| Call for government to aid language classes BY
Máiréad O’Donnell
 MEMBERS of the Irish
community in Britain this week called for government aid to help fund
the teaching of Gaelic.
The call came from the Irish Society in the London borough of Sutton —
after a battle to secure the future of classes in their area.
Officials from the society urged the Irish Government to put their money
where their mouth was when it came to supporting the Gaelic language abroad.
They urged the government to consider subsidising courses outside Ireland
and putting more resources into teaching and promoting the Irish language.
Sutton Irish Society chairman Gavin O’Toole said he feared the numbers
attending Irish language classes in Britain could be hit by the costs
and expenses of running the courses.
And he proposed the Irish Government should consider grants to ensure
the language thrived among Irish communities abroad.
His comments followed a lengthy battle by the Sutton Irish Society to
secure the future of their own language course.
Mr O’Toole said: “If we were to receive some sort of funding
for the course, we could lower the price and then more people could attend
the classes.”
Other European languages including Spanish, French and Italian already
receive support from their governments for classes abroad.
Sutton’s Irish community is now calling on the Irish Government
to do the same.
Mmr O’Toole said: “Foreign language classes are set-up all
over the country and are subsidised by their relevant native governments
so I am currently looking for the Irish government to subsidise classes
to encourage the teaching of the Irish language.”
The group’s present course runs at Sutton’s College of Liberal
Arts (SCOLA) once a week on a Wednesday night for 11 weeks.
The course started in early January and will continue until the end of
March — with the goal being for students to have a good command
of Gaelic by the end of the period.
Native Irish speaker Liam Gallagher is taking the lessons — which
have already proved very popular among students in Sutton.
Lessons are still open to anyone wishing to attend.
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