I’m a big supporter of Gaelscoileanna; there is no better way of learning the language than to be completely immersed in it. So I was pleased to see that there are four new Irish-medium Primary schools who opened their doors for the first time this month in the Republic; in Lurgan, Edenderry, Greystones & Rush; and one new school in the North, in Dungannon Co. Tyrone.
This brings the number of Irish medium schools outside the Gaeltachtaí to 171* primary schools and 44 secondary schools.

*Interesting to note that almost 50% of the primary schools in the country, including new and long established schools, are in “temporary” accommodation, but that’s an issue for another day.

Samsung launches first Irish phone

The first ever mobile phone with Irish language menus will be available in Ireland in the summer. Samsung Electronics said today the Tocco phone has more than 44,000 words translated into the Irish language. Three translators, all with degrees in Irish, worked on the project, Samsung said. Country manager of Samsung Gary Twohig said the move was “a direct reflection of the increased popularity in Irish”. “While we won’t necessarily be launching this feature with every new phone, we will be adding it as a premium feature for key launches,” he said. It will be available in Ireland on July 1st.

Dermot Reidy
Vodafone.com

• Something interesting and indeed historic is happening in Croker today … today is the start of a major international conference where delegates from up to 100 countries will be attempting to agree on a treaty banning the production and use of cluster bombs.
Ireland is actually one of a small group of nations leading the campaign to ban the use of these weapons. Negotiations started about a year ago in Norway and should the treaty be agreed in the coming 12 days of discussions a formal signing ceremony will take place back in Norway in December.
The three (of around 34) main producers of these weapons; the US, China & Russia, are obviously against the ban and are not attending. Not that it matters as agreement on a treaty would put serious pressure on these nations who would more than likely adhere to the ban even if they don’t officially sign up for it.
Why the ban on cluster bombs you ask? Because cluster bombs blanket a battle field by scattering up to (depending on the bomb) 2000 bomblets across a kill zone. Many of these bomblets fail to detonate essentially acting like a landmine; exploding only when disturbed usually by civilians weeks, months or years later.
Interesting to see how it turns out…

Towns such as Dungloe and Burtonport in Donegal, Dingle, Belmullet in Co.Mayo and parts of Galway city would lose their Gaeltacht status if the linguisitic criteria was implemented.

I’m sure many people will object to this, especially in the affected towns, however I suspect their objections will be based on that fact that they will lose out financially. I see two positives here:

1. Money being spent supporting “Irish speaking” communities which aren’t actually speaking the language could be diverted to communities which ARE speaking the language or to other language support schemes

2. It might wake some people up in these “Gaeltacht” areas, maybe they’ll put a bit more effort into pushing the language as a community language.

As much as I hate seeing Gaeltacht areas decline I find it hard to agree with money being pumped into “Gaeltacht” communities who don’t actually use the language.
There are 51,000 people living in “‘official’ Gaeltacht areas but in which Irish has stopped existing as the community language”, why should they gain the benefits of Gaeltacht status if they are not willing to put effort into developing the language as their community language?

Of course I understand that the issue is not black and white and the recent(-ish) influx of immigrants is bound add a degree of difficulty promoting Irish as a community language in any community in Ireland but I have my doubts that communities are even trying in these areas. Prove me wrong and I’ll happily chance my stance on the matter.

The ship had been loading in Dublin Port since yesterday; it contains 16 Mowag APC’s plus an additional 60 or so support vehicles (bulldozers, ambulances etc) along with 3000 tonnes of equipment such as weapons & ammunition, beds, air conditioning, toilets, a doctor’s surgery, photocopiers, food and water etc.
Basically everything, bar fuel, the troops will need to live and operate for four months is being sent as part of the largest logistical move the Defence Forces has ever undertaken.

Next stop is the Netherlands where it will collect additional equipment for 60 Dutch Marines who will work along side our lads in Chad. The ship will then head for Cameroon where the equipment will be off loaded and begin an overland trip of approximately 2,500km to the battalion “village” at Goz Beida.

You can read more about the operations in Chad (EUFOR Chad/CAR) on the Defence Forces website.
Good to see the website getting a revamp; I always had problems with the previous site in Firefox.

In related news, this year marks the 50th anniversary of Defence Forces involvement with UN peace missions. Military enthusiasts mark the 26th June in your diary as there is a military parade planned for McKee Barracks in Dublin. Will update you further closer to the event.

A long time back, September 2006 actually, I expressed my delight at the news that Ireland was to head up the UN’s mission in Kosovo. Fantastic news, thought I, a great honour for a small nation such as ours and, wrote I, “a testament to the magnificent contribution our soldiers have made to peacekeeping operations since joining the United Nations in December 1955″.

Such an expression of support for our Defence Forces is apparently a “parody of jingoism” according to Mr.Quigley.
So, our soldiers putting their lives on the line keeping the peace in Kosovo, Chad or Liberia should not be supported as it would be jingoistic, is that the message? Well here’s one ‘jingoist’ who’ll happily support the peacekeeping efforts of our troops … and shame on you that don’t!

Of course his post wasn’t about my post; it was used as an example of us Irish being fond of ‘sticking our noses into the affairs of other countries’; Quigley’s summation of our work with the UN seemingly. Ireland’s support of Kosovan independence was the target of the post and how apparently we have ‘shamed ourselves’ by supporting Kosovo’s declaration.

It’s to be expected from a “rotten and venal … low rate capitalist state little better now than a colony of the US” according to one.

To be honest I’ll never understand these self-haters. If they dislike where they come from so much from why don’t they just turn in their passport and move to the greener pastures of the states guilty of war crimes and ongoing human rights abuses that they love so much?
Because they don’t have the balls is the short answer. Because at the end of the day they are all talk and nothing more. Sad really.

I went to Sligo for the parade; it was the usual mix of pipe and flute bands with RDF, boy scouts, mountain rescue, kids GAA, the odd half-assed float and unfortunately a cement mixer and other assorted commercial cars and trucks that you see in every other small/medium town in Ireland.
If it wasn’t for the bands they’d be better of cancelling the parade altogether. Thank crunchie for all those Northern bands coming down to play; it wouldn’t be much of a parade without them!

I’ll have to get down to Dublin one of these years; at least they do it properly there.
Anyway hope you enjoyed it where ever you are…

As for Donie’s suggestion to switch ala Sweden in the 60s, well he’s obviously a bit special if it takes him 5-6 days to adjust to driving on the other side every time he goes to the States.