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09th Feb 2012

Clondalkin could soon become the next official Gaeltacht area. No, seriously.

Clondalkin could soon become one of the newest Gaeltacht regions in the country. Yep, apparently everyone in Clondalkin is speaking Irish now.

JOE

What’s the one thing that you’d never expect to find in the middle of Dublin? If you answered “a Gaeltacht”, you might be in for a surprise.

The Irish Independent reports that Clondalkin could soon become one of the newest Gaeltacht regions in the country. Yes, seriously. Apparently Clondalkin secretly harbours a LOT of Irish speakers that the rest of us don’t know about.

Clondalkin’s could get its exciting new Gaeltacht status under new plans agreed by the Government.

Areas that have been listed as official Irish-speaking regions are entitled to some state funding, so obviously they’d be getting compensated for the fact that they’d have to start speaking “as gaelilge” and embracing the lingo.

We wonder how the locals feel about this. Are they happy or worried? What about the people who can’t remember how to speak Irish? Will lessons be mandatory? Worse still, will they be excommunicated from society because of their english-speaking ways? We have so many unanswered questions about this!

Official Gaeltacht regions will now be determined based on linguistic criteria instead of by geography. Fascinating. This means that areas all around the country can apply to be listed as Gaeltacht-designated. Awesome!

“During the presidential election, Michael D Higgins stated that Clondalkin had a case to be recognised as a Gaeltacht area, due to the number of Irish speakers,” said Robert Dowds, a Labour TD.

Maybe we should all start brushing off our Irish skills. Anyone remember anything other than “an bhfuil cead agam dul go dti an leithreas?” and “tabhair dom do caca milis!!!”?

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