Grinds in Junior certificate 

Grinds in English at Higher Level  

Regarding the two poems, Kerr’s Ass ─ by Patrick Kavanagh and The Lake Isle of Innisfree ─ by W.B. Yeats: which poem best represents the feelings of an exile?

                     At the outset, I wish to state that I intend to deal with this matter as relating to exiles from Ireland ─ as it was as such that both poets were writing.
                     In Kavanagh’s poem, the ass is in exile and will have no choice as to how he is to be used   So he is to be harnessed for his labour and will not be free.  The imagery of the harshness of his harness shows that his comforts are not to be considered.
                     This poet, as a poor Irishman in London can relate to the ass as a symbol of the  contemporary English  stereotype  of  a “Paddy”.   In addition to this he  also feels exiled from his  natural source of poetic themes: for his Muse dwells in the bogs and fields of rural Ireland and speaks to him through the fog of ordinary country dialogue and daily farming chores.   Thus it is no wonder that even  a theme on an ass can inspire his imagination.   Yet the Irish intelligentsia has heralded Yeats’ poem as the anthem of the common Irish exile because it is more ornate and elevated in language and imagery, and considered to be more elegant in its source of theme.  This is an island of dreams; a land of honeybees and birdsong and peace and starlight; and the poet is alone in his glorious isolation.
                     However, there is a greater integrity in Kavanagh’s overall theme:  He yearns for his Muse in the fog of a Mucker bog: a thing that he has always known.  Yeats yearns for a nirvana: an Eden that he has never known and that probably doesn’t  even exist.   Kavanagh wishes to return to the rural life of his native Monaghan.  Yeats wishes to escape from reality: he is a hippie before his time ─ a free-spirited fantasist and a beautiful dreamer; but his vision of returning to Ireland is less representative of the dreams of the ordinary Irish exile than that of Kavanagh.

                    The Irish exiles only wanted to return to their own!

Grinds in  Irish -- An Teastas Soisearach caighdeán ard leibhéil

Students of Irish who have not grown up speaking the language, or who have not attended a

“Gaelscoil” experience the following problems:

• They do not properly understand the question
• They write bad or faulty grammar
• They have a limited vocabulary
• They repeat themselves in order to stretch out an answer because the teacher says that they must produce a certain quantity.
• They do not organise  paragraphs; instead, they write a long undivided  script
• They scribble out mistakes – producing untidy work

The following essay is a guide to good Composition Writing

An Aiste 

SPÓRT

          Tá spórt tábhachtach  dúinn go léir.  Is caitheamh aimsire sláintiúil é. Is siamsa iontach é. Is traenáil oiriúnach don saol é.  Is gnó éfreisin do chuid mhaith daoine. . Murach an spórt bheadh an saol seo gruama.  In ainneoin sin tá aithne agam ar chuid chairde nach mbaineann taitneamh dá laghad as spórt; is trua liom iad siúd, mar is cosaint é  an spórt in aghaidh an uaignis.
         Is é mo thuairim nach bhfuil aon rud níos fearr faoi choinne na sláinte ná a bheith ag imirt cluichí, nó ag glacadh páirt I gcomórtas fisiciúla ar bith.    Gan chleachtadh coirp cuireann daoine meáchan suas agus tá sin crua ar an gcroí.    De ghnáth maireann daoine a imríonn sport níos faide ná daoine nach nglacann taithí coirp.
          Feictear dom nach bhfuil siamsa ar bith níos fearr ná a bheith ag féachaint ar chomórtas spóirt.   Beidh  na cluichí Oilimpeacha ar siúl sul I bhfad agus beidh na milliúin ag féachaint orthu ar fud na cruinne. I gcuideachta sin beidh craobhacha na hÉIreann san iománaíocht agus sa pheil ag dul ar aghaidh mar is gnáth le linn an t-Samhraidh; agus beidh foireann sacair na héireann páirteach I gcomórtas coirn na hEorpa le linn na míosa seo. 
          Foghlaimíonn daoine  a imríonn spórt nach  féidir leo bua í gcónaí.  Buann tú uaireanta agus caileann tú uaireanta eile.  Tá sé mar an gcéanna sa saol is atá sé sa spórt; agus tá an duine a éiríonn tar éis titim chomh mór leis an duine nár leagadh riamh.
          Ar ndóigh is gnó é an spórt freisin:  mar imríonn a lán daoine spóirt, ní amháin ar son cáile, ach ar son airgid. Dá dtiocfadh liom maireachtáil  de réir mo thola bhéinn I mo réalta spóirt cosúil leo lá éigin.   Ní  bheadh mo lámha salach arís go deo dá n-éireodh liom an beart sin a chur I gcríoch.