Tá sé idir beo is marbh.
The Murder Machine <
http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/e900007-001/> ticks over in the English language school system in Ireland, but just about. Looking in last night on Antaine's site (from another thread here on Daltaí na G.), I noted that there were 10, just ten, who had signed, one of those in opposition to its sentiment of making Irish non-compulsory. The figure is the same today, ten.
With the introduction of some Irish content into the Irish education system in the 1920s by teachers who had to learn the Irish language for the first time, at some great expense and positive dedication and zeal on their own part, The Murder Machine took a dive from which it hasn't recovered. This despite the fact that not all the teachers of the period inclined themselves to learn Irish. A number of them died blind to all that it contained, regarding it as a language of the poor in so many Gaeltacht areas around about them.
We are left with the Murder Machine's offspring, a half-murder machine which struggles with modern Irish identity, not knowing what it is, what it was nor what it shall become. Most teachers are more concerned about their own private lives and that of their families; (in 2nd level:) they are also concerned about the aggression of their pupils and the lack of understanding in society as a whole to their plight as teachers. Despite all of this there are those few in their profession who try to make a difference. Most of those who try to make a difference have a devotion to their pupils progression despite the odds stacked against them. Most Irish language teachers fall into this category. (The view of Irish language teachers of troublesome class pupils is always positive. This is a privatization on my part.)
Through the dearth of vision in the late 60s (e.g. closing of na coláistí ullmhúcháin) and loss of hope in the early 70s (northern troubles and southern reactions) motivated parents having passed through the half-alive half-dead, half-murder machine system, decided that they had to act on their own behalf and started their own process locally: <
http://www.gaelscoileanna.ie/fuinn.htm>
They knew only too well what didn't work and they had figured out what ought to make a difference. They have been proved correct as their end product, Irish language educated teenagers continue to out-perform their counter parts from the old post-Imperial Free State system. Its success in all areas of education didn't go un-noticed and other parents followed suit. You may hit on the link (Graif ar fhás na gaelscolaíochta) at the bottom of that same page: <
http://www.gaelscoileanna.ie/fuinn.htm>
One may take the view that we should attack the old half-murder machine system and that we ought to make a demand such as the making of English optional, rather than just praising the newer option of an all-Irish education system. The latter option, that of praising rather than attacking the opposition, has been accepted in other language situations as been the more successful way to go.
Those of us who find fault with the Gaelscoil system ought to understand that, while it still labours with many endemic faults, it is leaps and bounds ahead of its predecessors. The chains have been broken. It shall take time for the wounds to heal completely and of course there shall be some scars. Meanwhile it proves daily and yearly to more and more young parents that the older systems of murder machine and half-murder machine are not a patch on it.
We ought to be proud of what has happened. Those few in each area who have gone out on a limb to start a naíscoil or Gaelscoil in their area against the advice of their fellow workers, their family members, the parents who promised to register their own children in the first year so as to have a full compliment for the Dept. of Educ. demands, but later withdrew their children's names at the last minute, their solicitor who had advised them to withdraw the project and to inform the young teacher that they must look for another job, despite the fact that the idealistic young teacher had turned down one or more jobs so as to be able to work in the new Gaelscoil. Despite all of this advice, these people, sometimes no more than one in some areas, continued with the aisling of having a Gaelscoil up and running in their own area against all the odds. These people are heroes.
Ba cheart am éigin liosta a thiomsú de na daoine seo as gach ceard in Éirinn agus aitheantas éigin a bhronnadh orthu. An dream beag ciúin sin, ní fios fós cad tá broslaithe acu.
