Irish language

"Tá léarscáileanna sa teanga dhúchais ar fáil i ngach tír a bhfuil féinmheas acu orthu féin."

"An t-aon fhadhb atá agamsa ná easpa tuisceanna i measc na heagraíochtaí Gaeilge mar gheall ar thábhacht cúrsaí margaíochta."

"Viewing the more traditional Irish language revival organisations as too narrow and conservative, he felt they had failed to sell Irish to people at grassroots level."

"By 1948, the year Ireland became a republic, both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael "claimed as a priority the revival of the Irish language as the vernacular of the people – and both equally did nothing to stop the death of Irish-speaking communities like that on the Blaskets"."

"The failure, however, did not lie mainly in the schools. It was the blatant failure of the state itself to devise arrangements for the subsequent use of the language that largely discredited compulsory Irish. The children were given no incentive to master Irish as a living language, only as a dead one. The charade of Irish language tests for public employment, when everybody knew the language would hardly ever be used again, the whole fetid system of favouritism associated with language knowledge, as distinct from language use, inevitably left its mark, stamping the most idealistic and most important task undertaken by the new state as yet one more sleazy political racket. Genuine language lovers who ‘loathed the way that the politicians, the pedagogues, the urbanised peasants had sucked the life and beauty from it’ were brushed aside."

"I conducted a little survey of government websites. I asked for page view numbers for English and Irish versions for some pages I picked at random. All figures are for January 2025. A HSE page about treating Covid-19 symptoms at home had 5,274 views in English and 23 in Irish. A Department of Health page on the menopause had 337 views in English and four in Irish. A Department of Social Welfare page about the fuel allowance for pensioners was viewed 13,892 times in English and twice in Irish. A Department of Education page on guidelines for school designs had 1,007 views in English and two in Irish."

"The Irish language movement has not been good at seeking a strategic compromise. It still isn't. The 'all or nothing approach' generally results in nothing in the long run."

"Tír gan teanga, trí gan anam."

"Is fearr an tsláinte ná na táinte."

"Ní neart go cur le chéile."

"An áit a bhfuil do chroi is ann a thabharfas do chosa."