The Irish language or Gaeilge is the native language of Ireland. It is one of the oldest languages in Europe and has literary tradition that can rival any in the world. Irish like many languages in the world came under pressure after the invasion of the island some 800 years ago. Since that time, laws, economic and political and religious policies have been designed to steadily erode the language, while famine disease and immigration further decimated the native language community.
By the end of the 19th Century a new revival movement was underway with many people from different backgrounds standing together in order to protect and revive the language. This work has gone on for over a hundred years and while it was successful in maintaining speakers of the language it failed in revitalizing Irish language as a community language.
Irish-Medium Education changed everything when in the late 1960's and early 1970's groups of parents began to come together within local communities throughout Ireland to setup Irish-Medium schools.
As soon as they became known, these new Gaelscoileanna, marked the beginning of a revolution in the revival of the Irish language because they made the language relevant in the community as a real living language, something that was not the case for many years. No longer was Irish something people could only learn in the back of your local village hall or as academic subject in school or university. These new schools provided the language with a place in which Irish was always spoken, among staff and among the children. In Gaelscoileanna Irish is not taught so much as it is absorbed. Children acquire the language through everyday experiences and the emphasis in these schools is on the use of the language as a means of real and meaningful communication. Parents, who for the most part do not have the language are often important partners in a three way relationship between school, family and community. Their role is one of approval, support and encouragement for the child's rich educational experience.
In short the school and community events can supply many of the linguistic and personal development opportunities, but the parents provide the affirmation, the support and the encouragement. By speaking even a few regular words such as "good morning" , "good evening", "hello" and "good bye" each day in Irish as well as talking to the child about his school life, the parent provides the child with a real psychological motivation to go on to use to use the language in a wider range of places and become active speakers.
Irish-Medium Education is giving the language a fighting chance. Whole groups of children in one age group are now growing up as active speakers. This is a huge difference from the old days when a very small percentage of people mastered the language through classes. Even those who did learn sadly had few opportunities to use the language because few others could actually speak it.
Irish-Medium Education is not the end of the road in the revival of our language but after centuries of decline it is the first real beginning in a long but worth wide road that may yet once again give us our own native voice.
There is much to do and many communities still so not have access to this form of education, that why Iontaobhas na Gaelscolaíochta are committed to funding the sector for as long as the journey takes to bring us to a confident outward looking bilingual community who value the wealth that is the Irish language in their lives and in the lives of their children.
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