"Not to Learn Irish is to miss the opportunity of understanding what life in this country has meant and could mean in a better future. It is to cut oneself off from ways of being at home. If we regard self-understanding, mutual understanding, imaginative enhancement, cultural diversity and a tolerant political atmosphereas a desirable attainments, we should remember that a knowledge of the Irish language is an essential element in their realisation."

You may also like:

• 

  Derek Mahon
  Poet

• 

  Michael Longley
  Poet

• 

  Patrick Kavanagh
  Poet

• 

  Paul Muldoon
  Poet

• 

  Samuel Beckett
  Novelist

• 

  T. S. Eliot
  Playwright

• 

  Ted Hughes
  Poet

• 

  William Butler Yeats
  Poet

• 

  William Wordsworth
  Poet