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The Gaeltacht Problem – 1928

Advocate (Melbourne: Vic) 22nd March 1928 p.13

When the Dail assembles it is recognised that the Gaeltacht report will come before it in the form of a bill. How much of the report will be visible in the bill is, of course, not possible to say. No doubt most of us will be disappointed. It is known, however, that the future of Galway University College will depend on the view the Dail takes of the possibility of a scheme of higher education the Irish language. The college authorities, it is understood, have received a hint that they might interest themselves in the better adaptation of the institution to the needs of students who in the next twenty or thirty years will be desirous of making their knowledge of Irish as complete as facilities permit,
The Majority of the Commission made important recommendations in connection with the college, pointing out that it could be made a centre for Gaelicisation of the country. The Department of Education is in agreement with this view and the Treasury is not unwilling to pay up if a feasible scheme is set before it. Already it is known that Galway has been appointing lecturers in history and economics, who are fluent speakers of the language and who are willing and able to lecture their students in it.
The hinterland of the Galway College is, of course Gaelic in a way that the hinterland of no other college is; for all that, the college in Cork has shown more initiative in Gaelic studies. It has now turned its attention to the formation of a collection of Gaelic manuscripts, and is, we understand, succeeding as well as could be expected in the case of a college whose funds are not at all adequate to its ordinary needs.

Author:

B.A., M.A.(Archaeology); Regional Tour Guide; Dip. Radio Media Tech; H.Dip. Computer Science.

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