Paul Mescal talking Irish on a red carpet shows why the way we teach it here is "a failed experiment."
That's according to Brenda Power, Columnist with The Sunday Times, who said she believes the way it is taught has to change for people to use it.
The Oscar-nominated actor spoke as Gaeilge in London at the BAFTAs earlier this month.
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Ms Power told Newstalk Breakfast the red carpet conversation shows the way Irish is taught hasn't worked.
"Take Paul Mescal as a classic example - there's a young lad, not long out of his Leaving Cert I would say," she said.
"Three sentences in of kind of 'Tá Mamaí sa chistin, is maith liom cáca milis'-level Irish, he is out of his comfort zone.
"Is that not the proof you need that forcing Irish down children's necks from the age of four, in the way it's taught, has failed.
"I couldn't have spoken as many sentences as he has.
"You don't learn a language by being handed a picture book at the age of four - you learn it by immersion".
'Post-traumatic stress'
Brenda said the way it is currently being taught is "doing the language an awful disservice."
"Certainly, people of my generation ended up really disliking it and really feeling almost post-traumatic stress when you were ever faced with an Irish speaker again," she said.
"We're all going, 'Isn't Paul Mescal amazing - he managed four sentences of Irish?'
"Can you imagine a French person being applauded for being able to speak French?
"The way to go is to incentivise it with maybe extra Leaving Cert points, in the way we do Higher Level Maths.
"Anything that is done out of compulsion is never actually going to be done out of love," she added.
'The system does work'
Julian de Spáinn, General-Secretary of Conradh Na Gaeilge, said removing the compulsory element could cause problems.
"We've always said that Irish should be a core Leaving Cert subject," he said.
"If you were to change that it would be very difficult for students in the future actually to do Irish.
"So, for example, in an Irish school, if someone wanted to do medicine, they may have to choose between Biology and Irish in the future".
The language of Gaeilge written on a blackboard. Picture by: Happy Stock Photo / Alamy Stock PhotoHe denies that teaching the language has failed, but admits changes are needed.
"I think it actually has worked, but it's not working the way it should work," he said.
"If you look in the North of Ireland, where they don't have Irish in the educational system, only about 7% of those in the North would say they have some level of Irish - whereas in the South, it's more than 40%.
"What Paul showed us is the system does actually work - but if you don't use any language, if you're not using it on a constant basis, you will find it difficult to use that language.
"The idea of the immersion approach is very central to what we should be doing into the future.
"What that means [is], if we're going to have immersion, then we need more Gaelscoil - and that is where there is a huge problem at the moment".
'Focusing on skills'
Mr De Spáinn said the language should sit with others across Europe.
"The focus should be on oral Irish," he said.
"What we should be doing is not looking at the idea of Irish as a core Leaving Cert subject, we should be... changing the system from pre-school, the whole way up to third-level.
"We should align it with the European Common Framework for Reference of Language - which basically would mean we [were] focusing on the skills," he added.
Listen back to the full segment below:
