The real number, according to the experts, is far lower, at the number I quoted. Honestly, I don't know why they're fighting so hard to keep alive a language that they themselves have admitted is going to be gone in 20 years if they don't make everyone speak it all the time everywhere.
Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
So the Irish government has basically imploded.
- 23/01/2011 04:47:10 PM
1715 Views
I am now confused
- 23/01/2011 05:34:31 PM
1078 Views
You do realize Britain is pretty much the envy of the Western world at the moment?
- 23/01/2011 06:27:05 PM
1103 Views
Re: You do realize Britain is pretty much the envy of the Western world at the moment?
- 23/01/2011 06:34:47 PM
1035 Views
I did. There was more violence than in ours, that's true (ours have none so far, knock on wood).
- 23/01/2011 06:41:34 PM
1010 Views
Re: I did. There was more violence than in ours, that's true (ours have none so far, knock on wood).
- 23/01/2011 06:43:41 PM
956 Views
Those protests were only violent by British standards.
- 23/01/2011 11:54:15 PM
1102 Views
What protests?
- 24/01/2011 07:26:49 PM
1083 Views
Re: What protests?
- 24/01/2011 07:28:40 PM
931 Views
Re: What protests?
- 25/01/2011 09:23:17 AM
1071 Views
There's a new objection
- 25/01/2011 11:38:25 AM
993 Views
I didn't object...
- 25/01/2011 11:47:11 AM
882 Views
And Britain had to live with the Conservative Wilderness for 15 years before it could get there *NM*
- 24/01/2011 02:43:16 AM
510 Views
Should I start chiming in on Norwegian politics now that I'm here...? 
- 24/01/2011 12:42:03 AM
968 Views
- 24/01/2011 12:42:03 AM
968 Views
Why not?
- 24/01/2011 08:49:07 AM
1034 Views
'Cos I doubt you'll like what I have to say, for one thing.
- 26/01/2011 01:55:13 AM
1055 Views
That's been a while coming, hasn't it? Cowen seems to be losing it.
- 23/01/2011 05:48:30 PM
1007 Views
Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 06:27:27 PM
1074 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 06:33:26 PM
1026 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 07:19:03 PM
1124 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 07:57:05 PM
972 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 09:29:03 PM
1079 Views
Re: Certainly. he's been on dodgy ground for a couple months.
- 23/01/2011 09:46:20 PM
1039 Views
I think Adams is an Irish citizen, and not a British one.
- 23/01/2011 11:45:34 PM
996 Views
I found out something else today which makes it even better.
- 24/01/2011 10:37:45 PM
1171 Views
I was reading your post and going "what about the Chiltern Hundreds"?
- 24/01/2011 10:44:32 PM
989 Views
Oh, alternatively we could elevate him to the House of Lords.
- 26/01/2011 11:08:44 PM
1011 Views
Awesome idea. Something like "Baron Adams of Londonderry", I'm thinking. *NM*
- 27/01/2011 07:54:26 PM
490 Views
We made his arch-rival a Lord, after all, so it would only be fair.
- 28/01/2011 08:26:15 AM
951 Views
Here you go
- 25/01/2011 12:55:33 PM
1103 Views
well, the only interesting thing in swedish politics is a wikileaks document and the reactions...
- 23/01/2011 06:21:00 PM
1062 Views
What is inappropriate about trying to keep out barbaric unskilled people?
- 23/01/2011 10:59:53 PM
1031 Views
- 26/01/2011 07:46:19 PM
1005 Views
The inappropriateness is the generalisation in the claim
- 23/01/2011 11:16:52 PM
1001 Views
Generalizations are inappropriate when they are disproven by statistics, and appropriate when proven
- 24/01/2011 07:33:14 PM
953 Views
I've looked into the statistics a bit more.
- 24/01/2011 09:11:52 PM
969 Views
I take it you're talking about the Middle East in its most narrow sense here.
- 24/01/2011 09:56:22 PM
1003 Views
... the fact that they are asylum seekers, and their skill certainly shouldn't matter in that case.
- 24/01/2011 07:08:14 PM
893 Views
- 26/01/2011 07:46:19 PM
1005 Views
Hopefully they'll stop using Irish officially as a way to cut down on unnecessary costs.
- 23/01/2011 10:57:08 PM
949 Views
I'd support that
- 23/01/2011 11:26:20 PM
1029 Views
Ironically, if you de-officialised Irish you could get EU money to help preserve it.
- 23/01/2011 11:48:14 PM
925 Views
But why, why?
- 24/01/2011 08:35:43 PM
910 Views
Because it's the only thing justifying their insistence they're not British?
- 24/01/2011 10:03:54 PM
971 Views
- 24/01/2011 10:03:54 PM
971 Views
But all language learning should be purely voluntary (after what parents teach their children).
- 25/01/2011 03:05:28 AM
945 Views
What, so you don't think students in high school should be taught foreign languages?
- 25/01/2011 06:34:21 PM
974 Views
Irish is the mother tongue of about 7,000-15,000 people at most.
- 26/01/2011 05:04:00 AM
1003 Views
Wikipedia says it's more like 40k-80k.
- 26/01/2011 06:41:41 PM
1371 Views
And Elaine, Stephen, or any other Irish people here: do feel free to comment. *NM*
- 26/01/2011 06:42:36 PM
491 Views
*NM*
- 26/01/2011 06:42:36 PM
491 Views
Inflated statistics from what I've read.
- 26/01/2011 09:45:51 PM
914 Views
More to the point, are YOU interested in learning Irish?
- 26/01/2011 05:15:18 AM
914 Views
Calling Ireland the new Sodom and Gomorrah, are you?
- 26/01/2011 06:02:05 PM
1063 Views
- 26/01/2011 06:02:05 PM
1063 Views
I don't think it's as fun as Sodom and Gomorrah, at least not post-crisis. 
- 26/01/2011 09:48:54 PM
1016 Views
- 26/01/2011 09:48:54 PM
1016 Views
Re: I don't think it's as fun as Sodom and Gomorrah, at least not post-crisis.
- 27/01/2011 08:42:21 PM
895 Views
- 27/01/2011 08:42:21 PM
895 Views
Presumably because they agree with J.R.R. Tolkien and Tómas Sæmundsson about language's importance.
- 24/01/2011 10:16:05 PM
1058 Views
So Australians and New Zealanders are really English then? Austrians are just Germans?
- 25/01/2011 03:01:14 AM
1012 Views
I never said I agreed 
.
- 25/01/2011 08:19:11 AM
981 Views
.
- 25/01/2011 08:19:11 AM
981 Views
I would suggest that a distinct dialect does the job just as well
- 25/01/2011 02:23:59 PM
1010 Views
The thing is, people who feel really strongly about that usually insist it's a separate language.
- 28/01/2011 04:20:57 PM
864 Views
It's really more about having a unique silly costume to wear at Miss Universe pageants.
- 26/01/2011 05:09:10 AM
854 Views
You're confusing what we sell to gullible American tourists with what we actually value . *NM*
- 28/01/2011 04:15:01 PM
435 Views
. *NM*
- 28/01/2011 04:15:01 PM
435 Views
What the hell happened to the Celtic Tiger Country? *NM*
- 24/01/2011 05:47:12 AM
563 Views
The Celtic Tiger is dead, Ireland had a GDP contraction of 14% in the last two years.
- 24/01/2011 01:47:06 PM
970 Views
It's still there, but it aimed a bit too high and got a bit scorched.
- 24/01/2011 10:07:36 PM
858 Views