03.16.05
The Fate of Irish
Irish language flourishes at Notre Dame:
In Ireland, the Irish language is viewed by some affluent citizens as a peasant language that should be allowed to fade into oblivion.
But here in the land of the Fighting Irish, where students pay nearly $40,000 a year to attend the University of Notre Dame, the little-used language is enjoying a renaissance.
“There are a lot of kids here who are the grandchildren of the very successful and the very rich, and their grandparents were taught to forget about their Irish past,” said Eamonn O Ciardha, program director at Notre Dame’s Keough Institute for Irish Studies. “Now these kids are back and they want to know about their language, they want to know about their history, they want to know about their culture.”
Things seem to be less encouraging in the home country:
This morning’s reports said the document highlighted the fact that many pupils haven’t even attained basic fluency in Irish despite being taught the language for 13 years.
Maybe this madra can help.