's critics describe it in the Irish context.. Explain?
Glgebhrste 1 year ago
@rory198
Bolox. Look at Scandanavian countries who speak great English and hold onto their own languages too. Oh yeah... sure... medieval dark ages and poverty abound in Sweden! Famine in Denmark! Black Plague in Norway! I hope my 10 Euro a month to Concern a month makes iot to the poor wretches!!!
You make the false presumption that monolingualism is the norm. Globally it isnt. You presume people can only have one language in their head. Wrong.
Glgebhrste 1 year ago
@Glgebhrste Tá an ceart agat!
UISTMAN59 1 year ago
@Glgebhrste The curse of the Irish in this regard is that they speak English as a first language.
However fluent Scandinavians, or indeed any other Europeans BECOME in English, it is never their maternal language like it is in Ireland. They can and do always fall back on Norwegian, Swedish, German, French... indeed Welsh, no?... when it comes to matter of home and hearth...
How pathetic that the Welsh, of all people, have a thriving NATIVE LANGUAGE while Irish in Ireland... withers.
giannisacco 1 year ago
@giannisacco "The curse of the Irish in this regard is that they speak English as a first language". This is not a "curse" but a conscious choice, as described in the video.
You write "How pathetic that the Welsh, of all people, have a thriving NATIVE LANGUAGE" but offer no justification of this extremely disrespectful outburst. Why is this "pathetic" and why "of all people" ?
UISTMAN59 1 year ago
@UISTMAN59 - Forgive me, when writing in a heated mood like I was, I tend to assume that what's clear to me is naturally clear to everybody.
I say it's pathetic that the Welsh "of all people" have a thriving native language because unlike the Irish they have been wholly conquered, as it were, by the English. Like the Scots they are part of the UK, which is really nothing more than England writ large. Despite this Welsh thrives, while Irish withers despite Ireland being a sovereign nation.
giannisacco 1 year ago
@giannisacco I say "good on the Welsh that they have a thriving native language" Its not easy to maintain small languages since there are only some 193 internationally recognized sovereign states including all member states of the United Nations, and Vatican City, and ten other states which have de facto sovereignty or independence, but approximately 6900 languages currently spoken around the world,
UISTMAN59 1 year ago
@UISTMAN59 How do you know all these statistics? Very impressive!
bacabu30 6 months ago
@giannisacco Wales & Ireland have had rather different histories though, and Ireland arguably fared far worse at the fate of the English than the Welsh did - who were Protestants. This meant that the Bible was translated into Welsh around the 15th century - this did Welsh a great service & helped to secure it. Irish didn't have this luxury. Also, by the 19th century, around a third of the whole population and almost all native Irish speakers either died or emigrated during the Great Starvation.
bacabu30 6 months ago
@bacabu30 Although there may have been a few manuscript copies in Welsh, the complete Bible wasn't translated into Welsh until well into the 16th century. At this time the Welsh were by no means Protestants. An Irish translation of the New Testament was begun by Nicholas Walsh, Bishop of Ossory, continued by John Kearny, his assistant, and Dr. Nehemiah Donellan, and the Bible in Irish was printed in 1602 and Scots Gaels used this version until the NT was translated into Scottish Gaelic 1767.
UISTMAN59 6 months ago
@UISTMAN59 I don't know enough about it to comment further. Unless I'm mistaken, I think the bible that was translated into Irish was the Anglican one and I thought I heard before that it wasn't even the complete bible that was translated. The RC church discouraged the use of Irish, with a preference for Latin and some English. Catholics were also strongly discouraged to read the bible (in whatever language) in those days by the RC church. Most Welsh people, on the other hand, were Protestants.
bacabu30 6 months ago
@rory198 so you think it has to be one language or the other? That's nonsense. Why not have both? As if anyone would be kicking the English language out or anything! Duh.
bacabu30 6 months ago
Any nation that embraces the antagonism of two or more opposing languages deserves to die. The only reason so many other people know English as well as their native language is because of the wrecking ball that is globalization. You can see these people also embrace the anti-culture that is americanization. The whole bloody system is rotten and designed to destroy any potential national dissent. It's working, because most people are docile to a world controlled by international financiers.
Northbound89 4 months ago
@Northbound89 Don't understand your first line at all but agree with the rest.
bacabu30 4 months ago
@bacabu30
Basically what I was saying in the first line was the majority members of a nation need only be knowledgeable of their own language. I disagree with the notion that the Irish people should know both Irish and English. I am of the opinion the Irish language only is sufficient for the Irish people.
Northbound89 4 months ago
@Northbound89 Are you against English being taught in schools right across the world, where English isn't the main spoken tongue or national language? Are you opposed to people learning any languages other than their own country's?
bacabu30 4 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
"it's not the poverty that's the worst, but the humiliation that follows it." how do you write this in gaeilge? 35 seconds in. go raibh maith agat.
mimgarci 2 years ago
Comment removed
mimgarci 2 years ago
maith thu le haghaidh an clip seo
ca bhfuair tu e ? ta se go hana-mhaith.
where is this show from? can you post more?
it is very good
jmacguitar 2 years ago
It was on the BBC about 20 years ago I think. There is a wee bit more that I can post. Thanks for the note :-)
UISTMAN59 2 years ago
You know, if the Irish still spoke Irish then it wouldn't be so easy for so many immigrants to settle there.... just sayin'.
mafketays 2 years ago 3
@mafketays I have never met an anti-immigration complainer who spoke better Irish than me... they usually speak none, and watch British football, wear the English teams Jerseys, eat in McDonalds and watch American sitcoms for entertainment..
The Anti-Immigration platform trying to associate themselves with the Irish language Movement is pathetic and completely insincere. Cén fáth nach scríobhann do chiníochas as Gaeilge má is grá leat an teanga chomh méad?
spacemonkey103 2 years ago
At 4:25 "same goes for teaching ot the Irish language, if colonasation is compulsion...."
In Sweden, Swedish and English are compulsary; in Denmark, Danish and English are compulsary; in Iceland, Icelandic and English are compulsary. Why the feck shouldn't Irish and English be compulsary in Ireland?
Huldumavur 2 years ago
No English oppression nor heavy-handed government intervention has killed the Irish. No, the culprit is the good old Celtic fatalism and pessimism which reifies the worst possibilities of the imagination. Kill the cultural whinge! Speak a language of strength and open potential to one's children, and see that language thrive.
Shufei 2 years ago
@Shufei I don't understand Irish people's belief that only one language is possible. If you look at it globally bilingualism and multilingualism are the norm, and monoglots are the abnormal ones. Only in English speaking countries and maybe Russia and France is this seen backwards. "Celtic Pessimism" killed the lnguage? WTF? More like a false hoice between languages when you can actually have both anyway. Your comment seems to presuppose this false choice also.
spacemonkey103 2 years ago
By saying the Irish language dosen't make anyone money or associated with unemployment, them days are long over.
Connallach 2 years ago 2
@Connallach Dam right!
spacemonkey103 2 years ago
suimiúil. is mó an trua í nach bhfuil níos mó den tsaghas seo rud le feiceáil anseo.
soloasdubh 2 years ago 2
Físeán cumasach. Is mór thaighde a fuair mé as an t-eolas
Seamus616 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
learn nigerian,its the future LANGUAGE OF YOUR LIBERAL IRELAND.
scorzeny45 3 years ago
"Proverbs Chapter 29 verse 11 "
UISTMAN59 3 years ago
I insist: In Catalonia native and many non native catalan speakers talk to their sons in catalan even with a weird accent, but children learn catalan and speak catalan each other out of class. IF you love your Irish language: SPEAK TO YOUR CHILDREN IN IRISH, then Irish will be their mother tonge.
659Chubb 3 years ago 16
This is the absolute truth. Speaking your mother or father's tongue would then be as natural as breathing. There were too many well-meaning parents who spoke a "secret language" and sadly deprived their children of their linguistic heritage.
UISTMAN59 3 years ago
If you want your Irish language to survive, you have to talk at home Irish to your children from birth, EVEN IF YOUR IRISH IS NOT FLUENT. BELIEVE ME!!. This is what people have done with catalan. A language learn at school as a subject is treated as a foreighn language.
659Chubb 3 years ago 13
This type of post, my friend, is what makes youtube such a fantastic medium!...
Thank you so much for putting this up.
lukessummer 3 years ago 4
Interesting!
PennyPaola 3 years ago
Thanks Paola. I thought I'd post something different for a change. As you know, I don't often put on anything other than music.
UISTMAN59 3 years ago
I kinda know how it feels hm, the French did just the same to us Flemish people (they still do now) :(
This was a great program indeed, moran taing Uistman :-)
vickskedoedoe 3 years ago
Great video as always Uistman. It's such a
shame that the Irish language was allowed or
encouraged to die out. It's great that it's making a comeback; too late for me however :[
You always have the best old photographs!
Karen
chintzgirl 3 years ago
This time the photos are not mine - but I do agree that they are very good. This was a programme recorded years ago. It just seemed a good time to post it now.
UISTMAN59 3 years ago