Love of language

I WISH to respond to Conor Reidy’s diatribe against teaching Irish in schools (Irish Examiner letters, Sept 4).

He moans about being forced to “waste my time and effort on something that will soon be dead,” as opposed to wasting his valuable time and effort on something that will never die, like the daily use of mathematical theorems when running for the bus or ensuring that the native ground worm is copulating correctly, or perhaps even being able to recite all of Shakespeare’s sonnets while doing the washing up.

What a pity Mr Reidy cannot take any pleasure or pride in something that makes him unique on the world stage.