I am sorry that I cannot speak Irish fluently like all of the others here who have done so this evening. I have to tell Deputy Gould that I too have two daughters who are fluent Irish speakers. One of them, Theresa, trained in Dingle, An Daingean. I want to thank the Gaeltacht communities that we have in Kerry - Baile na Sceilge, Uíbh Ráthaigh, Daingean Uí Chúis and all those areas. We are really proud of our Gaeltacht areas because we see how they have survived over the centuries and brought their language - our own language - forward and how they live for it every day. Everything they do is through Irish - add, subtract or whatever it is. They are very fluent. I cannot let this moment go without congratulating the two club teams that won the senior and intermediate all-Ireland football championships this year. We are very proud of them. They had a never-say-die attitude and there was no surrender as far as they were concerned. They were nearly gone two, three or four different times and they still came back. As Paul Geaney said in his winning speech, you can say so much more in one line of Irish than you can in English and express things so much better. The Irish language means so much to them in the Gaeltacht and they are so proud of it. It is their everyday language and their winning speeches in Irish were a joy to listen to. We are lucky in Kerry to have these Gaeltacht areas and the great men who play football for their clubs and for Kerry. Indeed, we all remember Páidí Ó Sé and the never-say-die attitude that he had. Our native language is something to be very proud of and we should encourage the use of it at every opportunity. We live beside Cúil Aodha, which bounds Kilgarvan at the top of Coom. At one time in the 1960s, we were supposed to be included in the Gaeltacht down as far as Morley's Bridge. It never happened and I am sorry about that. I am sorry that I did not give it enough time for the bit of time when I was at school. When I think of the people of Cúil Aodha, I commiserate with the O'Sullivan family. Their sister Nóirín Ó Dálaigh passed away recently. She was a proud Cúil Aodha woman and a Kilgarvan woman as well because their mother came from Kilgarvan. Everyone remembers Diarmuid O'Sullivan on Raidió na Gaeltachta. He was her brother as well. I am surrounded by Irish very close to me. I am very proud of all the people who speak Irish in our county as well.

Sentiment score: 0.29