Page 14 - ELG2003 Mar Issue 469

El•Gazette 469.qxp_El•Gazette 469 25/02/2020 21:50 Page 14

DESTINATION .

Putting the whole of Ireland on the map

Melanie Butler tours the island’s EFL locations

n the last decade, Irish EFL has spread out
from its three original centres: Dublin, the PIXABAY
youngest capital in Europe; “cool, casual
Iand affordable” Cork in the South; and
Galway, the beating heart of Irish culture, in
the West.
A curious language traveller could drive
south from Dublin to find schools in the
coastal town of Bray in county Wicklow, or
further inland to rural county Kildare. Then
on to coastal Wexford and the rural counties
of Kilkenny and Carlow, or further south to
Waterford, the oldest town in the country,
before arriving in Cork.
But it is the west of Ireland which has
opened up the most, with accredited schools
now to be found from Tralee in County Kerry
through to the pretty country town of Ennis in
County Clare. Limerick, long known for its

Facts about Ireland

The island of Ireland is divided into 32
counties, with 26 counties in the Nightlife in Dublin
Republic and the rest in Northern
Ireland, which is a semi-autonomous university language centre, is now home to at
part of the UK. Tourism and, to an least one accredited language school. PIXABAY
extent language travel, is seen as a To the north, past the university town of
cross-island industry. Galway, we come to Sligo on the rugged
northwest coast of Donegal. But that is not the
• Capitals: Dublin is the capital city of end of our journey, because when it comes to
the Republic and Belfast is the language schools, the famous Irish border
capital of Northern Ireland. remains invisible. Already the association MEI
Ireland has one member school in the
• Population: There are just under 5 Northern Irish capital of Belfast.
million people living in the Republic, With Brexit looming, can we expect to see
which has the youngest population more schools: not just in the North, but all
in the European Union. It is still over the Emerald Isle?
growing, with more births reported The Cliffs of Mohar are a popular sight
in 2019 than deaths. Just under 2 near Galway
million people live in Northern Why MEI Ireland
Ireland. Although the population of
the island is small and is not densely The destinations listed above in our
populated, an estimated 80 million whistle-stop tour of Ireland are home to
people around the world are language centres which are members WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
descended from Irish people who of Marketing English in Ireland (MEI).
emigrated to other countries over There are many other schools in
the last 200 years. Ireland, but since the government
announced that the country’s
• Language: The main language is accreditation system was to be replaced
English, but the Irish language, a
Celtic language closely related to in 2011, it has become increasingly
Welsh and Scottish Gaelic, is a difficult for new schools to apply to be
compulsory subject in the Republic’s accredited, and a number of mostly
schools. It is also used in some parts unaccredited schools have closed.
of Northern Ireland, as is Ulster MEI, which only accepts accredited
Scots, a variant of English. The schools as members, also does due
importance given to language diligence on new members and requires
learning may be one reason why the all its schools to run police checks on
Irish are famous for English literature, both staff and host families. It also
with three Nobel Laureates from guarantees a free place at another
across the island – making it a good school in the event of the unexpected
location for learning English. closure of a member centre.

14 March 2020