A Qualified Obituary by Reg Hindley.
Reg Hindley, author of the 1990 book titled ‘The Death of the Irish Language’, is tonight giving a lecture titled ‘Prospects for Modern European Languages including Irish’. The lecture is being held by Conradh na Gaeilge in the Natioal Library, Kildare St. Dublin, at 6pm this evening.
Beidh Léacht Chonradh na Gaeilge le Reg Hindley ar siúl anocht ag 6.00 i.n. sa Leabharlann Náisiúnta, Sráid Chill Dara. Beidh sé ag labhairt ar na féidearthachtaà do nuatheangacha Eorpacha – an Ghaeilge san áireamh.
Reg’s opinion on the health of the Irish langauge has changed somewhat since the book was published back in 1990. I might pop in on my way home just to see how bleek or rosey things are according to Hindley. I doubt ill be seeing any of you language haters there, which is a pity.
Aparantly there will be a short question and answer session after the lecture. If anyone has any reasonable questions they would like me to fire at him, then post them using the comment funcion below.
Ill let you know tomorrow how i get on.
Update:
An interesting and wide-ranging talk it has to be said, might post something on it later. Oh and by his reckoning we’re not in as bad a shape as we thought.
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I believe this Reg Hindley chap is pro Irish, but the haters jumped on his previous book to try and prove that the language was dead.
Which I believe it actually wasn’t about at all.
Do let us know ar aon nós.
Will do Mo dhuine. Thats if i get in!!
Shame I found out about that talk so late, I would love to have been prersent. I read that book and Breandan OhEithir’s report in ‘Comhar’ when a student.
Whatever ’shape’ we’re in, I don’t understand why those who believe the languga ehas hope of survival insist on making the rest of us pay for their flights of fancy/ ramming it down the throats of our children.
Shame I didn’t get to ask these questions of Hindley.
“…flights of fanct/ramming it down the troats of our childeren.”
Shame indeed….I’m sure there were a few language haters there, but you can never have enough language haters IMO!
“language haters”
Predictable gaeilgeoir whining when the gravy train looks like hitting the buffers.
Actually, I studied Irish in UCD and taught the language in a secondary school. But don’t let that cloud your name-calling.
Would you also have called the novelist Seamus O Grianna A ‘Language hater’ because he helped set up the Language Freedom Movement to campaign against forcing it on the rest of us/ screwing us of money so that a handful of spongers can swan around pretending it’s spoken and line their own pockets?
What would you have called Breandan O hEithir? He was a native speaker and wrote the excellent ‘Nollaig san Iarthar’ but steadfastly maintained the language was dying.
Neither of the above were ‘language haters’. But not deluded either.
@ekwine
Predictable whining! The only predictable whining going on here is coming from your direction. The usual “oh its being rammed down our throats…poor us…” homily!
I will however have to bow to your superior knowledge of what goes on in the classroom as its been some time since I’ve seen the inside of one, but its no secret that the curriculum needs changing and that teaching methods need updating if we are to avoid another generation of Peig haters!
Breandan O hEithir is entitled to his opinion, as am I, oh and I guess you are too. He thinks the language is dying, you agree with him I presume. That’s great for ye and I hope it goes well for ye, but if you could let us who love the language and think its worth saving get on with it that would be great. By all means continue to crib about the vast sums of money being sucked out of your pocket to finance this futile venture, but make sure to crib equally on other matters, or you’ll just come out looking like a language hater with an axe to grind.
“let us who love the language and think its worth saving get on with it that would be great”
Just my point; get on with it, stop stealing money that could be spent on hospitals, classrooms, transport etc. If you want to pay for Irish Language Officers in state institutions (what exactly do they DO everyday, anyway?), translations never read by anyone, a TV station that gets 20% of the money for broadcasting but 3% of the viewers – and half programmes are in English- scoileanna langaelacha etc. why don’t you bugger off and just get on with it, but put your money where your mouth is.
You are entitled to your opinion, but not to my money.
@ ekwine
Some quality whining there….well done! Looks like this isn’t your first or second time whining about this issue. Your obviously love you money more than your heritage (presuming your Irish).
You would have us spend money on hospitals, classrooms, transport etc, I’m sure you are aware that years of record spending in these areas have done little to alleviate any of the problems inherent each sector, a case of throwing good money after bad. It’s true you’re being screwed but there are much bigger culprits around wielding much bigger members; shur you’d hardly feel the little stab after being ridden rock solid by the big boys.
I am entitled to my opinion, oh and I’m also entitled to YOUR money. Your money paid for the bus I got in to work this morning…sound.
“Some quality whining there”
Indeed. How silly of me to criticise when 500 million of our money is squandered everey year. Who are we, as we reach for our chequebooks, to state the obvious; after 100 years of astronomical investment, the decline of the language continues unabated?
But I must admit it’s the first time I’ve been called a language hater. I had grown accustomed to ’snob’, ‘west brit’, ‘black and tan’, ‘fascist’ etc. Fascinating terms to apply to a former teacher who gave the language a few years of his life. But shooting the messanger is always too easy, ian’t it?
“much bigger culprits around wielding much bigger members”
you’re not by any chance trying to change the subject, are you?
“Your obviously love you money more than your heritage”
I love the truth most of all.
Like I say, if there are people like me who love Irish, of course we should speak it, teach it etc. Forcing it on others isn’t fair and hasn’t worked.
The spelling is ugly. Try Welsh.
Yes, what you lose in ugly spelling you gain in a beautiful flowing musical language!
My father was a fluent Irish speaker who collected a mass of Irish folklore in Irish and English. Until the day he died in 1986 he would become upset when talking of his time supporting, in the mid 60s the Language freedom movement and being threatned and taunted as a “West Brit” by thugs who had a financial interest in the Irish language industry.Sad to think that the same old debate is still alive and well. The healthy state of the Irish revival movement in the North is ample proof that the bully boy tactics employed in the South have much to answer for . The late Brendan O Hehir was the sharpest journalist of his time and he was only stating the obvious. Irish suffers from a national perception (rightly or wrongly)that it is being used to gain a financial advantage by a small elite. The success of the irish music revival tells it’s own story.
Micheal,
Agreed. It IS obvious: the obligatory, bully-boy tactics are not fair and not working.