tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-837063183431121688.post7177519053115115387..comments2023-11-23T16:46:58.026-08:00Comments on Rónán Gearóid Ó Domhnaill: The Recess BoycottAn Múinteoir Fánachhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09064566588928073068noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-837063183431121688.post-25587912441821740612023-02-15T06:30:13.640-08:002023-02-15T06:30:13.640-08:00https://www.rte.ie/radio/doconone/646573-radio-doc...https://www.rte.ie/radio/doconone/646573-radio-documentary-school-recess-galway-brid-ni-dhomhnail-in-irelandAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-837063183431121688.post-55566954560759547452020-04-19T11:56:28.710-07:002020-04-19T11:56:28.710-07:00thanks for the comment anonymous.
People have been...thanks for the comment anonymous.<br />People have been asking me for more links:<br /><br />https://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/2010/1204/646573-radio-documentary-school-recess-galway-brid-ni-dhomhnail-in-ireland/An Múinteoir Fánachhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09064566588928073068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-837063183431121688.post-46524173827500638022020-04-14T06:57:17.690-07:002020-04-14T06:57:17.690-07:00Hi,just discovered this piece. Regarding the comme...Hi,just discovered this piece. Regarding the comment "Father Gabriel Charles could not, or would not, speak the language of the local people", I feel that in the interest of balance it should be said that the main language of the local people was then, and is now, the English language. While Recess and the neighbouring village of Cashel are both officially within the Gaeltacht, they lie at edges of same. Most people in the area would have no better command of the Irish language than those in Galway city, for example.<br />Bríd O'Domhnaill's methods may have proven less controversial if she had been based in a South Connemara school, where the Irish language would be the the main language, or at least on an equal footing with the English language. I knew Father Charles well, if I remember correctly he was from County Mayo and may not have been fluent in the language, but I am open to correction on this. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-837063183431121688.post-30376498928423520392020-04-09T10:03:30.404-07:002020-04-09T10:03:30.404-07:00ní dóigh liom go bhfuil. Don't think so. It mi...ní dóigh liom go bhfuil. Don't think so. It might crop up again and I will post it here.An Múinteoir Fánachhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09064566588928073068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-837063183431121688.post-21748915838752434152020-04-09T10:02:10.116-07:002020-04-09T10:02:10.116-07:00Hi Ellen,
you are right.I am not very active on th...Hi Ellen,<br />you are right.I am not very active on this blog. I very much appreciate your comment as its important to get different perspectives and this case is not very well known/talked about. As a child of the seventies and as a current teacher I can say that things are done very differently today. What you describe was common practice among many teachers. Education back then was not exactly child centred. As a polyglot I lament our poor linguistic skills but there is is a right and wrong way to teach kids.An Múinteoir Fánachhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09064566588928073068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-837063183431121688.post-11751294525190839892019-10-24T06:12:38.596-07:002019-10-24T06:12:38.596-07:00Hi Rónán, perhaps you mightnt still be active on t...Hi Rónán, perhaps you mightnt still be active on this blog, but I’ve just come across it now, because I was in Recess and wondered what had ever happened Bríd Ní Dhomhnaill. Just to counter your thesis that she was just doing her bit to preserve the Irish language, which to someone who didn’t know her might appear to have been the case. She was a much more sinister character than that I’m afraid. <br /><br />She taught me for two years in Dublin in the 1970s and though I’m now a woman in my mid 50s, I still bear the scars of her hideousness and cruelty. Far from being a champion of the Irish language, she was a terrifying zealot. Mine was an English speaking school in working class Dublin. Despite this, She conducted all her teaching through the Irish language. All day every day. Woe betide anyone who had difficulty with Irish. She made their lives an absolute misery. She was physically violent to those students. I regularly remember her slapping students across the face when they didn’t understand her. She was also an extreme right-wing Catholic with terrifying ideas about birth control and how those of us from smaller families were somehow lesser (though of course as 10 and 11 year olds we didn’t understand the inference of her criticism of our parents). She spared particular vitriol for kids from poorer backgrounds. She was regularly violent to them, just because she felt she could be and would get away with it. <br />So, far from a poetic love of the language there was far more to her sitting in an empty classroom than that. She was a dangerous, angry, violent woman who had no place near children. Best regards. EllenAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02789728928911172051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-837063183431121688.post-20100455086311684982019-06-07T08:42:16.138-07:002019-06-07T08:42:16.138-07:00Is there any link to the rte interview? I cant fin...Is there any link to the rte interview? I cant find it anymore<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-837063183431121688.post-50502740549859774642018-07-12T11:39:17.687-07:002018-07-12T11:39:17.687-07:00Go Raibh a Rónán, scéal maith stairiúl e sin. Níor...Go Raibh a Rónán, scéal maith stairiúl e sin. Níor thuig mé é nuair a bhí an stailc ar siúl trocha blian ó shin. I do howeve like the idean of parents having a strong say in the running of a school, the thing to have done i Sraith Salach was to convince the parents of the value of irish and the fact that the kids would be bilingual, with the inexorable influence of English. I myself have conducted a private survey, taking nearly 20 years, due to travel expenses, and I have visited every so-called gaeltacht in the country. I have found that the vast majority are not even brath-gaeltachts but completely English speaking and like your experience, hostile to visitors using Irish. Paul MacCormaichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15331336903332315583noreply@blogger.com