The people of An Rinn talk about life in the Waterford Gaeltacht and the survival of the Irish language in a changing Ireland.
Eamonn Mac Mhurchú runs the co-operative in An Rinn in County Waterford. Irish is the vernacular of the area due to the founding of Coláiste na Rinne in 1905 to promote the Irish Language through education.
Eamonn Mac Mhurchú says the growth of the population has helped to maintain the language and parents encourage their children to be bilingual. He is unhappy about the lack of government support for the language. Official forms are always in English and involve translating the applicant's name into English.
A secondary school teacher emphasises the importance of teaching non-traditional subjects such as agriculture, accounting and typing. Pupils should be encouraged to stay and work in the region rather than directed towards civil service jobs in Dublin.
Teachers must produce class notes and compulsory texts in Irish themselves. Séamus Ó Braonáin faces the problems of producing texts in Irish with ever-changing curricula.
Máire Ní Mhurchú is a post office telephonist in Dungarvan. Her work life is conducted through English but when she returns to her home in An Rinn, family life is carried out through Irish.
Many Waterford County Council road signs are in English only and in cases where signs are bilingual, a number of the English place names have been painted out by somebody taking matters into their own hands.
‘Gaeltacht’ is a series of programmes looking at life in the Gaeltacht in the late 1960s. Over the course of a year producer and director Colm O Laoghaire and a film crew visited eight Gaeltacht areas. These are An Rinn (Ring) in Waterford, Bhaile Bhuirne agus Chúil Aodha (Ballyvourney and Coolea) in Cork, Corca Dhuibhne (Corkaguiny) in Kerry, Conamara (Connemara) in Galway, Oileáin Árann (Aran Islands) in Galway, Iorras (Erris) in Mayo, Anagaire, An Fál Carrach, Croithlí, Gaoth Dobhair agus Rann na Feirste (Annagary, Falcarragh, Crolly, Gweedore and Rannafast) in Donegal and Ráth Chairn (Rathcairn) in Meath.
This episode of ‘Gaeltacht’ was broadcast on 13 February 1969. The reporter is Annraoí O Liatháin.
