June 19th, 1974:A COUPLE OF weeks learning Irish in the Gaeltacht is a rite of passage for many people, never more so than in 1974 when the Irish schools found themselves inundated with applicants. Why this was so was not too clear, as Donal Musgrave discovered for this report:
THERE IS a phenomenal upsurge in demand for summer courses in Irish this year. Most of the 67 colleges giving them are solidly booked out and overall nearly 17,000 young people and aspiring teachers, 4,000 more than last year, are expected to attend the courses this month and in July and August, and will inject hundred of thousands of pounds into the economy of Gaeltacht areas.The organisers are attributing the upsurge in demand mainly to energetic canvassing of schools and parents during the winter months, and also to the appeal of the bargain £1 a day holidays being offered.
“There has not been such a dramatic increase in demand since the introduction of oral Irish in 1959,” said one organiser yesterday. “We don’t know what the cause of it is, but it is certainly extraordinary. We thought that the dropping of compulsory Irish from the examination system would hit the courses badly, but for some reason the reverse appears to be happening this year.”
Captain Seán Ó Dunagain, secretary of Comhdháil Náisiúnta na Gaeilge, the national co-ordinating body of the Irish revival movement, described the rise in demand as “absolutely fantastic”. He said it would be one of the main points for discussion when the heads of 61 colleges which are federated to the organisation meet at the end of August for a postmortem on the 1974 Irish season.
Reports of the dramatic increase in demands come from the Kerry, Connemara, west Cork and Waterford Gaeltachta. It was not possible yesterday to discover if the same trend is reflected in the Donegal Gaeltacht areas where thousands of children attend course in 10 colleges each year.
In Kerry, Michael Mac Giobúin, manager of Comhar Cumann Forbartha Chorcha Dhuibhne, the local Gaeltacht co-operative, reports that 2,200 persons will be attending 16 courses in six colleges there this summer compared with 1,450 last year and 1,750 in 1972.
Each course is 24 days long and costs each pupil £26, including the cost of transport to Kerry and full board and accommodation there in one of the 150 houses which keep pupils.
This year the age limit has been dropped and the pupils are between 10 and 18.
On average they spend about £10 each in pocket money during the course.
At present there are 330 trainee teachers on Irish courses in Corcha Dhuibhne.
The courses there are given by between 60 to 70 teachers.
In Kerry, the families who keep the pupils get £38 for each one, consisting of a direct Government grant of £24 for each pupil kept and £14 from the co-operative out of the £26 which he or she pays for the course.
In Connemara, there are 20 colleges giving 40 courses and according to Comhdháil Náisiúnta almost all of these are also booked out.
The Cois Fharraige Co-Operative alone will have 4,000 pupils and trainee teachers, 1,700 more than last years, at 24 courses in eight colleges between Furbo and Casla. They will stay with 200 families spread over a 16-mile radius and the co-op organiser, Pól Ó Foighil, estimates that they will bring well over £250,000 into the area.
“We have been booked out for the past six weeks,” he said. “We have had to send them to other colleges and for the people who want to come specifically to this area, we have a waiting list of 50 for July and 100 for August.”
Last winter, he toured the east coast, addressing hundreds of parents and schools in an effort to sell the value of an Irish-speaking holiday in the Gaeltacht. In Connemara, it works out at £1 a day.
