Student’s demonstrate outside Dáil for Irish language lobby in General Election

100 Students will gather outside the Dáil tomorrow, Wednesday the 7th October, demanding an Irish language lobby in the General Election. The demonstration is organised by Conradh na Gaeilge and the Union of Students in Ireland, to demand that the Irish language is preserved and promoted by the next government.

CnaG and USI understand the importance that the next five years will have in regards to the growth and prosperity of the language. The Students of Ireland are no longer satisfied to stand idly by, to allow ‘Béalghrá’ or ‘lip service’ be delivered to the language by Ireland’s government parties.

Over the past six months, the USI and CnaG have seen several events take place that have resulted in severely damaging the future of the Irish language, such as the loss of the air contract to Aer Árainn, the refusal of Eircode to recognise Irish language place-name addresses, and the changes in the Junior Cert curriculum to name just a few. All of these actions have led to fuel a discontentment among the language community.

This will take place one day after Conradh na Gaeilge, USI and over 70 other Irish language interest lobby groups launch their demands, in terms of the Irish language; inside and outside of the Gaeltacht regions for the up-coming Irish General Election and also for assembly elections in Northern Ireland.

These community based and all-island organisations have agreed on an investment plan to create over 1,160 jobs in Irish-language and Gaeltacht services from 2016 onwards.

 

This is the first time both the relevant authorities and the Irish-language and Gaeltacht organisations on the ground have agreed on a set of specific projects and commitments to promote the Irish language on such a large and cohesive scale. The Irish-language and Gaeltacht groups are calling on all political parties north and south to pledge their support for the commitments sought in the investment plan, and especially for general election candidates and their political parties to include the specific commitments in their election manifestos.

 

The Irish language and Gaeltacht investment plan calls for vital funding and representative measures to support job creation in Irish-language and Gaeltacht services, including the appointment of Senior Ministers north and south to act on behalf of the language and the Gaeltacht and to ensure that the investment plan is well managed and implemented in full.

 

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