YOUTH ACTIVITIES
Although there are three national Irish language Youth organisationss, - Ógras, Cumann na bhFiann and Feachtas, which do wonderful work none of them have sufficient funds to provide a comprehensive Irish language youth service to all-Irish and Gaeltacht schools never mind the thousands of ordinary schools in the country.
There are now 336 all-Irish schools in the 32 Counties of Ireland with approximately 55000 students, and these schools are growing rapidly both in number of schools and in number of pupils. 207 of these schools are situated outside the Gaeltacht areas with 38000 students of which 98% are native English speakers.
Because the Youth organisations do not have the capacity provide a service to these pupils there is a lack of opportunities available to them to practice their Irish outside of the school environment on a regular basis. As a result these children socialise through English only in most cases. To encourage them to speak Irish outside school and therefore to socialise through Irish a specific recreational environment is necessary in which the language of communication is Irish.
Fondúireacht na Gaeilge would be most interested in holding discussions with groups interested in providing such a recreational environment specifically for children attending all-Irish schools but which would welcome also children in ordinary English language schools who are studying Irish as a subject.
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