New York City needs a Gaelscoil!

  • by: Joseph Jones
  • recipient: Daltai na Gaeilge, government of the United States of America, New York City's government, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Irish arts centre,

New York (Nua Eabhrac) should have a Gaelscoil (A Irish language school with every subject conducted in the Irish language) as the Gaelscoils have proven great success in Ireland, as the grades in Irish language schools are higher than English speaking schools. It will also let Irish Americans express their Irish culture by sending there children to schools which the subjects are conducted in Irish. In NYC alone there is 4,000+ people speaking the Irish language at home according to the US census, there is 40 million+ Irish American in the United States and within New York there is 400,000+ Irish Americans which a lot of them are enthusiasts for the language, plus 100,000+ people learning the language in the United States.

A Gaelscoil should be in New York as you don't need to come from a Irish speaking family or even come from Irish decent. Just like Ireland a lot parents send their children to Irish speaking schools and their parents don't have one word of Irish. Also in New York there is 18 Irish neighbourhoods and 12 New York Mayors have been Irish.

There is also Gaeilge (Irish in the Irish Language) meetups all over New York City such as this one http://www.meetup.com/irish-10/ which has 109+ going to the meet up every month, there is also Irish Language groups in New York which promotes the Irish language including The Philo-Celtic Society and Daltaí na Gaeilge (based in NJ but also promote a lot in NY including all of America), the Irish language also has a great presence in the Irish Arts Centre as a lot of things in the centre are in Gaeilge it also has Irish classes, plus there is lots of individual irish lesson groups around NY and you can get an Irish language degree in many universities in NYC.

There is also an online Irish magazine 'An Gael' available all over the USA but is based in NYC! Also WFUV radio station in NYC has Irish-Language weekly programming! There is also a 20 year stradegy for the Irish Language in the United States just like Ireland.

Plus Irish is taught more in America than Greek, Danish, Finnish and Hungurian and all these languages have 5 million+ native speakers.
This proves that a Gaelscoil is needed for the Irish American community as so much Americans love the Irish language! They can send there children to the Gaelscoils as they're young and don't need to come from an Irish speaking family so when they leave the Gaelscoil they will be as fluent as a native speaker.

New York is also very close to a Gaeltacht (Irish speaking area) which is in Canada (Gaeltacht Bhaile na hÉireann) and has housing of a 100 people. New York also has Seachtain Na Gaeilge which is a huge event for Irish speakers for a whole 2 weeks.

So sign this petition now as different langauge schools are everywhere in New York at the moment including Hebrew schools so give the Irish Language a chance as there is a huge Irish community in New York and across America. Why can Trelew, Argentina get a Welsh language school when they roughly only have 1,500 Welsh speakers and when New York has 4,000+ Irish speakers using it at home (not counting those who are fluent and don't use it at home) so why can't New York get a Gaelscoil?

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