XPost: soc.culture.irish, ie.general, soc.culture.scottish   
   From: ciaran@ciaran.com   
      
   Ciaran wrote:   
   > Andy wrote:   
   >> "Gentile"  wrote in message   
   >> news:1168131965.598064.262690@38g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...   
   >>> The best thing the English did for the Irish was to teach them the   
   >>> English Language, how long are we going to flog this dead horse? Are   
   >>> they going to get more Tourists in An Daingean or Dingle?   
   >>>   
   >>> I can think of better uses for my tax money than translating Spongebob   
   >>> Squarepants or the Muppets into a language that died years ago. I'm   
   >>> surprised the EU could waste our money like that.   
   >>>   
   >>> We would still have pigs in the Parlour and "Comely Maidens dancing at   
   >>> the Crossroads" today if the English didn't have the good sense to   
   >>> teach us the English Language.   
   >>>   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> Well said I totatally agree.   
   >>   
   >>   
   >>   
   >   
   > Ya gotta teach 'em savages to be sivileyezed.   
      
   Maybe they can teach you a thing or two - to quote from the article:   
      
   I might have been tempted to give up the journey entirely had it not   
   been for something that happened during the radio phone-in. I was   
   rapidly approaching a point of despair when some children came on the   
   line. I found they spoke clear and fluent Irish in a new and modern   
   urban dialect. They told me how they spoke the language all the time, as   
   did all their friends. They loved it, and they were outraged that I   
   could suggest it was dead. These were the children of the new   
   Gaelscoileanna - the all-Irish schools that are springing up throughout   
   the country in increasing numbers every year. While old schools are   
   being closed down or struggling to find pupils, the Gaelscoileanna are   
   having to turn people away. The phenomenon is as popular among the   
   affluent middle classes as it is in working-class estates, largely due   
   to the excellence of the education: Irish-speaking secondary schools   
   often score higher in state exams than the most elite fee-paying   
   schools. The students come away unburdened with the sense of inferiority   
   that every previous generation had been instilled with since the days in   
   which the British first labelled Irish as backward.   
      
   These children were reared on Irish versions of SpongeBob SquarePants   
   and Scooby-Doo on TG4 . They had invented Irish words for X-Box and   
   hip-hop, for Jackass and blog. They were fluent in Irish text-speak and   
   had moulded the ancient pronunciations and syntax in accordance with the   
   latest styles of Buffy-speak and Londonstani slang. I realised it was   
   they I should have turned to for help on the streets. The children   
   filled me with renewed confidence as I left Dublin and took to the road,   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)