Irish now: Gaeilge revival is at odds with what’s happening in secondary schools
Kneecap's Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap performing at Electric 2025. 'Whatever is behind its burgeoning cultural capital, it’s now cool to speak Irish in a way it simply wasn’t just five short years ago.' Picture: Larry Cummins
“Mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sí”: Young people are at the heart of the current revival of the Irish language.
Much has been written by academics musing about whether it’s down to the “Kneecap effect”, social media, or Ireland’s recent impact on Hollywood.
Whatever is behind its burgeoning cultural capital, it’s now cool to speak Irish in a way it simply wasn’t just five short years ago.
You’ll see this reflected across college campuses, where Irish language societies are among the most popular and active groups.
Students at Trinity College Dublin and University of Galway have voted to add full-time Irish language officers to their student unions, with more universities expected to follow suit.
This year, what was formerly the Union of Students in Ireland officially renamed itself as Aontas na Mac Léinn in Éirinn, a move it described as “a renewed and unapologetic commitment” to Irish.
But this wider cultural resurgence is at vast odds with what’s happening at second level, where record numbers of students are exempt from studying Irish.
Despite a rise in popularity of gaelscoileanna, one in seven post-primary students is now excluded from studying the language, which is intended to be compulsory for all students.
More than a third of post-primary students exempt from studying Irish attend disadvantaged schools.
Exemptions can be granted in “limited” cases, including to students who have moved from abroad or students who have additional needs.
After making the Irish language a cornerstone of both her campaign and her future term in office, Catherine Connolly visited Gaelscoil Inse Chór in Dublin as her first official engagement as Uachtarán na hÉireann.
Here, she pledged to do her best to promote the language “at every level” and to “bring it in from the edge”.
In the week prior to this, the Department of Education had unveiled its strategy to strengthen the teaching, learning, and use of Irish language in schools.
Aspects of the policy were welcome, according to Julian de Spáinn, the general secretary of Irish promotional organisation Conradh na Gaeilge. He said:
But the plan misses “the big picture”, he added.
“What we are actually teaching — the curriculum. As they were putting the plan together, they said ‘we will be working within the current curriculum’ and we won’t be taking exemptions into account as well.’”
This left “two massive elephants” in the room.
“They haven’t been addressed substantially in any way in this plan.
"If you address the curriculum, what we are teaching, and how we are teaching it, you will address the exemptions at the same time.”
The current Gaeilge syllabus at senior cycle “aims to develop students’ competence in all aspects of the Irish language”, according to the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment.
For the Leaving Cert, the subject is assessed through an oral exam, worth 40%, and across a two-paper written exam which includes an aural test, reading comprehension, composition, and questions on literature and poetry.
Currently, if a student is granted an exemption from Irish, they are exempt from studying the subject in its entirety.
A change to the exemption process in 2019 made it more straightforward to obtain an exemption at second level, but harder at primary level.
This can be seen in the numbers. Last year, 3,483 exemptions were issued to primary school students, meaning that just 2.2% of overall students were exempt from the study of Irish.
The vast majority (94%) were granted to students who have special educational needs.
Conradh na Gaeilge has heard of some post-primary schools where learning support tends to take place during Irish lessons, Mr de Spáinn said.
“So if you want to get your learning support, you have to get an exemption from Irish,” he said.
"If a student who has additional needs wants to do Irish, in a lot of cases, they can’t because the timetable doesn’t facilitate it. He said:
"While you have many teachers who are very good at what they do, what they are teaching isn’t helping.”
Conradh na Gaeilge has called for the Department of Education to establish an expert working group to examine the introduction of a common European framework of reference for languages (CEFR) model.
This skills-based framework would allow students with an Irish exemption, or those from other countries, learn the language at a level flexible to their needs, Mr de Spáinn explained.
“We don’t have a flexible system at the moment. If you have a flexible system like the CEFR which looks at the different language learning skills, you could have a system where a student who has additional needs when it comes to writing, could take oral Irish for Leaving Cert and get whatever CAO points are associated with that.
“It would include them in learning Irish in school rather than excluding them because we can’t cater for them at their needs level or their ability level.”
The introduction of a CEFR model would also help students who join the education system later after moving from overseas, Mr de Spáinn believes.
“When students come late into the system, we’re saying to them: ‘Look, you don’t have to learn Irish.’
“This Government talks a lot about integration and wanting to ensure that families that come to Ireland are fully integrated into Irish society but in school, we’re basically saying to them ‘you don’t have to worry about the language, that’s not part of integrating into Irish culture and society.’”
A CEFR model also lays out the skills required at each level to pass.
“At the moment, if you get a Leaving Cert H1, what does that mean?” Mr de Spáinn asked. “It should mean you are a confident speaker in the language. But a lot of it is rote learning.
You’ve learnt off a lot, and you might be very good at writing the language. Maybe you’ve learnt off an essay. Actual competency in the language is not what we are examining.”
A spokeswoman for the Department of Education said it had published a new action plan for Irish in November 2025 that focuses on actions that are most likely to be effective and make a difference within a two-year timeframe.
Given the timeframe it covers, it does not address more substantial policy matters, such as exemptions from the study of Irish, she added.
“Such matters will be considered in the context of an overarching Irish language in education policy.”
The Department of Education and Youth plans to work towards aligning Irish language curricula, and associated teaching supports and assessment arrangements, with the CEFR to enhance spoken Irish in schools.
“As part of a phased approach to the alignment of Irish language curricula with the CEFR, the National Council of Curriculum and Assessment [NCCA] has commenced a process towards the alignment of Leaving Certificate Irish to the CEFR.
“This work is taking place as part of the ongoing senior cycle redevelopment programme, and the NCCA convened a subject development group for Leaving Certificate Irish in September.”
The department is continuing to closely monitor the statistics on exemptions from the study of Irish, the spokeswoman said.
“The department has written to all schools, reminding them of the criteria for granting exemptions from the study of Irish and advising them of all of the resources and supports that are available to support the teaching and learning of Irish.”
The department’s inspectorate is also reviewing a number of schools with low numbers of exemptions with a view to identifying and sharing best practice, she added.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
