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<h1>Warning on danger to future of Irish language</h1>
<h2> Green Party says Irish could be all but extinct in a generation </h2>
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<img title="Green Party leader Eamon Ryan: “What we have now is a situation where even traditional Gaeltacht areas are declining.” Photograph: Eric Luke/The Irish Times" alt="Green Party leader Eamon Ryan: “What we have now is a situation where even traditional Gaeltacht areas are declining.” Photograph: Eric Luke/The Irish Times" class="" src="http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.2287775.1437080668%21/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_620_330/image.jpg" height="330" width="620"> <p>Green
Party leader Eamon Ryan: “What we have now is a situation where even
traditional Gaeltacht areas are declining.” Photograph: Eric Luke/The
Irish Times</p>
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<span>
<span class=""><a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/profile/harry-mcgee-7.25402" class="">Harry McGee</a></span></span></p>
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<p><a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/warning-on-danger-to-future-of-irish-language-1.2287781#"><span content="2015-07-17T01:04">Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 01:04</span></a></p>
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<p><strong>First published:</strong> <span content="2015-07-17T01:04">Fri, Jul 17, 2015, 01:04</span></p>
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<p class=""> The Irish language could be all but extinct in a
generation if remedial action is not taken, the Green Party has warned.
The party last night launched a new policy paper on the language in
Dublin, along with a new bilingual website in which it emphasised its
full title, Green Party Comhaontas Glas. </p>
<p class="">Party leader Eamon Ryan referred to the recent
report, written by Conchúr Ó Giollagáin, which showed that the decline
of the language as a living and spoken tongue was worse than had been
previously thought.</p>
<p class="">“What we have now is a situation where even
traditional Gaeltacht areas are declining. A language goes extinct every
two weeks and there’s a real risk that Irish will go that way this
century if we don’t take serious steps soon.</p>
<p class="">“In 2010 we contributed to a 20-year plan to preserve
and promote the Irish language – the Government has ignored this. We
need to change the way we treat our language. It is an important part of
our cultural heritage,” he said. </p>
<p class="">The chairman of the party’s Irish language group,
Seán Ó Buachalla, said the party had introduced a language charter in
2014. He criticised the Government, saying they had put reform of the
Official Languages Act on the long finger. </p>
<p class="">“Our language policy is based on international best
practice. It takes into account a range of views and it is ambitious.
The Government now needs to show the same ambition before it is too
late.”</p><p class=""><br></p><a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/warning-on-danger-to-future-of-irish-language-1.2287781">http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/warning-on-danger-to-future-of-irish-language-1.2287781</a><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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