That is not the case for all, obviously. As an Irish person living in Ireland and bringing my children up through Irish outside of the Gaeltacht, one of the biggest barriers I hear about - and see occasionally - is the attitude or perception that unless one's Irish is 'perfect' by a particular definition, that it is virtually unworthy of being spoken or listened to. I have the very good fortune of knowing native and fluent speakers who are not burdened by such a narrow view of our language and so in our area, Irish is on the increase amongst all age groups (relatively speaking, of course). The future is bright where I live. It is a very long road ahead, but we are heading in the right direction.

One of the saddest things is that I know many people who wish to have their children educated through Irish and there are not enough Gaelscoileanna to provide them with it. Now, that is a true breach of their rights, I believe.

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Aontaim go hiomlán leat a Shaoirse!

Domhnall

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Ultach mé agus Gaeilg Uladh a labhraim go measardha maith!

I don't want to appear rude, but I don't see how a certain set of people personally speaking Irish has anything to do with a revival, necessarily.

By 'Irish people' I mean the whole 6 million of them and by 'speaking Irish' I mean the whole practical and cultural infrastructure needed to sustain and maintain the language. They used to say it takes a whole village to raise a child; I would say it's the same for a language. Where are the all-Irish villages outside of Toraigh?

As for who judges you not to have 'perfect' Irish, there is little sign that anyone wants to support and grow native Gaeltacht Irish. Any time Irish is on the radio or on TV and the person is not a Gaeltacht native, they often don't separate noun gender completely or pronounce the sounds systematically (and they are the easy parts. I say this because I once read in a forum that gender and caol le caol are not taught in schools). If the above is true then only native speakers could afford to be doing the judging as most of the judgers probably don't speak right themselves.

A woman in Gleann Cholm Cille once told me that she was told by some people from Belfast to sit down, keep quiet and listen to some 'real Irish' all because she didn't use more old fashioned adverbs as in phrases like 'ag dul siar' or 'san ionad thiar' and 'ag teacht aniar' like as if you must have a compass in your head or head to speak the language where as 'ag gul síos an bóthar', 'ag an ionad' and 'ag teacht ar ais' (which would be grounded in the speaker's situation relative to them, not the compass) flowed naturally from how she visualized her location and surroundings

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__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

There's nothing wrong with saying ag dul siar in Irish - it is not obsolete. But ag teacht ar ais and ag dul síos an bóthar are correct too. You don't have to specify the direction as per the compass each time, but it is not obsolete to do so. That sounds like a nice example where people in Belfast were trying to use the correct Irish way of thinking - although making a booboo by criticising a native speaker (if indeed the woman in Gleann Cholm Cille was a native speaker - as that area is not a stronghold of Irish nowadays).

She is native (Kitty Cambell is her name for anyone who knows the area). As for the adverbs, what I meant was that they were annoyed that she was not using the full suite of directional adverbs (mar shampla:

aduaidh
aneas
aniar
aniar aduaidh
aniar aneas
anoir
anoir aduaidh
anoir aneas
laisteas
laistiar
laistiar laisteas
laistiar lastuaidh
lastoir
lastoir laisteas
lastoir lastuaidh
lastuaidh
ó dheas
ó thuaidh
siar
siar ó dheas
siar ó thuaidh
soir
soir ó dheas
soir ó thuaidh
theas
thiar
thiar theas
thiar thuaidh
thoir
thoir theas
thoir thuaidh
thuaidh )

when one would simply be talking about movements to and from ones own house, very much a fixed point. Central Donegal is hardly full of fishermen who need awareness of the cardinal directions at all times. I think the upset to her was needless picking on a point out of an arrogance they had over a point they misunderstood (silly as in the modern world not everyone is so spatially aware to make calls on specific directions) and their own Irish was lacking in most departments


Getting back to the original point, how do you feel the language is to be/can be revived around the country beyond people's homes and Gaelscoileanna?

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__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

It can't. But it could be maintained in the existing Gaeltacht, although current policy doesn't seem to be well devised to ensure that.

Personally, I believe that 'Gaeltachtaí nua' need to be created and by interested groups themselves. No point waiting for anyone else to do it!

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__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

Exactly. That is why my husband and I are raising our children through Irish.

Don't believe everything you read on an internet forum!! I went to school in Ireland and they were taught. I'm sure the extent varies from teacher to teacher.

In my opinion, the biggest problem with the teaching of Irish is that it is taught like a subject and not a language. What I mean by that is that there is not enough opportunity to actually use the language to communicate. There is no point in learning off a set of rules to a game, but rarely if ever getting to play the actual game. With this inexperience in using the language as a language often comes the lack of confidence to do precisely that when an opportunity does present itself. By the way, I am speaking from personal experience. What a learner needs to be able to do is talk without worrying about every little mistake. Of course, the aim should be to improve, but that comes with practice and helpful, positive input from those more experienced. My family and I have met with nothing but positivity since we began our journey. And, for the record, we are far from unique.

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And I hope ye can continue to work at at.

I did mean by a new Gaeltacht that in a literal way -buying land, putting in infrastructure and buildings and making a community of it

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__̴ı̴̴̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡ ̡͌l̡*̡̡ ̴̡ı̴̴̡ ̡̡͡|̲̲̲͡͡͡ ̲▫̲͡ ̲̲̲͡͡π̲̲͡͡ ̲̲͡▫̲̲͡͡ ̲|̡̡̡ ̡ ̴̡ı̴̡̡ ̡͌l̡̡̡̡.___

https://twitter.com/aodhanodea/status/2 ... 4289560577

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