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91-659: The Jack Lynch Tunnel ( Irish : Tollán Sheáin Uí Loingsigh ) is an immersed tube tunnel and an integral part of the N40 road network in Cork , Ireland. It is named after former Taoiseach , Jack Lynch , a native of Cork. It takes the road under the River Lee . North of the tunnel, the ring-road joins the M8 motorway to Dublin (north) and N8 road to the city centre (west), with

182-547: A unique dialect of Irish developed before falling out of use in the early 20th century. With a writing system , Ogham , dating back to at least the 4th century AD, which was gradually replaced by Latin script since the 5th century AD, Irish has one of the oldest vernacular literatures in Western Europe . On the island, the language has three major dialects: Connacht , Munster and Ulster Irish . All three have distinctions in their speech and orthography . There

273-717: A bargaining chip during government formation in Northern Ireland, prompting protests from organisations and groups such as An Dream Dearg . Irish became an official language of the EU on 1 January 2007, meaning that MEPs with Irish fluency can now speak the language in the European Parliament and at committees, although in the case of the latter they have to give prior notice to a simultaneous interpreter in order to ensure that what they say can be interpreted into other languages. While an official language of

364-575: A better future for Ireland and all her citizens." The Strategy was produced on 21 December 2010 and will stay in action until 2030; it aims to target language vitality and revitalization of the Irish language. The 30-page document published by the Government of Ireland details the objectives it plans to work towards in an attempt to preserve and promote both the Irish language and the Gaeltacht. It

455-471: A central bore for use in an emergency only. Pedestrians and cyclists are expressly forbidden from using the tunnel. The exclusion of cyclists has been somewhat controversial as the feeder road is a dual-carriageway and so is open to cyclists, but the by-law is applied because of space limitations and the obvious danger of cyclists in an enclosed tunnel. The idea of a crossing of the River Lee downstream of

546-478: A cultural and social force. Irish speakers often insisted on using the language in law courts (even when they knew English), and Irish was also common in commercial transactions. The language was heavily implicated in the "devotional revolution" which marked the standardisation of Catholic religious practice and was also widely used in a political context. Down to the time of the Great Famine and even afterwards,

637-553: A degree course in the NUI federal system to pass the subject of Irish in the Leaving Certificate or GCE / GCSE examinations. Exemptions are made from this requirement for students who were born or completed primary education outside of Ireland, and students diagnosed with dyslexia . NUI Galway is required to appoint people who are competent in the Irish language, as long as they are also competent in all other aspects of

728-470: A final contract decision in December 1994. As is typical on a large-scale project of this type, the chosen contractor was a joint venture of Tarmac Walls JV, formed by Tarmac Construction , now known as Carillion , and P.J. Walls (Civil) Ltd., part of Ireland's Walls Group. Subcontractors then handled many of the key tasks of construction. Construction involved the excavation of a large casting basin where

819-541: A formal finding that the project will produce public benefit. This procedure was established by the law on expropriation enacted on 7 July 1833, which extended an earlier law enacted in 1810. A number of historically important public inquiries have taken place in South Africa since the advent of full democracy in 1994. A number of which have looked into national scale events such as systematic human rights abuses during apartheid or wide scale corruption . In

910-460: A fully recognised EU language for the first time in the state's history. Before Irish became an official language it was afforded the status of treaty language and only the highest-level documents of the EU were made available in Irish. The Irish language was carried abroad in the modern period by a vast diaspora , chiefly to Great Britain and North America, but also to Australia , New Zealand and Argentina . The first large movements began in

1001-435: A government, and tend to lose credibility when they find no fault on the part of the government. In France, any major project which requires the compulsory acquisition of private property must, before being approved, be the subject of a public inquiry (usually by the prefect of the region or department in which the project will take place); the favourable outcome of such an inquiry is a déclaration d'utilité publique ,

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1092-416: A hydraulic study of the river, and carried out an environmental impact study. Ewbank Preece OhEocha, in association with Symonds Travers Morgan, produced a conceptual design and tender documents for Cork Corporation on a design and construct format based on geometric and performance specification. Thirteen parties showed interest in the contract. From these, four consortia were selected and Cork Corporation made

1183-585: A paper suggested that within a generation, non-Gaeltacht habitual users of Irish might typically be members of an urban, middle class, and highly educated minority. Parliamentary legislation is supposed to be available in both Irish and English but is frequently only available in English. This is notwithstanding that Article 25.4 of the Constitution of Ireland requires that an "official translation" of any law in one official language be provided immediately in

1274-575: A pass in Leaving Certificate Irish or English, and receive lessons in Irish during their two years of training. Official documents of the Irish government must be published in both Irish and English or Irish alone (in accordance with the Official Languages Act 2003, enforced by An Coimisinéir Teanga , the Irish language ombudsman). The National University of Ireland requires all students wishing to embark on

1365-683: A public inquiry are those that cause multiple deaths, such as public transport crashes or mass murders . In addition, in the UK, the Planning Inspectorate , an agency of the Department for Communities and Local Government , routinely holds public inquiries into a range of major and lesser land use developments, including highways and other transport proposals. Advocacy groups and opposition political parties are likely to ask for public inquiries for all manner of issues. The government of

1456-625: A religious context. An Irish translation of the Old Testament by Leinsterman Muircheartach Ó Cíonga , commissioned by Bishop Bedell , was published after 1685 along with a translation of the New Testament. Otherwise, Anglicisation was seen as synonymous with 'civilising' the native Irish. Currently, modern day Irish speakers in the church are pushing for language revival. It has been estimated that there were around 800,000 monoglot Irish speakers in 1800, which dropped to 320,000 by

1547-481: A trench is dredged in the bed of the water channel. Tunnel sections are constructed in the dry, for example in a casting basin, a fabrication yard, on a ship-lift platform or in a factory unit. The ends of the section are then temporarily sealed with bulkheads. Each tunnel section is transported to the tunnel site – usually floating, occasionally on a barge, or assisted by cranes. In the Jack Lynch Tunnel,

1638-505: A tunnel or, alternatively, necessitating the addition of a climbing lane with significant additional costs. The other alternative considered by the Steering Committee was an opening span bridge. While this solution would avoid the ramp problem of a high-level bridge, traffic would halt whenever the bridge had to open. Shipping volumes into Cork's port area was rising steadily in the 1980s, which meant that an opening span bridge

1729-434: A tunnel would have a lower construction cost relative to its utility, shorter approach gradients, lower environmental impact and no effect on shipping once built. While the construction costs for a two lane tunnel were marginally higher than for a two lane high-level bridge, the steep upward ramp for a high-level bridge would slow down cars and trucks as they climbed the bridge, thus reducing its peak capacity dramatically versus

1820-545: A wider meaning, including the Gaelic of Scotland and the Isle of Man , as well as of Ireland. When required by the context, these are distinguished as Gaeilge na hAlban , Gaeilge Mhanann and Gaeilge na hÉireann respectively. In English (including Hiberno-English ), the language is usually referred to as Irish , as well as Gaelic and Irish Gaelic . The term Irish Gaelic may be seen when English speakers discuss

1911-523: Is a member of the Goidelic language group of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous to the island of Ireland . It was the majority of the population's first language until the 19th century, when English gradually became dominant, particularly in the last decades of the century, in what is sometimes characterised as a result of linguistic imperialism . Today, Irish

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2002-452: Is also An Caighdeán Oifigiúil , a standardised written form devised by a parliamentary commission in the 1950s. The traditional Irish alphabet , a variant of the Latin alphabet with 18 letters , has been succeeded by the standard Latin alphabet (albeit with 7–8 letters used primarily in loanwords ). Irish has constitutional status as the national and first official language of

2093-511: Is divided into four separate phases with the intention of improving 9 main areas of action including: The general goal for this strategy was to increase the number of daily speakers from 83,000 to 250,000 by the end of its run. By 2022, the number of such speakers had fallen to 71,968. Before the partition of Ireland in 1921, Irish was recognised as a school subject and as "Celtic" in some third level institutions. Between 1921 and 1972, Northern Ireland had devolved government. During those years

2184-587: Is only in Gaeltacht areas that Irish continues to be spoken as a community vernacular to some extent. According to data compiled by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht , Sport and Media , only 1/4 of households in Gaeltacht areas are fluent in Irish. The author of a detailed analysis of the survey, Donncha Ó hÉallaithe of the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology , described

2275-588: Is still commonly spoken as a first language in Ireland's Gaeltacht regions, in which 2% of Ireland's population lived in 2022. The total number of people (aged 3 and over) in Ireland who declared they could speak Irish in April 2022 was 1,873,997, representing 40% of respondents, but of these, 472,887 said they never spoke it and a further 551,993 said they only spoke it within the education system. Linguistic analyses of Irish speakers are therefore based primarily on

2366-412: Is still spoken daily to some extent as a first language . These regions are known individually and collectively as the Gaeltacht (plural Gaeltachtaí ). While the fluent Irish speakers of these areas, whose numbers have been estimated at 20–30,000, are a minority of the total number of fluent Irish speakers, they represent a higher concentration of Irish speakers than other parts of the country and it

2457-666: The Fíor-Ghaeltacht (true Gaeltacht ), a term originally officially applied to areas where over 50% of the population spoke Irish. There are Gaeltacht regions in the following counties: Gweedore ( Gaoth Dobhair ), County Donegal, is the largest Gaeltacht parish in Ireland. Irish language summer colleges in the Gaeltacht are attended by tens of thousands of teenagers annually. Students live with Gaeltacht families, attend classes, participate in sports, go to céilithe and are obliged to speak Irish. All aspects of Irish culture and tradition are encouraged. The Act

2548-631: The Republic of Ireland , and is also an official language of Northern Ireland and among the official languages of the European Union . The public body Foras na Gaeilge is responsible for the promotion of the language throughout the island. Irish has no regulatory body but An Caighdeán Oifigiúil , the standard written form, is guided by a parliamentary service and new vocabulary by a voluntary committee with university input. In An Caighdeán Oifigiúil ("The Official [Written] Standard ")

2639-634: The 17th century, largely as a result of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland , which saw many Irish sent to the West Indies . Irish emigration to the United States was well established by the 18th century, and was reinforced in the 1840s by thousands fleeing from the Famine . This flight also affected Britain. Up until that time most emigrants spoke Irish as their first language, though English

2730-789: The 1998 Good Friday Agreement , the language gradually received a degree of formal recognition in Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom, and then, in 2003, by the British government's ratification in respect of the language of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . In the 2006 St Andrews Agreement the British government promised to enact legislation to promote the language and in 2022 it approved legislation to recognise Irish as an official language alongside English. The bill received royal assent on 6 December 2022. The Irish language has often been used as

2821-440: The 610-metre-long reinforced concrete immersed tube tunnel is made up of five elements, each around 122 metres long, 24.5 metres wide and 8.5 metres high. The northern approach was formed by a 120-metre-long floated open 'boat' section – the first of its kind. Dredging International was the chosen dredging contractor, and the value of the dredging contract is stated by them at €12.4 million. The scope of works consisted of dredging

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2912-403: The 6th century, used the Latin alphabet and is attested primarily in marginalia to Latin manuscripts. During this time, the Irish language absorbed some Latin words, some via Old Welsh , including ecclesiastical terms : examples are easpag (bishop) from episcopus , and Domhnach (Sunday, from dominica ). By the 10th century, Old Irish had evolved into Middle Irish , which

3003-515: The Act all detailing different aspects of the use of Irish in official documentation and communication. Included in these sections are subjects such as Irish language use in official courts, official publications, and placenames. The Act was recently amended in December 2019 in order to strengthen the already preexisting legislation. All changes made took into account data collected from online surveys and written submissions. The Official Languages Scheme

3094-471: The European Union , only co-decision regulations were available until 2022, due to a five-year derogation, requested by the Irish Government when negotiating the language's new official status. The Irish government had committed itself to train the necessary number of translators and interpreters and to bear the related costs. This derogation ultimately came to an end on 1 January 2022, making Irish

3185-549: The Irish language policy followed by Irish governments as a "complete and absolute disaster". The Irish Times , referring to his analysis published in the Irish language newspaper Foinse , quoted him as follows: "It is an absolute indictment of successive Irish Governments that at the foundation of the Irish State there were 250,000 fluent Irish speakers living in Irish-speaking or semi Irish-speaking areas, but

3276-490: The Jack Lynch Tunnel is also an inner city relief route but is not tolled). 51°54′00″N 8°23′31″W  /  51.899887°N 8.392017°W  / 51.899887; -8.392017 Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish : Gaeilge ), also known as Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( / ˈ ɡ eɪ l ɪ k / GAY -lik ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family . It

3367-673: The Minister approved a Bridge Order for a four lane immersed tube tunnel. In the intervening time, the Irish government had also established the National Roads Authority (NRA) to advance the long-term development of the national roads network. Declan O'Driscoll was appointed the Chief Engineer of that authority and together with J.D. Shinkwin, Director of Ewbank Preece OhEocha, and W.A. Fitzgerald, Cork City Engineer, formed an informal Technical Steering Committee for

3458-719: The N25 commencing east to Waterford . The tunnel was completed in May 1999, and carried nearly 40,000 vehicles per day as of 2005. This number rose further as the N40 ring-road's upgrades progressed, with the opening of the Kinsale road roundabout flyover in 2006 and subsequent upgrades to the Sarsfield Road and Bandon Road Roundabouts. Traffic in 2016 was approximately 63,000 vehicles a day up from 59,000 in 2013. The tunnel has two cells, each with two traffic lanes and two footpaths, and

3549-620: The Republic of Ireland ), new appointees to the Civil Service of the Republic of Ireland , including postal workers , tax collectors , agricultural inspectors, Garda Síochána (police), etc., were required to have some proficiency in Irish. By law, a Garda who was addressed in Irish had to respond in Irish as well. In 1974, in part through the actions of protest organisations like the Language Freedom Movement ,

3640-491: The River Lee downstream from the city centre. A team led by J.D. Shinkwin, Director of DeLeuw Chadwick O’hEocha, performed the study. The first stage of the report established that the crossing should be located in Dunkettle , rather than at Tivoli , closer to the city centre. The second stage endorsed an immersed tube tunnel as the preferred scheme versus a bridge (either fixed or opening span). The primary reasons were that

3731-694: The Technical Steering Committee for the LUTS Plan and at that time consisted of Sean McCarthy, the former City Engineer, W.A. "Liam" Fitzgerald, his successor as City Engineer, Liam Mullins, Cork's County Engineer, John O'Regan, his deputy, B.J. O'Sullivan, the Cork Harbour Engineer, and Sean Walsh and Declan O'Driscoll, the two Assistant Chief Engineering Advisers at the Department of the Environment responsible for

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3822-608: The Tunnel Project. The IR£70 million design and construct contract was awarded by the Cork Corporation on behalf of the National Roads Authority . The NRA received financial assistance from the Cohesion Fund of the European Union. In the early 90s, Ewbank Preece OhEocha (formerly DeLeuw Chadwick OhEocha, and later to become part of Mott MacDonald) supervised a major geotechnical investigation, conducted

3913-551: The United Kingdom, the term public inquiry, also known as a tribunal of inquiry, refers to either statutory or non-statutory inquiries that have been established either previously by the monarch or by government ministers of the United Kingdom , Scottish , Northern Irish and Welsh governments to investigate either specific, controversial events or policy proposals. Non-statutory public inquiries are often used in order to investigate controversial events of national concern,

4004-876: The advantage being that they are more flexible than the statutory inquiry as they do not need to follow the requirements of the Inquiries Act 2005 , The Inquiry Rules 2006 (UK, excluding Scotland) and The Inquiries (Scotland) Rules 2007. Statutory inquiries can be held as subject-specific public inquiries, however most are now held under the Inquiries Act 2005 which repealed the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act 1921 . Statutory public inquiries, unlike non-statutory inquiries, have legal powers to compel witnesses. This list excludes Public Local Inquiries (which encompasses Planning Inquiries, Compulsory Purchase Order Inquiries, Listed Building Inquiries etc.) In Hong Kong,

4095-746: The beginning of the following academic year. For a number of years there has been vigorous debate in political, academic and other circles about the failure of most students in English-medium schools to achieve competence in Irish, even after fourteen years of teaching as one of the three main subjects. The concomitant decline in the number of traditional native speakers has also been a cause of great concern. In 2007, filmmaker Manchán Magan found few Irish speakers in Dublin , and faced incredulity when trying to get by speaking only Irish in Dublin. He

4186-401: The central bore (pedestrian exit), the exit doors are at each end of the central bore. Pumping equipment, located inside the tunnel, pumps any run off water into the River Lee. Jet fans also located within niches in the roof of the immersed tube sections provide longitudinal ventilation, and the tunnel is equipped with fire and life safety equipment. The maximum height of vehicles that can use

4277-422: The city centre came from civil engineers employed by Cork Local Authorities and the central government's Department of the Environment in the late 1970s. Cork's suburbs were expanding and traffic was rising as car ownership increased, but the city centre's street plan, laid out in the late Middle Ages , was ill-equipped to cope. The engineers reasoned that the congestion in the city centre and its radial routes

4368-416: The cost of its construction and operation the tunnel is not tolled . The Feasibility Study for the tunnel envisaged that the crossing could have a toll of 30 pence (in 1981 IR£) (approximately €1.07 in 2020), but the concept of a toll was dropped after political opposition. It was felt that, because of the proximity of the tunnel to the city, the imposition of tolls would tend to encourage some drivers to avoid

4459-446: The day typically only accedes to a fraction of these requests. The political decision whether to appoint a public inquiry into an event was found to be dependent on several factors. The first is the extent of media coverage of the event; those that receive more media interest are more likely to be inquired. Second, since the appointment of a public inquiry is typically made by government ministers, events that involve allegations of blame on

4550-474: The end of the famine, and under 17,000 by 1911. Irish is recognised by the Constitution of Ireland as the national and first official language of Republic of Ireland (English being the other official language). Despite this, almost all government business and legislative debate is conducted in English. In 1938, the founder of Conradh na Gaeilge (Gaelic League), Douglas Hyde , was inaugurated as

4641-560: The first President of Ireland . The record of his delivering his inaugural Declaration of Office in Roscommon Irish is one of only a few recordings of that dialect. In the 2016 census, 10.5% of respondents stated that they spoke Irish, either daily or weekly, while over 70,000 people (4.2%) speak it as a habitual daily means of communication. From the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922 (see History of

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4732-491: The government recommended a further feasibility study to consider the need for a crossing and the technical, economic and operational aspects of the various crossing options. The study confirmed the findings of the original Feasibility Study . A further Public Inquiry was held, with hearings in July and December 1990, which considered further the alternative of a four lane crossing rather than the planned two lane crossing. In 1992,

4823-716: The language family, is derived from the Old Irish term. Endonyms of the language in the various modern Irish dialects include: Gaeilge [ˈɡeːlʲɟə] in Galway, Gaeilg / Gaeilic / Gaeilig [ˈɡeːlʲəc] in Mayo and Ulster , Gaelainn / Gaoluinn [ˈɡeːl̪ˠən̠ʲ] in West/Cork, Kerry Munster , as well as Gaedhealaing in mid and East Kerry/Cork and Waterford Munster to reflect local pronunciation. Gaeilge also has

4914-410: The language was in use by all classes, Irish being an urban as well as a rural language. This linguistic dynamism was reflected in the efforts of certain public intellectuals to counter the decline of the language. At the end of the 19th century, they launched the Gaelic revival in an attempt to encourage the learning and use of Irish, although few adult learners mastered the language. The vehicle of

5005-476: The language. For most of recorded Irish history , Irish was the dominant language of the Irish people , who took it with them to other regions , such as Scotland and the Isle of Man , where Middle Irish gave rise to Scottish Gaelic and Manx . It was also, for a period, spoken widely across Canada , with an estimated 200,000–250,000 daily Canadian speakers of Irish in 1890. On the island of Newfoundland ,

5096-485: The main trench for the Lee Tunnel was excavated by the backhoe dredger "Zenne". Two barges were used to transport the dredged material 19 km (12 mi) downriver and from there to a disposal site four miles offshore. The cutter dredger "Vlaanderen XIX" removed the underlying fluvioglacial material. A second cutter dredger, "Vlaanderen XV", was deployed to breach the casting basin perimeter, or "bund". A rock layer

5187-470: The main tunnel trench and subsequently backfilling the completed construction with sand and gravel. The contract provided also for restoration of the riverbed profile and the addition of a rock protection layer. Between May 1996 and March 1999, the company excavated 785,000 tonnes of silt and alluvium and 300,000 tonnes of sand and gravel. The trench was dredged primarily by a series of specialised vessels, in several stages and with different equipment. Much of

5278-582: The mid-18th century, English was becoming a language of the Catholic middle class, the Catholic Church and public intellectuals, especially in the east of the country. Increasingly, as the value of English became apparent, parents sanctioned the prohibition of Irish in schools. Increasing interest in emigrating to the United States and Canada was also a driver, as fluency in English allowed

5369-804: The name of the language is Gaeilge , from the South Connacht form, spelled Gaedhilge prior the spelling reform of 1948, which was originally the genitive of Gaedhealg , the form used in Classical Gaelic . The modern spelling results from the deletion of the silent ⟨dh⟩ in Gaedhilge . Older spellings include Gaoidhealg [ˈɡeːʝəlˠəɡ] in Classical Gaelic and Goídelc [ˈɡoiðʲelɡ] in Old Irish . Goidelic , used to refer to

5460-469: The new immigrants to get jobs in areas other than farming. An estimated one quarter to one third of US immigrants during the Great Famine were Irish speakers. Irish was not marginal to Ireland's modernisation in the 19th century, as is often assumed. In the first half of the century there were still around three million people for whom Irish was the primary language, and their numbers alone made them

5551-655: The number now is between 20,000 and 30,000." In the 1920s, when the Irish Free State was founded, Irish was still a vernacular in some western coastal areas. In the 1930s, areas where more than 25% of the population spoke Irish were classified as Gaeltacht . Today, the strongest Gaeltacht areas, numerically and socially, are those of South Connemara , the west of the Dingle Peninsula , and northwest Donegal, where many residents still use Irish as their primary language. These areas are often referred to as

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5642-570: The number of daily users in Ireland outside the education system, which in 2022 was 20,261 in the Gaeltacht and 51,707 outside it, totalling 71,968. In response to the 2021 census of Northern Ireland , 43,557 individuals stated they spoke Irish on a daily basis, 26,286 spoke it on a weekly basis, 47,153 spoke it less often than weekly, and 9,758 said they could speak Irish, but never spoke it. From 2006 to 2008, over 22,000 Irish Americans reported speaking Irish as their first language at home, with several times that number claiming "some knowledge" of

5733-448: The other official language, if not already passed in both official languages. In November 2016, RTÉ reported that over 2.3 million people worldwide were learning Irish through the Duolingo app. Irish president Michael D. Higgins officially honoured several volunteer translators for developing the Irish edition, and said the push for Irish language rights remains an "unfinished project". There are rural areas of Ireland where Irish

5824-521: The other used for bi-directional traffic. The environment within the tunnel is controlled by a closed circuit TV system (CCTV), traffic control and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. External photometers linked to the SCADA system provide a level of tunnel lighting most compatible with ambient light levels outside. To assist drivers in adjusting their eyes, lighting gradually brightens as they approach an exit. There are six emergency exits in each traffic bore for pedestrians that lead into

5915-488: The part of the relevant minister are less likely to be investigated by a public inquiry. Third, a public inquiry generally takes longer to report and costs more on account of its public nature. When a government refuses a public inquiry on some topic, it is usually on at least one of these grounds. The conclusions of the inquiry are delivered in the form of a written report, given first to the government, and soon after made public. Reports usually make recommendations to improve

6006-415: The political party holding power in the Stormont Parliament , the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), was hostile to the language. The context of this hostility was the use of the language by nationalists. In broadcasting, there was an exclusion on the reporting of minority cultural issues, and Irish was excluded from radio and television for almost the first fifty years of the previous devolved government. After

6097-444: The quality of government or management of public organisations in the future. A 2016 study found that the reports of public inquiries are not effective in changing public opinion regarding the event in question. Empirical studies do not find support for the claim that appointing a public inquiry leads to a decline in media attention to the inquired issue. Public inquiry reports appear to enjoy public trust only when they are critical of

6188-414: The region. The location and type of crossing was not established by the LUTS plan. No road development in Ireland prior to that date had required such a large investment, and therefore the plan met with some opposition on the grounds of cost. In 1980, Cork Corporation commissioned DeLeuw Chadwick O’hEocha, engineering consultants, to undertake a feasibility study of options for a major highway crossing of

6279-436: The relationship between the three Goidelic languages (Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx). Gaelic is a collective term for the Goidelic languages, and when the context is clear it may be used without qualification to refer to each language individually. When the context is specific but unclear, the term may be qualified, as Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic or Manx Gaelic. Historically the name "Erse" ( / ɜːr s / URS )

6370-432: The requirement for entrance to the public service was changed to proficiency in just one official language. Nevertheless, Irish remains a required subject of study in all schools in the Republic of Ireland that receive public money (see Education in the Republic of Ireland ). Teachers in primary schools must also pass a compulsory examination called Scrúdú Cáilíochta sa Ghaeilge . As of 2005, Garda Síochána recruits need

6461-452: The revival was the Gaelic League ( Conradh na Gaeilge ), and particular emphasis was placed on the folk tradition, which in Irish is particularly rich. Efforts were also made to develop journalism and a modern literature. Although it has been noted that the Catholic Church played a role in the decline of the Irish language before the Gaelic Revival, the Protestant Church of Ireland also made only minor efforts to encourage use of Irish in

6552-414: The river crossing. Each box section comprised two 9.8-metre-wide dual lane traffic tubes and a 1.35-metre-wide twin walled central tube for services and emergency access. The 1.2-metre-thick base slab was cast first, followed by the 50-centimetre-thick central walls. The outer walls and roof were cast together in a single operation, in six nominal 20-metre lengths, using special travelling formwork . This

6643-469: The tunnel and continue using the city centre streets thus minimising the benefits of the tunnel. An immersed tube tunnel of similar length has been constructed in Limerick, as part of Limerick's south ring road. The Limerick Tunnel was constructed under a Public-Private Partnership scheme signed with Direct Route (Limerick) Ltd. and is tolled (and has resulted in some political opposition in Limerick as

6734-417: The tunnel elements or pieces were constructed. After construction of elements was complete, the casting basin was filled with water and joined to the adjacent River Lee , each element was floated out and sunk into position into a carefully dredged river bed. The road surface was laid and the tunnel opened for traffic in 1999. The chosen method of construction was the immersed tube technique. In this method,

6825-405: The tunnel is 4.65 meters. Signage is displayed on the approaches and entrances to the tunnel warning users of the height restriction. Over-height vehicle detection systems are positioned on the approach roads to detect over-height vehicles. When an over-height vehicle is detected, Variable Message Signs (VMS) at the tunnel entrance change to warn the driver that their vehicle is over-height. Despite

6916-423: The tunnel structure required the pre-casting of 5 tunnel segments and an open boat unit. These were constructed in a casting basin located partially on the line of the tunnel south of the river at Mahon . Each segment weighed approx 27,000 tonnes. Contractors Tarmac Walls JV engaged RMD Kwikform, a global construction formwork and shoring solutions company, for the formwork on the tunnel and open section elements of

7007-726: The vacancy to which they are appointed. This requirement is laid down by the University College Galway Act, 1929 (Section 3). In 2016, the university faced controversy when it announced the planned appointment of a president who did not speak Irish. Misneach staged protests against this decision. The following year the university announced that Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh , a fluent Irish speaker, would be its 13th president. He assumed office in January 2018; in June 2024, he announced he would be stepping down as president at

7098-594: The work of such writers as Geoffrey Keating , is said to date from the 17th century, and was the medium of popular literature from that time on. From the 18th century on, the language lost ground in the east of the country. The reasons behind this shift were complex but came down to a number of factors: The change was characterised by diglossia (two languages being used by the same community in different social and economic situations) and transitional bilingualism (monoglot Irish-speaking grandparents with bilingual children and monoglot English-speaking grandchildren). By

7189-531: Was also sometimes used in Scots and then in English to refer to Irish; as well as Scottish Gaelic. Written Irish is first attested in Ogham inscriptions from the 4th century AD, a stage of the language known as Primitive Irish . These writings have been found throughout Ireland and the west coast of Great Britain. Primitive Irish underwent a change into Old Irish through the 5th century. Old Irish, dating from

7280-458: Was becoming less attractive every year. A sworn Public Inquiry into Cork Corporation's application for a "bridge order" providing for a two-lane tunnel was held in October 1985. The required inspector's report was submitted in January 1987 to the then Minister of the Environment, Pádraig Flynn . At that point, the report remained on the minister's desk for some time. The formal reason for this

7371-504: Was cast in two operations using standard formwork. The boat unit and all the tunnel section elements were cast using grade 40N concrete with a percentage of ggbfs cement replacement, reinforcement being high strength and 16 to 40 mm diameter. The tunnel is currently operated and maintained by Egis Road and Tunnel Operation on behalf of Transport Infrastructure Ireland . Egis took on that role in 2015. Prior to that it had been operated and maintained by Cork City Council. The road surface

7462-668: Was enacted 1 July 2019 and is an 18-page document that adheres to the guidelines of the Official Languages Act 2003 . The purpose of the Scheme is to provide services through the mediums of Irish and/or English. According to the Department of the Taoiseach, it is meant to "develop a sustainable economy and a successful society, to pursue Ireland's interests abroad, to implement the Government's Programme and to build

7553-416: Was encountered on part of the trench line, which was dealt with by the jack-up platform "Zeebouwer". The "Big Boss" vessel was employed to remove the rock. This backhoe dredger was equipped with a "Backhoover" (in effect, a "mini" precision dredger). This system proved extremely effective in removing very thin layers of recently deposited material immediately prior to immersion of the tunnel elements. Building

7644-507: Was establishing itself as the primary language. Irish speakers had first arrived in Australia in the late 18th century as convicts and soldiers, and many Irish-speaking settlers followed, particularly in the 1860s. New Zealand also received some of this influx. Argentina was the only non-English-speaking country to receive large numbers of Irish emigrants, and there were few Irish speakers among them. Public Inquiry Typical events for

7735-487: Was laid in 1998/1999 and the tunnel opened for traffic on 21 May 1999, roughly 20 years after the first formal studies had been prepared. The final cost of the whole scheme including feeder roads and not just the tunnel itself was IR£105 million (approx €133 million). The tunnel has two separate two-lane bores (each lane 3.75 m wide). There is a service walkway about 1 metre across which doubles as an emergency escape route. During periods of maintenance, one tube may be closed and

7826-474: Was passed 14 July 2003 with the main purpose of improving the number and quality of public services delivered in Irish by the government and other public bodies. Compliance with the Act is monitored by the An Coimisinéir Teanga (Irish Language Commissioner) which was established in 2004 and any complaints or concerns pertaining to the Act are brought to them. There are 35 sections included in

7917-422: Was quickly reaching intolerable levels. They pushed through Cork's "LUTS" – Land Use and Transportation Study – plan, to lay down a twenty five-year plan for the orderly growth of transport and land use in the greater Cork area. The transportation proposals combined construction of elements of a ring road, a downstream crossing, and computerised management of traffic on existing roads. This group of engineers became

8008-693: Was spoken throughout Ireland, Isle of Man and parts of Scotland . It is the language of a large corpus of literature, including the Ulster Cycle . From the 12th century, Middle Irish began to evolve into modern Irish in Ireland, into Scottish Gaelic in Scotland, and into the Manx language in the Isle of Man . Early Modern Irish , dating from the 13th century, was the basis of the literary language of both Ireland and Gaelic-speaking Scotland. Modern Irish, sometimes called Late Modern Irish, as attested in

8099-651: Was struck inside the formed section, moved along to the next length and then jacked up into position, each within a 72-hour cycle. Each 1000-cubic-metre pour required approximately 1500 square metres of formwork. The inside shutters for the outer walls were vertical steel section panels and Alform Beam walers, which were attached to the top slab of the special steel traveller, while the outer shutters were crane handled vertical steel section panels with Alform Beam or steel channel walers. The open top boat unit, measuring approx 40 metres wide (including two 7.2-metre wings at its widest point), 120 metres long, and up to 10 metres high,

8190-408: Was that the minister "decided that the question of the timing of the crossing should be considered in the broader context of the preparation by the Department of proposals for the medium to long term development of national roads. In this context the operational programme for roads … includes the proposal for the commencement of the downstream crossing during the programme period 1989–1993". In 1989,

8281-442: Was unable to accomplish some everyday tasks, as portrayed in his documentary No Béarla . There is, however, a growing body of Irish speakers in urban areas, particularly in Dublin. Many have been educated in schools in which Irish is the language of instruction. Such schools are known as Gaelscoileanna at primary level. These Irish-medium schools report some better outcomes for students than English-medium schools. In 2009,

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