I'd call it a necessary evil that's done more good than harm. I understand we disagree on that. That's fine.

My preference would have been if Rannóg an Aistriúchán had simply done a better job from the outset, possibly just allowing dialectal variants to stand in areas of disagreement.

Well, what do you mean "it has done more good than bad"? I suspect what you mean is that the Irish language should only exist as a vehicle for Irish nationalism - who cares if the "Irish language" that is taught is really the Irish language or not, as long as some astroturfed fake thing exists that can be wheeled out in the service of the nationalists? If only someone had told me from the outset when I started learning Irish how hostile the "Gaeilgeóirí" were to the Gaelthacht and to the actual native speakers.

While I do get private enjoyment from studying Irish, as a kind of puzzle to work out the real language of my ancestors, if I knew what I know now I would probably have never studied Irish in the first place. I've only come across a handful of Irish people who actually value the real native tongue. As Father Peter said, the Irish language movement want the language to serve them.

You've suggested this to me before on the forum, and it would be insulting if it weren't such a tired stereotype. I'm interested in Irish despite not having grown up speaking it, and I find the caighdeán a useful tool in developing that interest. Nothing about that means I'm in the IRA.

With that being said, I won't be making any apologies for my nationalism. It just so happens that it's not connected to my linguistic interests.



Who's being hostile to you? You are in no way being harmed by others disagreeing with you about the utility of the caighdeán. You don't like it. That's fine. It's just a learning tool, nothing more. It may not be perfect, but it's a good enough point of reference for many learners and L2 speakers.

For the life of me, I can't work out why you take such personal offence to the suggestion that the caighdeán might serve a genuine linguistic purpose. In this thread I didn't even go that far, I just said I don't think putting any one dialect on a pedestal is a better solution than trying to develop a standard. If anybody's been hostile here, it hasn't been me.