TG4 and the language

This century - like the previous several - the Irish language has had a fairly bumpy ride. The number of people who speak Irish as their first language continues to decline; however, the number of people (in some necks of the woods at least) trying to use even the cupla focail now and again is increasing.

Despite (or because of?) generations of children having Irish literally beaten into them, the amount of people who would be happy to have a bit of a chat as gaeilge is small.

Some people would go so far as to say they actively hate the language and any attempts to revive it. Although these days policies have been modified, Irish is still mandatory at school. However, problems with the language persist - last month, controversy over declining standards at Junior Cert. level was a big issue.

At the same time, the demand for gaelscoileanna has never been higher. Raidio na Life, the Irish language radio station in Dublin, does reasonably well, as do Raidio na Gaeltachta and the Irish-language television programmes on RTE 1.

But Irish is not generally seen as teanga na teens. Teanga na pipe-smoking scary types perhaps, but that's not much use at the disco looking for a snog: "an bhfuil snog agat, I mean agam, at least, any chance of an oul' snog againn?" And it's a big fat "Slan" to you, son.

One of the ideas behind TG4 was to sexy up the language, make it hip and happening again, something teenagers in Irish-speaking communities and, indeed, right across Ireland, could relate to. TG4's staff is mostly under 25 years old, and a reasonable amount of programming is youth-oriented. Basketball on Fridays; Ri Ra, a teen magazine style programme which is not entirely in Irish but has at least a few phrases thrown into each slot; Ros na Run, the Irish language soap; Pop TV, a music show with commentary in Irish. In fact, from its inception TG4 was supposed to be fresh, exciting, young and vivacious. So what on earth is happening with those Junior Cert students? Are they just not watching enough telly?

TG4's head, Cathal Goan, has said the station "is making Irish-language television part of everyday happenings in the culture of modern Ireland". ol O Muiri, the Irish language editor with the Irish Times, elaborates on the problems of association with the language. "It's an ambiguous way to think: English, the language of mass publicity, intellectual rigour, forceful debate; Irish, beautiful language, very musical, very good for singing". But despite its greatest efforts, TG4 seems to have stiff competition from attitudes which see Irish as fearful, dull, difficult and utterly pointless. Introducing more and more English-language programming would hardly seem like the best way to change attitudes; however, with a "firm viewer-base across all age groups throughout the State", Goan says TG4 "has no apologies to make for the mix of English-language programmes built into the station's schedule".

Perhaps its impact on the Irish language is yet to be seen, and in a few more years Junior Cert students will excel. Meanwhile, it's irony time. Earlier this year there was a row among members of Udaras na Gaeltachta over the amount of English being introduced into the Gaeltacht by staff working on the TG4 soap, Ros na Run. Eo Teilifis and Leirithe Thir Eoghain, the companies which make the soap, said they were training young people from Gaeltachts; however, they said, it was inevitable that some skilled staff might not be Irish-speaking at this early stage . . .