Byrner
04-03-2008, 01:35 PM
Ireland needs 250,000 Gaelic speakers by 2028 to save the future of the language, Gaeltacht Minister Éamon Ó Cuív said today.
Speaking during a visit to the US, Mr Ó Cuív called for more courage and leadership to ensure the native tongue thrives in a globalised world.
The Government is currently preparing a 20-year strategy for the Irish language, due to be launched before the end of the year.
Mr Ó Cuív today launched the Fulbright Irish Language Program in the City University of New York (CUNY) in the Bronx.
Lehman College in CUNY teaches Irish to students from dozens of diverse ethnic backgrounds.
The minister told CUNY students and academics: “I personally believe that if, in 20 years time, we have 250,000 daily speakers of Irish, the tide will have definitively turned.
“Then we can reasonably expect to have an Irish-speaking community of sufficient strength to ensure further growth for the language.”
He added: “I can see no reason other than lack of courage and leadership now why Irish will not remain alive as a spoken, community language in the new
globalised world we have created.”
A grant of €660,000 from the Gaeltacht Affairs Department will fund Irish language teaching assistants and scholars in US colleges and universities over
the next three years.
Courses from beginner’s level to graduate courses are currently being taken by Americans of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds under the Fulbright scheme.
From next year, the Fulbright Program will also provide an award to a US post-graduate student to spend a summer in a Gaeltacht area in Ireland.
Mr Ó Cuív said Ireland’s Celtic Tiger boom triggered an international renaissance of Irish culture.
“Part of this results from the development of links between Ireland and the approximately 50 universities and third level institutions worldwide that teach the Irish language and Celtic Studies,and the provision of funding for this
work.
“Fulbright cements the traditionally strong ties between our nations and builds on the initiative of Presidents John F Kennedy and Eamon de Valera, who
founded the American Irish Foundation during Mr Kennedy’s presidential visit to Ireland in 1963.”
News Source: http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0403/breaking43.htm
Speaking during a visit to the US, Mr Ó Cuív called for more courage and leadership to ensure the native tongue thrives in a globalised world.
The Government is currently preparing a 20-year strategy for the Irish language, due to be launched before the end of the year.
Mr Ó Cuív today launched the Fulbright Irish Language Program in the City University of New York (CUNY) in the Bronx.
Lehman College in CUNY teaches Irish to students from dozens of diverse ethnic backgrounds.
The minister told CUNY students and academics: “I personally believe that if, in 20 years time, we have 250,000 daily speakers of Irish, the tide will have definitively turned.
“Then we can reasonably expect to have an Irish-speaking community of sufficient strength to ensure further growth for the language.”
He added: “I can see no reason other than lack of courage and leadership now why Irish will not remain alive as a spoken, community language in the new
globalised world we have created.”
A grant of €660,000 from the Gaeltacht Affairs Department will fund Irish language teaching assistants and scholars in US colleges and universities over
the next three years.
Courses from beginner’s level to graduate courses are currently being taken by Americans of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds under the Fulbright scheme.
From next year, the Fulbright Program will also provide an award to a US post-graduate student to spend a summer in a Gaeltacht area in Ireland.
Mr Ó Cuív said Ireland’s Celtic Tiger boom triggered an international renaissance of Irish culture.
“Part of this results from the development of links between Ireland and the approximately 50 universities and third level institutions worldwide that teach the Irish language and Celtic Studies,and the provision of funding for this
work.
“Fulbright cements the traditionally strong ties between our nations and builds on the initiative of Presidents John F Kennedy and Eamon de Valera, who
founded the American Irish Foundation during Mr Kennedy’s presidential visit to Ireland in 1963.”
News Source: http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0403/breaking43.htm