Why doesn't Prime Minister Gordon Brown come up with £5 Million,just as he did with Northern Ireland B.B.C.,at least he would see if it was a good investment.

Posted by Anglophile | 24.12.08, 21:19 GMT

It's unfortunate that an Irish daily is now on the way out. Hopefully the weekly and online paper will be a solid replacement. There's also the long standing weekly Foinse which is published out of Conamara.

Secondly, to those who believe no one uses Irish as a first language in Northern Ireland. That's incorrect. I'm not for a moment suggesting that Irish is widely spoken. However, the reality is that there are dozens and dozens of families in Belfast alone where Irish is the language of the home. Lookup Bóthar Seoighe (Shaw's Road Gaeltacht). Irish medium schools and language groups continue to grow.

It's also disingenuous to claim that Lá Nua is a mouthpiece for Sinn Féin. It routinely criticised SF on a variety of matters including its stance on Irish and funding and recognition for the language.

There will always be people who believe speaking the Irish language in Ireland is a natural, reasonable thing to do. Shame on those who use it in a divisive manner.

Posted by Danny | 18.12.08, 10:13 GMT

slan ahbaile La Nua!

Posted by stoifan | 17.12.08, 15:58 GMT

>There are many places in Dublin you can go to hear Irish if you're interested. Just google "irish language cafe dublin" for example and you'll be able to find some stuff. Maybe your brother just didn't go there because he doesn't speak Irish. It's the same as, for example, traditional music; you don't hear it on the regular radio or see it on TV because that is dominated by American/British pop music. You have to go looking for it. Just because it isn't mainstream doesn't mean it shouldn't be safeguarded. Just the opposite in fact.

Posted by Chris | 17.12.08, 13:45 GMT

There are plenty of people out there with a genuine interest in the Irish language who don't have any interest in using it for political ends and resent Sinn Féin's use of it to divide rather than unite.

The Irish language should not be feared and even Unionists should realise that the way they speak, their idioms and expressions, are influenced by Irish. No Irish speaker believes that Irish will ever overtake English, and the majority learn and speak the language regularly simply because they like it and appreciate the cultural importance rather than the imaginary political one.

So don't tar us all with the Sinn Féin brush.

Posted by Chris | 17.12.08, 13:30 GMT

BuahcaillBó,

On the other side of the coin, my brother-in law lived in Dublin for 14 years and in that time met one person who could actually speak fluent Irish. I have never overheard an Irish conversation in any of my many trips there.

I will never understand why any parent would send their child to an Irish school. I would not want my daughter growing up with a first language that is not even spoken widely in her own country never mind the rest of the world. Rest assured, her university and first job will not speak Irish.

Posted by Steve W | 17.12.08, 11:09 GMT

Barry, open your eyes. It is a dying language and dying with it is SF’s republican propaganda attempt. Read BuahcaillBó’s post. Full of unfounded stats, just like SF’s attempt to convince us British taxpayers that it is an important piece of Irish culture. If this were the case, it would be the first language of every nationalist/republican on the island of Ireland. Now, is it?!

Oh and you have compiled evidence (quotes / dates etc) as to why I am to be considered a bigot? Of course not, you should therefore apologise. Gaelige will do….if you know it….

Posted by mickey | 17.12.08, 10:09 GMT

The salivary responses to the supposed decline of the ancient culture of this island as far as I can see is akin to Nazism. Will you lot be burning a wide selection of text's and books that you don't hold dear this coming 11th July night while you dance in a frenzy around the fires?

Posted by Barry | 17.12.08, 09:54 GMT

Surely with all those fluent Gaelic speakers in West Belfast the paper was selling thousands?

I'm sure if I went up the Falls I would hear nothing but lovely lilting spoken Irish?

The truth will out. Perhaps the levels of fluency were not as high as stated. Who would've believed that?

As a committed language learner and teacher I do not like to see the demise of any genuine minority language publication but with falsified statistics and an aggressive and overtly political agenda I am glad another state-sponsored organ of republicanism and anti-Britishness has bit the dust.

Posted by Stephen Reid | 16.12.08, 20:56 GMT

great news for the british taxpayer

Posted by tommy | 16.12.08, 20:32 GMT

Hi all,

Most of the "Real" Irish language revival is taking place down south, as that is where the bulk of the movement is concentrated. So most of yiz, will be completely unaware of the growth that has taken place with almost 10% of the schooling population attending Irish language schools and creches and this figure could double in the years to come, whereas only 1% of the NI schooling population attend Gaelscoils.

There is a new digital tv station "RTÉ International" which will be available throughout the UK end of 2009 with a range of English language and Irish language programmes. Some 800,000 people tune into TG4 every day.

Nearly 500,000 people in the south listen to Irish language programmes on radio at least once a week, while 300,000 listen daily. More than 40 radio stations accross Ireland have weekly Irish language programming and there are 5 full time Irish langauge radio stations: Raidió na Gaeltachta, Raidió na Life, Raidió Fáilte, AnochtFM, and Raidió Rí-Rá.

Posted by BuahcaillBó | 16.12.08, 20:15 GMT

Perhaps the idea of a Gaeltacht in the Falls Road area should be shelved too. Despite all the clamour and hype, people just don't speak Irish here in sufficient numbers, I doubt there's a single person in all of Northern Ireland who speaks it as a first language. The fact that Irish is the fastest shrinking subject at GCSE and A Level amongst pupils here says it all. The future is dim for the Irish language up here. People here care about important languages; French, Spanish, Japanese etc. The languages of international commerce. Knowledge of Gaelic is hardly advantageous in todays world of international commerce. Keep with English, it's more important to us!

Posted by Steve | 16.12.08, 17:13 GMT

Mr O Muilleoir added: "There should be a daily news service in Irish."

He forgot to add "... paid for by someone else."

He should know that Latin is most people's dead language of choice.

Posted by Perry O'Perry | 16.12.08, 16:13 GMT

Surprise surprise, Mickey throws his two cents in on this particular story. Just because an Irish Language paper goes under doesn't by any stretch mean that the Irish Language is in as terrible state of decline like you would like to think it is. There is the fact that most things are available in Irish from the internet. Which would render many publications redundant in these cost cutting times. Use you builín (loaf) Michael óg and try for once to see past that cage of bigotry you are confined in. Thanks

Posted by Barry | 16.12.08, 16:12 GMT

I think this puts all the commotion about the Irish language into perspective. All those beating a drum about developing it as a viable option should be embarrassed over this.

Posted by Dickiboy | 16.12.08, 14:49 GMT

No one likes to see people lose their jobs, but perhaps stories of a "revival" in Irish speakers are just bunkum and are in fact designed to try and give credence to SF's endeavours at promoting the culture of Irish nationalism (republicanism).

Posted by mickey | 16.12.08, 14:16 GMT