Monday, September 24, 2007
Currently in the Assembly….
The Minister for Education is currently in the middle of a tirade (wont work in Firefox, at least for me). Apparently opposition to the political use of the Irish language in Education is just “bias and prejudice”.
Michael Shilliday @ 11:10 AM
Sounds like the Minister has it spot on then
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 12:23 PMpolitical use of the Irish language in Education
Can’t get streaming media in work, can you explain the above? What is political in the use of the language in schools? Are some schools offering politics A-levels in Irish? Or is it your own prejudice Michael, in that all spoken Irish is political and not cultural?
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 12:27 PM“Apparently opposition to the political use of the Irish language in Education is just “bias and prejudice”“
sounds right to me
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 12:33 PMThe DUPes would need to keep quiet about this seeing as they’re about to sell out on this issue to keep the grammar schools.
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 12:40 PMSorry to point out the big white elephant in the middle of the room guys, but isn’t there a severe lack of demand for education in this type of medium? hence a perfectly justifiable level of opposition to tax payers money being spent on it? and no I don’t support the DUP or any unionist party for that matter.
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 12:51 PMThe bias against Irish in the north by hard line unionist amazes me. This archaic bias against minority languages disappeared in Scotland and Wales in the 1970s. This anti Irish language prejudice is embarrassing at best and has elements of ‘our language is superior and so are we’ at worst.
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 12:52 PM“bias and prejudice”. Is that not overuse of the English language?
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 12:53 PM“Sorry to point out the big white elephant in the middle of the room guys, but isn’t there a severe lack of demand for education in this type of medium?”
No, quite the opposite.
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 12:58 PMDespite the scant detail in the thread, I’m assuming Shilliday is frothing at the prospect of 3 new Irish-medium schools being opened. Apparently the champions of ‘culturally-diverse Britain’ can’t get their heads round a bit if, well, cultural diversity. Glad Michael’s got time to watch live streams on the Assembley on a Monday afternoon though.
but isn’t there a severe lack of demand for education in this type of medium?hence a perfectly justifiable level of opposition to tax payers money being spent on it?Free Agent
Hardly. The 3 schools in question have enrollment figures of between 105 and 140. The Minister is reacting to public demand. But as I’ve said before, if saving money is Unionist’s real passion then maybe they should ask the loyal institutions to cut down on a few hundred marches each year saving the taxpayer a few million.
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 01:00 PMbut isn’t there a severe lack of demand for education in this type of medium?
No, obviously not what with the increasing numbers of Irish Language schools, and high demand for places.
The money aspect is a diversionary tactic. Shall we start dividing the amount of tax money spent by political allegiance? Do you think the twelfth (including bonfires, security considerations and rioting) is free? Nope, costs the UK millions each and every year.
Break that down, as we’re incredibly concerned about the way that money is spent in a fair way, 60 Million UK taxpayers spending fourty fortunes on the twelfth, an event designed for the needs of < 1 million people. How do you justify that?
Or perhaps we can just spend the insignificant amount of money without trying to balance the books between orange and green.
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 01:01 PMOveruse of English in an arguement about the Irish language? The Dark Lord of Irony is apeased by Irish politics once again.
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 01:01 PMPounder, completley and utterly.
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 01:06 PMPounder,
“Overuse of English in an arguement about the Irish language? The Dark Lord of Irony is apeased by Irish politics once again.”Why would a person have to discuss funding for Irish-medium schools through the Irish language?
Maybe the Irish Republic should simply fund Irish-language education on an island-wide basis and be done with this charade.
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 01:14 PMCan’t blame the poor chap for his shite English. Probably he only speaks it as a second language.
*retires whistling*
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 01:18 PMTry re-reading what I said George overuse of English in an arguement about the Irish Language it was a vein attempt by me to be funny and difuse the tension in this thread. Why do so many Unionists lack a sense of humor and an utter unappreciation of irony. You’d think people claiming the same nationality as the Monty Python team would understand the concept of irony. I feel my comments here are wasted sometimes.
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 01:34 PMZiznivy
‘The DUPes would need to keep quiet about this seeing as they’re about to sell out on this issue to keep the grammar schools.’
Why so - academic selection can only be changed by cross community supportPosted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 01:37 PMMonty Python? Nationalist? Oh.
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 01:42 PM““Sorry to point out the big white elephant in the middle of the room guys, but isn’t there a severe lack of demand for education in this type of medium?”
No, quite the opposite.”
Well there were several Irish language schools in the list of schools without enough pupils in them that caused some controversy earlier in the year.
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 01:45 PMBob. The issue will effectively be put to bed and some form of academic selection can be decided upon. The selection issue is currently in limbo with nobody supporting the status quo. Concessions on Irish Language schools will be the price to pay to reach an agreement on selection.
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 01:47 PMAnd Pounder, what do you mean that unionists have no sense of humour or appreciation of irony? Did you not read Jeffery Donaldson’s recent coments regarding Folks on the Hill.
“... as a leading character on the show, I get a little bit of a dig…”
“...everyone who knows me for real knows that isn’t the real Jeffrey Donaldson at all…”
Put that in your ironic pipe and smoke it.
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 01:52 PMNo worries about streaming. Opened link in Safari, then used Quick Time for the live stream. Though by now they are talking about something else.
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 02:02 PMTo watch the video in Firefox you need the the Windows Media Player plug-in… https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:7
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 02:11 PMZiznivy,
‘Concessions on Irish Language schools will be the price to pay to reach an agreement on selection’
For example?
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 02:12 PMIt was certainly wasted on me pounder but thanks for the hammer to make me eventually see the light. Even if irony is wasted when you need hammers.
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 02:18 PMin the gaelic speaking communties of the Hebrides, one of the defenders of their gaelic heritage is “the wee Frees” - the Free Presbyterian church. why can we not be like that here and free a language older than the arguments we have from the predjudices of our arguments?
Posted by on Sep 24, 2007 @ 02:26 PM
