a little anecdote :
Because of her work my wife met with a young woman (french woman) and they started to talk about Ireland.
This french woman said that her aunt (frenchwoman too) had married an Irishman . They have two children and they're living in a little town near Dublin : her husband speaks Gaeilge, she is learning Gaeilge and she speaks Gaeilge to her two children.!!!

I just wanted to report that to pour a little balm in all the Gaeilge lovers wounded hearts.

Gaeilge Abú !

Is duine cineálta thú. Dia leat.

Bhuel, cinnte! I am!!
I just meant to add something optimistic .
The strange thing is that this Irish person (I'm speaking of the husband) seems to be from Dublin and, anyway , he is now living near Dublin , i.e. NOT in the gaeltacht. That was worth reporting, wasn't it?

Is fíor dhuit!

It is definitely nice to hear about the French woman and her Irish husband raising their children with Irish, quite a few of the new immigrant people are taking an interest in Irish culture. It will all help to 'normalise' the Irish language as one of the modern European languages in the minds of Irish people.

But an Irish-speaking, or more likely a bilingual (or even trilingual) family in Dublin is not really so remarkable. After all, the Gaelscoil movement has been in existance long enough to have its second and third generation of pupils and very many Gaeltacht-born people now live in and around the Greater Dublin area. In fact one in every three Irish people now live in that area with its population heading toward 2 million, and there are more fluent Irish speakers in Dublin than in all the Gaeltacht districts combined even if they don't all get to speak it daily.

Seanfhear

And many Irish speakers in Dublin are married to foreigners

(Me to a German, three of my acquaintances to a Serb, a Dutch woman and a Catalan respectively. Tá na tritheangóirí ag teacht....)

I didn't know so many gaeltacht-born people were living in Dublin .
That's reassuring fot the future of Irish. But still, I think I have read some threads here about The Irish language such as it is spoken in Dublin and I seem to remember that it is rather ill-considered to speak it in this city . At all cases , if not ill-considered, at least not praised and not really wanted. Can you explain me why?
I just thought it was the lack of knowledge of the language which would prevent its use ; but I seem to be wrong. If so many people have Irish , why don't they speak it?

Jehan - If so many people have Irish , why don't they speak it?

An-cheist agus ceist nach furasta a fhreagairt

- a question not easily answered Jehan.


An t-am a fhreagrófar í, beimid slán.

- If ever answered, we shall be on the right track.

Tá an Ghaeilge acu, ach tá a gcuid Béarla níos fearr.

Jehan, on choisit souvent la facilité, c'est aussi simple que ça. Tous ces gens parlent irlandais, mais leur anglais est meilleur, donc ...

Et la plupart des gens sont paresseux, aussi, et n'aiment pas spécialement parler irlandais. Moi je parle mieux français, mais je préfère parler irlandais quand même, ou breton...

Il y a des gentes a bhfuil muineál teann agus cloigeann crua acu. Mais nous sommes le minorité, hélas.

quote:

... a bhfuil muineál teann agus cloigeann crua acu

Vivent les têtus!