Managing the decline better

[Gràisg]

Tha dà artagail sa Chourier Inbhir Nis an diugh.
'Push gets under way for Gaelic secondary school'
Agus fear nas motha, 'Teacher shortage a major problem.'
Chan eil iad air loidhne fhathast, cuiridh mi ceangal an àirde ma nochdas iad air an làrach aca. Co-dhiù seo rudeigin a chuir iognadh orm, dhomhsa 'se dòigh caran neònach a bhith meòmhrachadh chùisean'

'He also admitted the aim for a new generation of Gaelic speakers was not yet fulfilled because focus has been set on protecting the language from dying out.
"We haven't essentially cracked the issue of increasing the numbers because essentially what we have been doing is managing the decline better," he added.

Strange words, or is it just me? The authorites have been managing the decline very well for hundreds of years now?

[Seonaidh]

Och, sgudal a Ghràisg! There have been times when the ùghdarrasan have been promoting the decline, e.g. by trying to ban Gaelic in schools etc., but they can hardly be said ever to have been "managing" the decline (does that unholy mash of tenses actually make sense?): largely, I think that's been a combination of extending sheep-farming and grouse-moors and, more recently, general lack of employment and affordable housing. "Does dim gobaith mwy i gael aros yn y plwy - rhaid gadael y fro, is-ddiwylliant ar ffo" ("Pry yn y Pren", by 12:45) - meaning "Chan eil dòchas nas motha airson fuireach san sgìre fhaighinn - feumar a' cheàrn fhàgail, fo-chultar air teicheadh"

However, to mis-quote Winston Churchill, "To manage the decline of Gaelic is a concept up with which I will not put". Let's get cracking!

[Gràisg]

manage - oversee, administer, direct, that sort of thing? Please help me iwth my chuid beurla, it's going as an uinneig!
'Obscenity who really cares, propoganda all is phoney.'

[Seonaidh]

Oh dear - get those stràcan working! When I saw "It's going as an uinneig", I only realised there was Gaelic in it when I got to "uinneig"...

I've heard that the best place for Irish is currently Beal Feirsde, which one might consider a little odd, as it's in the one part of Ireland where there have been no significant moves to promote Gaelic (well, certainly not official ones). One is left wondering, perhaps, whether Gaelic in Scotland might do better if it was ignored by officialdom. Not my view at all, but a bheil beachd aig neach air sin?