Irish Language Paper in Peril

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

A Chairde,
The Irish Government sees fit to finance an organisation that is openly discriminatory and sectarian to a not inconsiderable degree, yet it will stand by and watch as a newspaper in the native tongue goes to the wall. Foras na Gaeilge (Development of Gaeilge), the 32 county Government body whose putative function it is to develop the language, has proven to be anything but (development-oriented), unfortunately.

Cast a vote here le do thóil:

Lá Nua Online Petition

Go raibh míle maith agat.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Big oaks from little acorns FFS. That's just the attitude that's needed, if more people actually bought the paper instead of bellyaching from the sidelines, and you're a friend of the Gaeilge hardstation? Jeesh.

[J70]

I can see the arguments on both sides - a paper should stand on whether it sells or not and shouldn't need to be bailed out with taxpayers money. On the other hand, the Irish language is an important part of our heritage, and so worthy of public support, although not necessarily in this fashion. If its as shite as Hardstation says, maybe it would be better to let it die and put the language funding to better use.

[Solomon Kane]

This paper is part of the Andersonstown News group isn't it? Is the group in general in trouble?

[Minder]

This paper is part of the Andersonstown News group isn't it? Is the group in general in trouble?

Well the Andersonstown News is an absolute joke of a publication and only appeals to the semi literate.

[TacadoirArdMhacha]

I really think that papers should stand and fall by how many people they convince to buy their publication.

Take the Daily Ireland for example. Plenty of people tried to link its demise with some failure by Republicanism to connect with the population at large. The truth was much more simple - the paper was a shite read.

[Niall Quinn]

Yes.
La Nua is a fecking joke though. 2 of it's 16 pages are given to 'what was in the paper this day last week'.

Does that mean that, where n is the the number of editions (weeks) published in La Nua's history, the % of the first edition present in a given edition is represented by:
1/8 ^ n ?

[Niall Quinn]

Nah, they don't show that bit of last week's edition. Just the main stories.

Way to emphatically stamp out a man's attempt to put an interesting mathematical spin on your observation!

[Gnevin]

http://www.oceanfm.ie/onair/donegalnews.php?articleid=000002629
Towns at risk of losing Gaeltacht status Mar 25, 3:58 am
A proposed Gaeltacht revamp could see towns in Donegal such as Dungloe and Burtonport lose their Gaeltacht status.

The population of the country's Gaeltacht could be cut in half, if the Government introduces new linguistic criteria.

The criteria are set out in a detailed study on the use of Irish in Gaeltacht areas which was commissioned by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs and were published late last year.

However, a detailed analysis of that study carried out by Gaeltact expert Donncha O'hEallaithe has revealed the full implications of the findings and recommendations.

The Gaeltacht areas of the country currently have a population of 95,500 but following a comprehensive analysis of each of the 162 electoral divisions making up the official Gaeltacht, Mr O'hEallaith has said the population would drop to about 44,000.

He used data on language recently issued by the Central Statistics Office and from the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht affairs, to assess each Gaeltacht area.

He found that about 17,000 people live in areas which are classed as Category A, the strongest Irish-speaking areas, about 10,000 people live in areas where there is substantial use of Irish, while 17,000 people live in what was termed as weak Gaeltacht areas.

This leaves a surplus of 51,000 people living in 'official' Gaeltacht areas but in which Irish has stopped existing as the community language.

Towns such as Dungloe and Burtonport in Donegal, Dingle, Belmullet in Co.Mayo and parts of Galway city would lose their Gaeltacht status if the linguisitic criteria was implemented.

This would come as a huge blow to the areas, which currently avail of grant aid based on the fact that the residents are living in an official Gaeltacht area.

Lip service is all Irish gets from the government