Hello people.

I'm sure we all know, Irish is useless.

Students, from primary school to sixth year, are forced to waste hours each week learning, studying, doing homework... in that useless subject.

However, it is absolutely useless and a waste of time. Practically no one uses it. I know that the mindset of my friends, and of many people after the Irish exams are "Yay! All that anxiety is done and finished! And I never need to use Irish again!".

Education has PROBLEMS. MASSIVE problems. Much anxiety, depression, mental health issues... comes from school. Students are not allowed to do the home thing of sleeping in school, but they are forced to spend hours a day doing school things (studying and homework) at home. Well, Students also spend hours each week wasting time learning the useless language. (It has many other problems too) 

Imagine if that time could be spent learning something useful or doing what children should be doing: playing, and having fun. Maybe sleeping more, which is essential for good brain health, mental health and physical health.

Imagine if the four classes a week spent on the useless language of Irish, would be spent teaching Home-Economics, business, how farm animals are actually treated, survival skills, self defense and life skills. People would be MUCH better prepared for their adulthood, and make better decisions.  But no, the government choses to waste the opportunity to make those subjects compulsory to teach us something we'll never use again. 

And yes, there are people in the Gaeltacht who use Irish daily. But they can learn English, a useful language, like hundreds of millions of people do!

Yes, it's horrible what now dead English people did to now dead Irish people. But it doesn't mean people who are alive TODAY should have to suffer by learning the useless language for "our ancestors". And guess what? At least one good thing came out the horrors that happened. Most humans on the island of Ireland now speak English. An international language. A useful language. A language about 20% of humans in the world learn. A very useful language.

Our ancestors, are dead, people. They don't care about today, they don't have an oppinion. And I'm guessing if they were asked, they'd want what's most practical for today, not for us to waste hours every week doing something useless, and for dead people.  

Times change, people! Many of our ancestors didn't have electricity. Should we not use electricity? Many of our ancestors did laundry with a metal tub and a washboard. Should we stop using washing machines? No, times change. We should accept the fact the English is the language of Ireland now. That Irish is bo longer useful. That Englaih is better than Irish. That a washing machine is better than a metal tub and a washboard.

Irish should be optional, as an extra curricular activity or something like that. Does it even make sense for it to be one of the language options? It's useless. With French, Spanish and German, we can communicate with millions of people. Not with Irish.

When I learnt Welsh on Duolingo, I enjoyed it. Why? Because I CHOSE to learn it. I wanted to. If I would have been forced to, I would have hated it.

Irish increases anxiety, study time, homework time, school time, test and exam time. We have too much of that already, and if some of that is from something useless it's just cruel.

Yes, it is good for the brain to learn a second language. But those languages can be useful languages that can be used in mamy settings, in many countries, not a useless language.

So please, sign this petition, and let's make it so that students don't have to waste hours each week on this useless language.