Reviving the Irish language Most of the founding fathers aimed to create an Independent Ireland which would be,

in the words of Padraig Pearse, not free merely, but Gaelic as well. Reviving the Irish language was one of the first things tackled by the new Free State government. An extensive and expensive programme of training primary teachers in Irish began. The Department of Education set up preparatory colleges where Irish was the school language. Students from these schools got priority in admissions to teacher training colleges. All infant classes had to be taught through Irish and the language was to be used extensively in higher classes. The teaching of other subjects like drawing, nature study, elementary science and domestic subjects had to give way to Irish. In secondary schools Irish became compulsory in 1928 and from 1934 students had to pass Irish in order to pass the Certificate examinations. This was already a necessary requirement for admission to the National University. Extra grants were given to schools where all teaching was through Irish, and, in examinations, extra marks were given to those who answered through that language. These measures were continued and intensified under Fianna Fil which, in the 1937 Constitution, made Irish the first official language of the state. The revival policy did achieve some results. By the 1940s the number of primary teachers qualified to teach through Irish had risen from 10 per cent in 1922 to over 70 per cent and 10 per cent of primary schools used only Irish in class. At secondary level nearly 64 per cent of secondary students studied other subjects through Irish.