A chairde!

If you want a good laugh, read the following story. The only problem is that it's true....

"Plans to extend Gaeltacht status on Achill Island
Simone Klinge in Brussel / Bruxelles 8/6/2004

Achill Island in Co. Mayo, Ireland, is aiming to become a fully designated Gaeltacht area. A three-year implementation plan was presented last week by Eamon Ó Cuiv, Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, reports the Irish newspaper “Western People”.

Two thirds of the island, mainly the eastern part, already have the designated status. Ó Cuiv said the status should cover the whole island, since it is one community and should be either fully in or out of the Gaeltacht.

The plan was not initiated by the Minister, but by the local Comhlacht Forbartha Aitiùil Acla (the Achill Development Company), and received widespread support from the Gaeltacht and non-Gaeltacht islanders.

The use of “Gaeilg Acla”, the Irish dialect spoken on Achill, shall extend to the west and local traditions shall be cultivated, according to plan. This will be achieved by encouraging the use of Gaelic across several language domains, such as youth clubs, businesses and cultural organisations.

“The promotion of Gaeilge Acla has received resounding support from the people of Achill and the Curran peninsula,” said Pamela Ní Thaidhg of “Údarás na Gaeltachta”, an organisation that promotes the economic and social development of the Gaeltacht, to the "Western People".

Comhlacht manager, Terence Dever, also plans to establish an all-Irish primary school within the next decade.

The Gaeltacht are known as those areas of Ireland where Gaelic is spoken as the daily language for most of the community. Gaeltacht areas are designated by Government order.
(Eurolang) "

Just wonderful. I wonder when they will extend Gaeltacht status to Helsinki. Or to London. Dublin, of course.

For those of you who don't know the Gaeltacht areas: The so-called Gaeltacht on Acaill is a joke even today. Almost no-one there speaks Irish. Extending the Gaeltacht to the whole of the island is stupid beyong comparison; hardly anyone there would know how to speak Irish. Of course we could think that it's a good initiative spread the use of Irish but I have two objections to that:

1. They will not succeed in spreading the use of Irish. If they failed to keep Irish alive in the part of the island that always was within the Gaeltacht, how on earth would they succeed in actually getting people to speak it.

2. The money that will be wasted on this project will be taken from projects in other Gaeltacht-areas. This means that projects promoting the use of Irish and efforts to keep Irish alive will be cut back to afford this new idiocy.

The reson the local people want this is because many,many people from outside the area have got holiday homes on the island.

Making it a Gaeltacht area means that there will be restrictions on who can come in, which will push down the price of houses and land.

Cliste.

nach bhfuil siad glic!

This is a complicated question.

The problem is that most Gaeltacht areas are also chronically underdeveloped. Udarás na Gaeltachta does a pretty good job of trying to develop these areas, which is why some areas near Gaeltachtaí would like to get in.

We have an overall problem in Irealnd in that development is focussed on the East coast, and some big towns elsewhere.

The West is neglected. There has been an underspend of EU funds in the Border, Midland and West region for example.

Currently, Éamonn Ó Cúiv has a linguistic and sociological study of Gaeltacht boundaries ongoing. I think his assumption that you must build communities is correct, and I assume that this is what Acaill is about.

I expect that eventually we will see several Gaeltacht types, with different rules for each, and different levels of support.

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quote:

Making it a Gaeltacht area means that there will be restrictions on who can come in, which will push down the price of houses and land

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This is not (yet) true. All local authorities who have a Gaeltacht area in their region are supposed to take measures in planning law to protect the langauge. However, only Galway has made half hearted attempts to do this: example: a development in An Spidéail has 29 apartments; the owner must reserve 18 (the worst 18 btw) for Irish speakers.

It is far from clear how this will pan out; and it probably won't be possible to do properly until Gaeltachtaí are meaningfully zoned. And planning law does not affect sale or rental of houses, although some houses have a clause in the planning that they may not be sold for 10 years.

Hmmm. Rather than undermining zoning ordinances that try to ensure that the Gaeltachts actually have some Irish speakers, wouldn't it be great if developers, builders and others who work and profit in the Gaeltachtaí would support efforts to increase the number of fluent speakers, thereby increasing the pool of potential consumers.