Talk of preserving the Irish language

            During my stay in Dublin, as I wandered around UCD’s campus and the many tourist sites downtown, I always found myself paying close attention to the Irish translations of street signs, as if I could understand what they say without translation or possibly pronounce them. As with any country that has been colonized, whether it be African countries colonized by the British or Ireland, one thing is common among these countries even till this day.

            The commonality is the fact that these countries’ languages have become second class. One of the things that I admired about our Irish language teacher was the fact that she could not only speak such a hard language fluently, but more importantly I admired her passion for the language and preserving it in her everyday life. As someone who cannot speak their native tongue, I applaud those that not only can but are so in love with their language that they choose to make it a part of their life and the life of their children.

When we were driving through Galway, Paul, our tour guide, talked about how he grew up and was apathetic to the Irish language. It was not until he was older that he also learned to appreciate the language. However, despite the fact that Irish is required in the school system, few people actually graduate knowing how to speak Irish fluently. Also, many people feel like the government is not doing enough to preserve the language and governmental services do not comply with the law that recorded announcements on telephones should make sense in Irish.

            The street signs that have Irish translations are the beginning of fixing a larger problem. I believe that a country’s language is the most important aspect of their culture. Language is particular to a country’s borders and it can teach the history of a place, like the religiosity in the Irish language. I just hope that if I were to visit again, Irish would be more prevalent, instead of just on street signs.