Democratic Breton Union (UDB) demands return of Breton to France Bleu Breizh Izel

"Since the beginning of confinement, the Breton language has been confined to the social networks of the audiovisual public service, namely France Bleu Breizh Izel and France 3 Bretagne," deplores in a press release the Finistère federation of the Democratic Breton Union, UDB, regretting this absence.

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How to donate to Manx Gaelic pre schools Mooinjer Veggey

Since its inception in 1996, Mooinjer Veggey (Little People) has been successfully promoting Manx Gaelic, through its network of pre-school groups across the Island and its support of the only Manx language school - Bunscoill Ghaelgagh. But it now needs your help to raise more money to enable the organisation to fund its goal of training further staff and production of Manx resource material.

Mooinjer Veggey is an educational charity, run by a voluntary committee, with Manx language nurseries established in Braddan and Ballasalla - where children learn the Island's native tongue through songs and rhymes. Additionally, a Manx language 'parents and tots' group (Possan Cloie) meet in St John's during term time.

The aim of Mooinjer Veggey is to provide an education with, or through the Manx language, giving children an acknowledged advantage of learning a second language at an early age. Learning Manx (at any age) helps to create a sense of place and belonging and develop an interest in other languages. It can also be both empowering and exciting, but also fun!

It's possible to become a member of Caarjyn Vooinjer Veggey (Friends of Mooinjer Veggey) for a minimum donation of £10 per year, which in turn helps to support the vital work undertaken by Mooinjer Veggey itself. Members will also receive regular newsletters, updating them on progress within the group. Further details about the organisation and how to donate available on their website. https://www.mooinjerveggey.org.im

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Duolingo's Scottish Gaelic course a right old barnstorming success: 300,000 people are signed up to the smartphone module

Duolingo's launch of a Scottish Gaelic learning course would appear to have been a right old barnstorming success, as it says around 300,000 people are currently signed up to the smartphone language module.

Oddly enough it's not Scots powering the Gaelic wave, as stats from the language app show that more users on the course are based in the US (35 per cent) than the UK (34 per cent). The 300,000 number marks quite a roaring interest, as the most recent census data showed 57,375 Scots claiming to be able to speak Gaelic, so having 300k more rock up with their brave attempts at pronunciation is a massive surge of interest.

Colin Watkins from Duolingo says the app will be updating soon with more Gaelic content, for your mind-expanding lockdown thrills and future interactions with the elderly locals when and if holidaying in the more rural bits of Scotland.

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An tAthair Peadar Ó Laoghaire: New book pays tribute to Gaelic scholar

Just two words, “laoch áitiúil” pay tribute to the life of a priest, Land League activist, and Gaelic scholar regarded as a pioneer of modern Irish language literature.  The understatement of the newly-inscribed plaque in the Cork church where An tAthair Peadar Ó Laoghaire was baptised and received his first Communion and Confirmation, is deliberate.

The author of Séadna, Mo Scéal Féin, and Tadhg Saor, the first play published in Irish, has been the subject of numerous biographical and scholarly studies since his death 100 years ago. In his home parish, An tAthair Peadar’s literary fame stands alongside his leadership as a priest and champion of farmers’ rights as deserving of the epitaph of local hero, laoch áitiúil.

Centenary celebrations in the mid-Cork village of Carriganima, where An tAthair Peadar attended school and church, fell victim to Covid-19 restrictions. But providing a lasting testament to the esteem in which the farmer’s son is held 181 years after his birth, is a new book reflecting both his legacy and the life of the people of his native parish during the last century.

Edited by local historian James O’Leary, Ár Scéal Féin, its title a tribute to An tAthair Peadar’s autobiographical work, tells in fact, folklore, and photographs the story of a community, much of it though “caint na ndaoine”, the spoken Múscraí Irish for which the priest’s work is famed.



An tAthair Peadar, says O’Leary, “spent his life helping the ordinary people”. Ordained in 1867 and made a canon in 1906, he served in the Cloyne Diocese, including in Kilshannig, Kilworth, and Rathcormac, before being appointed parish priest in Castlelyons. There, he wrote the story of the shoemaker Séadna, which became a fixture on the school curriculum.

Though as a centenary celebration “everything else went by the wayside”, Ár Scéal Féin/Our Own Story: From Carriganima to Castlelyons “will always be there”, says O’Leary, for whom the book was a project close to his heart.


“I didn’t consider it work; I considered it a duty, as the proper way to commemorate a man who was the first who wrote in caint na ndaoine, the language of the people. Before that it was classical Irish,” he says. Though he contends that an tAthair Peadar “was looked down upon by the intelligentsia at the time because he was writing in caint na ndaoine”, it was his use of the vernacular that helped put Munster Irish “at the forefront” of Irish language literature during the Gaelic revival of the late 19th Century. At the time, the promotion of the language by contemporaries such as Dr Dónal Ó Loingsigh led Pádraig Pearse to refer to Baile Mhúirne, near Ó Laoghaire’s birthplace in Liscarrigane, as “the principal city of the Gaeltacht”.

Although he did not begin writing in earnest until his 50s, upon the foundation of Conradh na Gaeilge, An tAthair Peadar completed more than 500 pieces of work including essays, stories, and translations of The Bible and Don Quixote, before his death in 1920 in Castlelyons, where he is buried.

His contribution to Irish language literature saw him honoured as a freeman of both Dublin and Cork, with Cork Corporation describing him as “the greatest Irish writer of his age” when granting him the freedom of the city in 1912.

A year later, an tAthair Peadar told an audience at the opening of Coláiste na Nua Ghaeilge: “Do not bother yourselves with Old Irish. It is not in any danger. It is in the old books and can be got from them, when anybody wants to do so. Turn instead to the Irish that is alive. The old people are taking it with them to the grave.” His exhortation, and use of spoken Irish as a basis for literature, has resonance in Ár Scéal Féin, whose Irish and English texts give voice to the ordinary person, recounting the customs and folklore of rural Ireland.



One of the book’s legacies is likely to be its inclusion of stories collected by national school pupils in the villages of Carriganima, Clondrohid, and Muinefliuch during the 1930s for the Irish Folklore Commission.

“If nothing else comes of the book, that heritage has now been unlocked within the community,” says O’Leary, who invited the schools’ current pupils to select local folklore entries from Duchas.ie for Ár Scéal Féin.

“The teachers told me they hadn’t met anything in all their years teaching that had such an effect on [the pupils] because they went home and spoke to their parents, and their parents knew the people that had written the stories. They learnt about their own heritage,” he adds.



Another contributor to the 1930s schools collection was Nóra Ní Chríodáin, then a pupil of Scoil Barr d’Inse, who as Nóra Uí Scanaill after marriage lived in Liscarrigane, yards from Laoghaire’s homeplace.

Among the items reproduced in her original handwriting in Ár Scéal Féin are accounts of landlords’ rent collection and the hardships of farming life, which are comparable to those told by an tAthair Peadar, says O’Leary, describing their discovery as “like gold dust”.

A Land League proponent, as detailed in Mo Scéal Féin, An tAthair Peadar “was a man who stood for the ordinary tenant farmer,” says O’Leary. He draws modern parallels, in Ár Scéal Féin, with the 1850s land reform demands of fair rent, free sale, and fixity of tenure, describing An tAthair Peadar as “the spiritual leader of the Land League”.

O’Leary, a distant relative of the scholar, includes in the book his own research on an extended Ó Laoghaire family tree stretching to 80 first cousins.

“I tried to pay tribute to the man, the writer, and the priest,” he adds. “The book was the only way we could commemorate him properly for what he had done for both the Irish people and the Irish language.”

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Yvon Ollivier: "For fifteen years, we have still 3% of children in Breton bilingual schools"

A collective of artists, writers, personalities and academics launched on February 14, in Morlaix (Finistère), an appeal to save the Breton language. One of them is Yvon Ollivier: "It is a collective that germinated during the Frenchization of place names, a few months ago, following the Telgruc affair. We had produced a first open letter which had been signed by more than seventy artists. And there, they are a little bit the same ones who follow us, artists, authors. We have used more or less the same formula to react to the region's current language policy, which has failed. Things must be said clearly. For fifteen years, we have still 3% of children in bilingual schools. At this rate, it would take several centuries to catch up with the Basques! 
Today, language policy must be the first of the Region's policies. The priority of priorities. Because it is precisely what unites us, what makes us together and what also differentiates us from globalization, which makes us different people. It is this idea that our politicians have lost. For many, this is a secondary issue. But in Brittany, we are not in Paris or in Berry, where there is nothing left. In Brittany, there is a language.

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Pennseythen Gernewek / Cornish Language Weekend 2020

The Pennseythen Gernewek / Cornish Language Weekend 2020 by Kowethas An Yeth Kernewek will take place from3 to 5 April. The Cornish Language Weekend is an event for fluent Cornish speakers and students and is a good opportunity to speak in Cornish for a whole weekend. There will be songs, dances, films and many other things, and there is also a one day course for people who don’t speak any Cornish (yet) – the Flamm Nowydh class (completely new). This Weekend is in St Austell, close to the station. Evening meals are not included with any of the tickets. Venue menus will be sent by the organiser separately so that you can order an evening meal if you want to. It is not happening in a hotel this year but you can find information about venues, local hotels and the programme here.

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Conradh na Gaeilge asked candidates to commit to four measures

The Irish language has barely featured in the 2020 campaign and by the time general election hopefuls have had the last word on the headline issues, it is unlikely to have received much consideration outside of Raidió na Gaeltachta and TG4. Conradh na Gaeilge, has taken a more direct approach.

“It is always extremely difficult to break through,” says Julian de Spáinn, general secretary of Conradh na Gaeilge.“That is why we engage in a more direct approach where we engage directly with the candidates themselves.”

Individual candidates as well as political parties were asked to commit to four measures agreed by over 70 Irish language and Gaeltacht groups which, if enacted, they say will go someway towards reversing the decline of Irish.

Commitments

1. The appointment of a senior Government minister with Cabinet responsibility for the Gaeltacht and the Irish language.

2. An investment of € 18 million in an Irish language and Gaeltacht plan to expand the use of Irish

3. A single policy for Irish in the education sphere linking the teaching of Irish throughout all cycles of the education system

4. Support for the strengthening of the Official Languages Bill and a commitment to honour the provision that 20 per cent of candidates recruited to the public sector will be competent in the Irish language.

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Aï'ta rally against the summoning of a Breton woman for a language action

Aï’ta activists were present this Sunday morning, in front of the Plouay gendarmerie (French police station) to support a woman summoned after an action against a bus in the Brittany region in October 2018 to defend the Breton language.

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Success for Welsh language Tutor

One of Aberystwyth University’s Learn Welsh Tutors has been recognised by Learning and Work Institute Wales for her exceptional contribution.
Philippa Gibson was presented with the Inspire! Tutor Award in a special ceremony held at St Fagans National Museum History on Wednesday night 22 January 2020.
Over the last 30 years, Philippa has been learning Welsh as an adult and in that period, she has developed her skills to become an accomplished and experienced Welsh Tutor.
She is a member of the Aberystwyth University Learn Welsh team that provides Welsh lessons to adults in Powys, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire.
Philippa said: “Having learnt Welsh as an adult, I gain satisfaction from teaching he language to others and see them moving on to become a part of the local Welsh community. Tutoring means doing as much as I can to help each individual to succeed by overcoming any barriers, whether they are specific issues relating to learning, lack of confidence or knowledge about opportunities to use their Welsh.”
Philippa favours informal methods and learning opportunities as a Welsh tutor. She commits time to enlisting, co-ordinating and arranging volunteers to support informal speaking sessions with learners by following the Pontio Scheme.
In addition to this, Philippa encourages her students to write for the local community paper and supports her learners to access many activities including a Welsh-language walking group, Welsh plays and concerts and Welsh-language societies.
Mary, one of Philippa’s students, praised her inspirational work. She said: “She has opened up a new word for me, a world of Welsh culture. She has been extremely good.”

 Siôn Meredith, Head of Learn Welsh Ceredigion, Powys and Carmarthenshire, said that Philippa’s contribution is invaluable: “Many learners from the Cardigan area have benefitted from Philippa’s work as a tutor, and many of them are fluent speakers by now, and have crossed the bridge. Philippa has made o world of difference to the future of the Welsh language in the area. Many thanks and congratulations to her for receiving this award.”

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Bòrd na Gàidhlig deemed a “total disaster” by SNP MSP

People in the Gaelic community ought to feel let down by the failings of the organisation set up to promote the language, a committee of MSPs said last week.

The MSPs have been probing the work of Bòrd na Gàidhlig in the wake of a highly-critical report from public-sector watchdog Audit Scotland.

Caroline Gardner, the Auditor General for Scotland, said a “culture of mistrust” had built up within the Bòrd, which had suffered from ineffective leadership and a lack of transparency in decision-making.

Under questioning from MSPs on the public audit and post-legislative scrutiny committee last Thursday, the auditor general and the consultants who had carried out the recent report suggested external help would be needed to resolve the agency’s problems.

The SNP’s Alex Neil was damning in his criticism after being told that recommendations made six months ago were still under consideration.

He said: “The work they are supposed to be doing is vital for the linguistic and cultural future of the country. And they are badly letting down people. If they can’t get their act together they should go. Both the senior management team and the board – they are getting paid well enough.”

The Bòrd’s chief executive Shona MacLennan is paid a salary of £90,000 a year, while senior management posts at the Inverness-based organisation command annual salaries of between £65,000 and £85,000.

Mr Neil suggested the management team was ‘top heavy’ for an organisation with an annual turnover of £5 million.

“A second-tier manager could run this on their tea break,” Mr. Neill added. “It’s a small organisation, and yet it seems to be a total disaster.

“It seems to me they (senior management) are not justifying the level of salary they are on.

“The board isn’t providing any effective leadership. The question is, why are they still there?”

Mr Neil was told that the wider Gaelic speaking community hadn’t been consulted when the Bòrd’s latest improvement plan was drawn up.

“Is that not part of the problem? The main users – the people – weren’t consulted on it,” Mr Neill asked.

“Surely if you are drawing up a business plan, you have to consult the customers first.” Ms Gardner said that while she accepted that the Bòrd was a small organisation, she didn’t accept it was “necessarily a simple one”.

She added: “Gaelic has a very important place in Scottish life, but it’s fragile in terms of the numbers who use it routinely and the geographic location of these communities.”

The consultants acknowledged that the Bòrd had to work from a small talent pool.

The SNPs Colin Beattie and Tory Liam Kerr both called for the agency to drop its requirements for all employees and members to speak Gaelic, in a bid to attract greater expertise – notably in financial roles.

Labour’s Rhoda Grant supported the principle behind the all-Gaelic policy and said anyone involved with the Bòrd should at least be ‘vested’ in their support for the language, either as a speaker or someone committed to learning it.

The committee branded it as unacceptable that Bòrd na Gàidhlig were still holding official meetings in private.

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