Sir, Recent contributors to your paper have expressed concern about the current status of the Irish language and, in particular, their concern about the growth of pidgin Irish in Irish medium schools (gaelscoileanna). Gearailt Mac Eoin (April 9th) relates his experience in eaves dropping on students from two well known Dublin schools on the 63 bus and, on another occasion, in the offices of Bord na Gaeilge, when he noticed a group of young people who spoke Irish inside but, once over the doorstep, reverted to English.
It seems quite natural and understandable that any young person, whose first language is English and who has acquired all the nuances of expression, bad language, slang and other "hip" expressions in English, would want to use that language in a peer setting.
None of your contributors seem to be at all concerned about the substantial ethical problems associated with the system of institutionalised deceit which is being bred in our gaelscoileanna. It seems to me to be quite extraordinary that there is general approval of the substantial growth in the number of gaelscoileanna around the country, without any thought for the fact that these are places where most students live a complex deceit from the time they enter in the morning until they depart for home in the evening.
They converse in English in whispered tones (sometimes not so whispered) until a teacher or other person of authority comes into earshot. Then one hears expressions such as sea, tuigim anois "nil a thios agam faoi sin" "an bhfuil tu dairire?" etc., etc. These are the platitudes of deceit, used not to convince the teacher that they are speaking Irish (for any teacher with an ounce of sense knows full well that they are not) but rather not to give the teacher any grounds for imposing what is probably called "riail na Gaeilge".
Many parents send their children to gaelscoileanna for the most, laudable reasons, often associated with culture, heritage, and bilingualism others do so because they think that Irish medium schools have a reputation for getting better examination results. I often wonder how such parents would react to the following as a promotional piece for their local gaelscoil.
"We offer a comprehensive package in all that's important for being Irish learn Irish naturally without any conscious effort be bilingual by the age of 10 receive up to per cent bonus points in State examinations best of all, practice the sophisticated art of deceit for anything up to 15 years learn to bully your fellow students by threatening to tell on them for speaking English sneer at those who actually want to speak some Irish out of earshot of teachers have all the profound messages about personal development, religion, relationships and sexuality blow by you because (1) you and your teachers are uncomfortable talking about them in a second language, and (2) the texts available are so appallingly translated as to render any comprehension virtually impossible finally, leave school confident in the knowledge that this is the way our society is run.
The situation in schools within Gaeltacht areas, where there is a small population which is truly and naturally Irish speaking, is perhaps even more complex, but no less deceitful for many who attend those schools.
Surely what we teach our children in school is far more important than the medium through which we do that. It must, however, be a matter of grave concern when we systematically use the medium as a carrier of deceit, perhaps this has effects on the language itself and the pidgin Irish that your columnists overhear (if they are lucky) is just another symptom of the virus of deceit. Yours etc., Cill Bhride, Baile Atha Truim, Co Na Mi.