Irish-medium school opens in Liatroma (Leitrim)

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Irish-medium school opens in Liatroma (Leitrim)

Eoghan O Neill, Baile Atha Cliath 4/20/2005

The decision of Irish Education Minister Mary Hanafin to recognise an
Irish- medium school in County Leitrim has opened a new chapter in Irish
language education. Leitrim has for long been the only one of the 32
counties not to have a single Irish-medium school. With the opening of
Gaelscoil Liatroma on a site near Carrick on Shannon this September the
last piece of the jigsaw puzzle will be in place.

"It's great for Leitrim, it's great for Irish and it's great for
education" says Adrian Mac Conmara, one of those behind the new school.
"In terms of the language this will really put Leitrim on the map and of
course we will be writing a bit of history this September. It's a sign of
how things are progressing for the language that for the first time
Irish-medium education will be on offer in every county in the country.
We're over the moon and it's a testimony to the hard work and effort put
in by parents, supporters and friends here in Leitrim, a partnership which
has worked so well for Gaelscoileanna up and down the country."
Appropriately the organisation with responsibility for Irish-medium
schools, Gaelscoileanna, was set up in 1973 and this year, on it's 32nd
birthday it will see Irish-medium schooling on offer in all 32 counties
for the first time.

With almost 30,000 children in Irish-medium schools outside of the
Gaeltacht areas Irish-medium education is continuing to grow at a faster
rate than other educational sectors. Along with the good news for Leitrim
the Department of Education granted recognition to two other Irish-medium
schools in Dublin last week and it's hoped that another, in Roscrea, Co
Tipperary, will be given recognition shortly.

However, while the primary level has been extremely successful with 154
Gaelscoileanna now throughout the island the growth of post-primary has
been much slower with only 36 post-primary Irish medium schools. In recent
years Gaelscoileanna have been trying to focus more attention on this
sector. (Eurolang 2005)



http://www.eurolang.net