Back to the regions

WHILE in the Kerry Gaeltacht recently I spoke to a woman who has been living there for more than 40 years.

Although fluent in Irish she said she would not be as fluent as the local Irish speakers. She said that standardised Irish prevented people from being fluent in the different dialects.

I believe the different dialects should be taught in school — people in Munster should learn Cork and Kerry Irish and people in Connacht should learn Galway and Mayo Irish, etc.