Ireland. Eire. Part III. Фомина И.В. - 6 стр.

guage Agency (Foras na Gaelige) of the Language body (An Foras Teanga),
one of the six all-island bodies established following the Good Friday Agree-
ment, has responsibility for the promotion and encouragement of the use of irish
as a vernacular throughout the island of Ireland.
       Irish is a core subject in primary and secondary schools and a growing
number of schools offer tuition exclusively through Irish (Gaelcoileanna). In re-
cent years, compulsory Irish has been removed from the educational curriculum
and voluntary adherence to the language has become the norm in the efforts of
state-run attempts to foster the language include Radio na Gaeltachta, the Irish
language radio service and an Irish language television service (TG 4), rather
similar to Sianel 4 in Wales. In addition, there are two Irish language weekly
newspapers: Lá and Foince.

      Ex. 3. Comprehension check.
      1. What are official state languages in Ireland?
      2. How many people speak Irish and English now?
      3. What is the state policy in the sphere of languages in Ireland?
      4. Why is Irish so important?
      5. Do you think if Irish language has any prospects in the future?
      6. When do you think it is possible to have more than one official state
language in a country? Give some examples and explain your opinion.

      Ex. 4. Make a rendering of the text.

                                       UNIT IV

      Ex 1. Pre-reading task.
      Answer the following questions:
      Do you know any prose or poem in Irish? Who are their authors?

      Ex. 2. Read and translate the text.

                               LITERATURE IN IRISH

       Irish literature dates back to the sixth century. Work surviving from that
period includes prose sagas, historical and legal material, commentaries on bib-
lical texts, lyrical and devotional poetry and poems of praise and satire. The
Irish monks also wrote lyric poetry of a high quality, not only in Ireland, but as
they migrated to continental Europe. In writing so they also preserved for pos-
terity much orally transmitted literature which dated back to pre-Christian times.
Epic poems written in that period which still exercise an artistic influence today
include the Táin Bó Cuailgne.

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