O Cuiv issues warning over future of Irish

Ireland needs 250,000 Irish speakers by 2028 to save the future of the language, Gaeltacht Minister Eamon O Cuiv said today.

Speaking during a visit to the US, Mr O’Cuiv called for more courage and leadership to ensure the native tongue thrives in a globalised world.

The Government is preparing a 20-year strategy for the Irish language, due to be launched before the end of the year.

Mr O’Cuiv today launched the Fulbright Irish Language Program in the City University of New York (CUNY) in the Bronx.

Lehman College in CUNY teaches Irish to students from dozens of diverse ethnic backgrounds.

The minister told CUNY students and academics: “I personally believe that if, in 20 years time, we have 250,000 daily speakers of Irish, the tide will have definitively turned.

“Then we can reasonably expect to have an Irish-speaking community of sufficient strength to ensure further growth for the language.”

He added: “I can see no reason other than lack of courage and leadership now why Irish will not remain alive as a spoken, community language in the new globalised world we have created.”

A grant of €660,000 from the Gaeltacht Affairs Department will fund Irish language teaching assistants and scholars in US colleges and universities over the next three years.

Courses from beginner’s level to graduate courses are currently being taken by Americans of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds under the Fulbright scheme.

From next year, the Fulbright Program will also provide an award to a US post-graduate student to spend a summer in a Gaeltacht area in Ireland.

Mr O Cuiv said the Celtic Tiger boom triggered an international renaissance of Irish culture.

“Part of this results from the development of links between Ireland and the approximately 50 universities and third level institutions worldwide that teach the Irish language and Celtic Studies, and the provision of funding for this work.

“Fulbright cements the traditionally strong ties between our nations and builds on the initiative of Presidents John F Kennedy and Eamon de Valera, who founded the American Irish Foundation during Mr Kennedy’s presidential visit to Ireland in 1963.”