Orlared Gaeltacht 2020 | "Gaeltacht regions reduced to Indian reservations" | TG4 documentary

[Kershaw]

Gaeltacht 2020 | "Gaeltacht regions reduced to Indian reservations" | TG4 documentary

This is part 1 of a 2 part series


link

The State’s Irish-speaking regions have been allowed dwindle so much they have been reduced to “Indian reservations” ignored by the State and by successive governments, according to a new TG4 documentary on Gaeltacht.

Gaeltacht 2020 is a two-part investigation on the state of the country’s last Irish-speaking regions where the combined populations number no more than that of a large Irish town.

Presenter Eibhlín Ní Chonghaile visits all the remaining regions – from the smallest, Rinn in Co Waterford, to the largest, south Connemara. The others are south Kerry, west Kerry, Baile Bhúirne, the Donegal Gaeltachtaí and Belmullet in Co Mayo.

The number of people living in regions where Irish remains the dominant tongue has shrank to 17,000, it says. That stark number is a “national emergency” and needs an immediate and concerted response, says Prof Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh.

-Irish Times

Fostaíocht

Á chur i láthair ag an iriseoir Eibhlín Ní Chonghaile, caithfear súil sa gcéad chlár den tsraith ar chúrsaí fostaíochta i gceantair Ghaeltachta. Féachfaidh sí le léargas a thabhairt ar an gcineál saothrú atá ar fáil sna ceantair agus na deacrachtaí a bhíonn i gceist. Is cinnte gur ábhar machnaimh a bheidh sa tsraith seo do phobal na Gaeltachta agus ar staid reatha na Gaeltachta. Leagfar béim ar an ról a cheart a bheith ag an bpobal féin in aon bheart a cheapfaí chun ceantair Ghaeltachta a thabhairt slán as an tsáinn eacnamaíochta, sóisialta agus cultúir ina bhfuil siad.

Broadcast: 22 Apr 2020 | TG4

From the documentary:

"How did that number drop to 400?"

"Companies found cheap labour in places like China. That's where Slendertone moved its operations after the closure."

"It would have been almost impossible to compete with China when you think about it, wouldn't it?"

"We couldn't have competed with China. Now everything is made in China!...Many emigrated to Australia, America, Canada and England."

"I read somewhere that, in 2002, there were 20 abandoned townlands in this valley. Where does that number stand now?"

"81...And in 10 years or so, there will probably be 20 more on that list...It seems like the current government wants everyone to move to the cities and towns."

 

[Tadhg Gaelach]

The Irish language would be an obstacle to Globohomo.

 

[FF/FG/Lab/SF..stitchup]

when we lose our language, we lose our identity.

We become like any tourist attraction.....awash with eejits looking for the culture while eating Burgers & chips.

 

[Kershaw]

Gaeltacht 2020 | part 2 | TG4 documentary | "Patriotism takes a back seat"

TG4 documentary on the diminishing and neglected Gaeltacht areas of Ireland.


link

"67% is two thirds of the population and if that number speaks Irish on a daily basis, it means that two thirds are fluent in Irish. Once it falls below two thirds, there's a steep drop to 50% or so. As soon as you reach the point where less than on in two people speak Irish, maintaining it as the primary language of the community becomes an up hill battle.

"In the Gaeltacht, it has nothing to do with patriotism; It's the language of communication. When people can't communicate effectively in Irish, they turn to English because people have to communicate. Patriotism takes a back seat when communication is a requirement. So, that percentage, 67%, is crucial. That's the percentage of fluent Irish speakers required in a community to maintain it as the primary language of the people."

GAELTACHT 2020 | PART 2

Gaeltacht 2020 - Seirbhísí & Pleanáil | Player | TG4 | Irish Television Channel, Súil Eile

This episode focus's on two issues facing Gaeltacht communities, the lack of basic services and the difficulty with planning laws. Eibhlín meets with local communities to see the effects these issues

www.tg4.ie

 

[TW Tone]

when we lose our language, we lose our identity.

We become like any tourist attraction.....awash with eejits looking for the culture while eating Burgers & chips.

A good metaphor for what you say is the Cead Mile Failte placard some globalist placed outside the DP hotel in Cahirsiveen.

 

[A Voice]

Scríobhaigí freagraí as Gaeilge anseo. Tosaigh anseo, anois, leis an athbheochan. Bí cinnte go nglacann tú páirt in aon chomhrá ina bhfuil Gaeilge á labhairt. Ní lucht féachana muid; is rannpháirtithe muid.

 

[TW Tone]

Ta me thar lear faoi lathair, mo lean nach mbeidh deis agam an clar a fheiscint.

But I know some of the Gaeltachtai, so its findings won't surprise me. They are i mbeal an bhais.

I could write a book about this (maybe I will) but I'll just throw in two thoughts.

1/ The industrialisation policy embodied by Udaras na Gaeltachta has been criminal. For years the govt sought to build factories to which Outsiders/Bearleoiri would come to work.
These people never had the slightest intention of learning Irish, they have damaged it.
They were pretty much all Irish people, I won't even go into the question of foreign migration to Gaeltacht areas.
2/ We give the Gaeltacht people a blank check in this. All Irish-speakers have to do to keep the language alive is to speak it to their children. They haven't done it.
Their attitude to learners has been bad, even ill--mannered. That is of course a generalisation to which there are exceptions, but Gaeltacht people invariably speak English to an outsider who addresses them in Irish. Countless learners have told me this--it's even happened to me, and I speak good Irish. There is some kind of weird snobbery going on, in which a community which is discarding the language sneers at people who try to learn it. A case in point was that dislikeable Daithi O Se, who makes a living out of Irish. A couple of years back I saw him sneering at Dubs who wear the Fainne.
And there are legions of stories from children who have spent time in the Gaeltacht of how their bean a' ti only spoke Irish when some cigire was around.

No, a chairde, ta an teanga marbh

 

[Mccarthy]

Gaeltacht 2020 | "Gaeltacht regions reduced to Indian reservations" | TG4 documentary

This is part 1 of a 2 part series


link

The State’s Irish-speaking regions have been allowed dwindle so much they have been reduced to “Indian reservations” ignored by the State and by successive governments, according to a new TG4 documentary on Gaeltacht.

Gaeltacht 2020 is a two-part investigation on the state of the country’s last Irish-speaking regions where the combined populations number no more than that of a large Irish town.

Presenter Eibhlín Ní Chonghaile visits all the remaining regions – from the smallest, Rinn in Co Waterford, to the largest, south Connemara. The others are south Kerry, west Kerry, Baile Bhúirne, the Donegal Gaeltachtaí and Belmullet in Co Mayo.

The number of people living in regions where Irish remains the dominant tongue has shrank to 17,000, it says. That stark number is a “national emergency” and needs an immediate and concerted response, says Prof Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh.

-Irish Times

Fostaíocht

Á chur i láthair ag an iriseoir Eibhlín Ní Chonghaile, caithfear súil sa gcéad chlár den tsraith ar chúrsaí fostaíochta i gceantair Ghaeltachta. Féachfaidh sí le léargas a thabhairt ar an gcineál saothrú atá ar fáil sna ceantair agus na deacrachtaí a bhíonn i gceist. Is cinnte gur ábhar machnaimh a bheidh sa tsraith seo do phobal na Gaeltachta agus ar staid reatha na Gaeltachta. Leagfar béim ar an ról a cheart a bheith ag an bpobal féin in aon bheart a cheapfaí chun ceantair Ghaeltachta a thabhairt slán as an tsáinn eacnamaíochta, sóisialta agus cultúir ina bhfuil siad.

Broadcast: 22 Apr 2020 | TG4

From the documentary:

"How did that number drop to 400?"

"Companies found cheap labour in places like China. That's where Slendertone moved its operations after the closure."

"It would have been almost impossible to compete with China when you think about it, wouldn't it?"

"We couldn't have competed with China. Now everything is made in China!...Many emigrated to Australia, America, Canada and England."

"I read somewhere that, in 2002, there were 20 abandoned townlands in this valley. Where does that number stand now?"

"81...And in 10 years or so, there will probably be 20 more on that list...It seems like the current government wants everyone to move to the cities and towns."

View attachment 9447

Very good doc even if Donegal dialect was hard to follow without subtitles.

That being said future of Gaeltacht is in the towns and cities not the moribund rural communities.

 

[@graceland.com]

Ta me thar lear faoi lathair, mo lean nach mbeidh deis agam an clar a fheiscint.

But I know some of the Gaeltachtai, so its findings won't surprise me. They are i mbeal an bhais.

I could write a book about this (maybe I will) but I'll just throw in two thoughts.

1/ The industrialisation policy embodied by Udaras na Gaeltachta has been criminal. For years the govt sought to built factories to which Outsiders/Bearleoiri would come to work.
These people never had the sliyghtest intention of learning Irish, they have damaged it.
They were pretty much all Irish people, I won't even go into the question of foreign migration to Gaeltacht areas.
2/ We give the Gaeltacht people a blank check in this. All Irish-speakers have to do to keep the language alive is to speak it to their children. They haven't done it.
Their attitude to learners has been bad, even ill--mannered. That is of course a generalisation to which there are exceptions, but Gaeltacht people invariably speak English to an outsider who addresses them in Irish. Countless learners have told me this--it's even happened to me, and I speak good Irish. There is some kind of weird snobbery going on, in which a community which is discarding the language sneers at people who try to learn it. A case in point was that dislikeable Daithi O Se, who makes a living out of Irish. A couple of years back I saw him sneering at Dubs who wear the Fainne.
And there are legions of stories from children who have spent time in the Gaeltacht of how their bean a' ti only spoke Irish when some cigire was around.

No, a chairde, ta an teanga marbh

A lot of what you say is true, I live between Dublin and the Donegal Gaeltacht ,
There is an annexe to I think Galway university here staffed by career gaelgoers
Who think they are above everybody else, th8nk of themselves as some kind of
Gaelic experts, they know Gaelic better than anyone they think, they going around like college students with big baggy jumpers and black clothes, the Gaelic intelligencia. A lot of it is jobs fir the boys.

we were at a do )20 years ago hosted by the local gaelgoers
My friend was looking for the toilet and asked one of the attendees
The person would not answer because he asked in English
That’s fair enough you want people to speak Gaelic
At the end of the night the same the same person who
Wouldn’t speak to my fried was speaking to his friend
About getting a taxi in his Gaelic .
He said
Ta me Gaula tryal a taxi.

 

[@graceland.com]

when we lose our language, we lose our identity.

We become like any tourist attraction.....awash with eejits looking for the culture while eating Burgers & chips.

The language is only part of the cultural heritage of an area
Other parts are the way people lived
The way they worked at what they ate and the build heritage.,
These Gaelic advocates are great at advocating for the language in the form of grants etc.
The scholars
Then come and they eat the best of cheap food that Lidl and Aldi have to offer
And stay in houses which are a blight on the cultural landscape and more suited in suburbia
Than a Gaeltacht area on the west coast of Ireland.

 

[Conall Gulban]

And stay in houses which are a blight on the cultural landscape and more suited in suburbia
Than a Gaeltacht area on the west coast of Ireland.

Gweedore has been destroyed with suburban style architecture over the last decade or two. The mini housing estates too are awful. Completely out of place.

 

[TW Tone]

Very good doc even if Donegal dialect was hard to follow without subtitles.

That being said future of Gaeltacht is in the towns and cities not the moribund rural communities.

Many years ago an activist called Desmond Fennell (an bhfuil se beo fos?) Promoted his idea of what he called Iar-Chonnachta . West Connaught. As far as I understand, his idea was that Irish speakers from throughout the country should relocate to the Connemara Gaeltacht and build it up.
Didn't work.
Nothing does in the case of reviving Irish.