More Gaelscoileanna must be opened to breathe life into Irish
ESRI finds 23% of parents would choose a local Gaelscoil for children if available
Students from Gaelscoil Cois Feabhail Choir, Movill, Co Donegal, at Government Buildings for the launch of Bliain na Gaeilge last December: A vision for Project Ireland 2040 should be that by 2040 at least one-quarter of the children in Ireland would attend a Gaelscoil and speak our native language day to day. Photograph: Alan Betson:
No new Gaelscoil will open in the State this September in a year which has been designated as Bliain na Gaeilge.
That stark fact is not the fault of Bliain na Gaeilge. Such initiatives are hugely positive and welcome but cannot alone transform the fortunes of the Irish language. To save and enhance Irish we need to create new fortresses of the language outside its traditional heartlands through establishing large numbers of new Gaelscoileanna.