Cúpla Focail ag Móráin Daoine

I have been perusing the reports from last year's Census, just published yesterday (yes, I am that type of person), and apart from the remarkable rise in foreign nationals living in Ireland (up to 10% of the population and probably higher than the amount that actually replied) the thing that has most intrigued me is the perennial question of how many Irish speakers there are in the country. In the past I have heard figures of 500,000 bandied about, which always seemed suspiciously high, particularly given that people I have shared houses with during previous censuses have ticked the 'able to speak Irish' box with very little to back up the claim.

This year, it appears the number of people able to speak Irish is a whopping 1,656,790, or roughly 40% of the population (and interestingly, women appear to be a good deal more likely than men to speak it). The population of Wales, then, and just a little short of that of Slovenia. Which makes you wonder why more people are not exercising this ability on a more regular basis, and why we do not hear more of the language on the streets of our towns and cities and in pubs and bars. When one examines the various other tables however, a different picture emerges, such as the one that tells us that 53,471 people speak it on a daily basis outside the educational system, which is a figure slightly lower than the number of Irish speakers living in the Gaeltacht (62,959) but a credible one nonetheless. Not surprisingly the figures of people who speak Irish increase as the frequency is reduced.

So, it confirms the suspicion that Irish people back home are as likely to claim proficiency in the ancestral tongue as those living abroad are. It is usually an uncostly and easy way of showing that one is different from folks in Manchester or Massachusetts. Seanachie is able to hold his own in the language, as clicking on one of the tags below this post will confirm. So I will point the finger, as it is tiring for people to be paying, well, lip service to Irish, claiming it as a petty badge of cultural difference, while making no effort to learn or speak it. Manchán Magan discovered the real hostility that persists among Irish people towards the language when he tried to get by speaking nothing but it for a Guardian article a couple of months back. The loss of the language over the past two hundred years was engineered by a peasantry aspiring to the petit bourgeoisie; now its loss has rendered much of the country, in a paradoxical way, simultaneously loquacious and inarticulate. Reminding an Irish person of their inability to speak Irish is an opening of a sore, akin to disparaging a man's sexual proficiency. But then that's probably something that would be distorted just a wee bit if it were ever to be included in the Census.

An Gaeilge Cainte

Níor cheap mé go mbeadh mé ag cur poist eile san chéad teanga náisiúntach chomh luath mar seo ach chuir an píosín nuaichte galanta seo é i m'intinn. Dúirt an tAire Oideachais Mary Hanafin inné go mbeidh béim níos mó curtha ar an bplás don Ghaeilge cainte sna dhá scrúdaithe meán scoileacha, agus sa mhúineadh é féin, cé a bheidh curtha i bhfeidm trí bhliain seo chugainn. Dar le Sheanachie tá sé caoga bliain ró-dhéanaí agus mar sin féin fanann an Gaeilge ach roghnach don Theastas Sóiséarach. Ach is tosnú beag é, glacaim.

Táim críochnaithne leis na phoiste as Gaeilge don bhomaite, níl aon ciall chun na ghnáthléitheoirí den mblog seo bheith buartha. Nílim imithe bananas go léir.

Seachtain na Gaeilge Feicthe ó bPáras

Is annamh a gcuirim síos as Gaeilge, de bharr de roinnt réasúin, ach dúradh liom gur Seachtain na Gaeilge é i láthair. Mar sin, cén fath nár gcuardainn an dóigh chun píosín a dhéanamh chun an rud a chéiliúradh? Anseo i bPáras ní bhíonn mórán seans agam chun an teanga a thabhairt amach as an phóca - ní malairt mór é sin de mBÁC nó an páirt mór de h-Éireann. Is minice, bíonn sé áisiúil chun agallamh, deireamar, níos príobhádach a chóiméad i measc na daoine, cé dóibh a bheadh an Béarla chomh léiritheach ná an bhFraincis féin. Ar ndóigh mar sin féin is annamh ná é sin a tharladh. Don pháirt mór de hÉireannaigh eisimeracaigh, oibríonn an teanga sinsearach mar brat breise, cosúil le leann dubh áirithe ná bhur stair dearóil ar láimhe na Shasanaigh (ocht aoise anróitaigh, leoga) nó, mar a deir blogeoir amháin le déanaí 'mar geansaí na gCealtaigh teangeolaíochta'. Níl na eisimircigh go h-án difriúil den slua sa bhaile mar sin. Agus tá orm a ghlacadh go bheathaím an claonadh sin mar scríobh trí Gaeilge ar an mblog seo i rith na Seachtain na Gaelige amháin (gan bheith fhios agam go bhfuil sé ar siúl fós). Ach is é an lámh a roinneadh dúinn sa Stair (agus nílim ag lochtadh na Sasanaigh amháin nuair a deirim é sin); is deacair go leor chun Stair na hÉireann ná sa chultúr a phlé nó aird a chur orthu le éinne trí Bhéarla na laethanta seo. Mairfidh an teanga Gaelach ar feadh cúpla h-aoise níos mó, ach beidh sé mar simulacrum saghas plaisteachach, mar sin féin den gcultúr níos fairsinge. Bhuel, ar aon nós is é sin mo pháirtín déanta liomsa. Geallaim go ndéanfaidh mé é arís roimh an am seo an bhliain seo chugainn.