Ring, County Waterford
Template:Infobox Place Ireland Ring (Irish: An Rinn, Rinn Ó gCuanach or Rinn Ua gCuanach) is a Gaeltacht region on a peninsula in the western half of County Waterford, Ireland, approximately seven miles south of Dungarvan town.
Ring has many town lands but the main village is situated in Baile na nGall. It is a rapidly growing area that contains three schools, 2 primary schools (including the Coláiste na Rinne boarding Gaelscoil) , 1 secondary , a restaurant, five pubs, a post office and a chain food shop. It also has two fishing piers/harbours (Baile na nGall and Helvick), two beaches (Connigar - Irish: Coinigéar and Baile na nGall) and a cove in Helvick.
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View South over the Peninsula
Boarding school
Coláiste na Rinne is a boarding Gaelscoil (or Irish College)[1] in Ring. It is a popular destination for teenagers taking summer school courses in Irish. During term time it accommodates sixth class and some seventh class students. (Seventh class is a non-compulsory year between sixth class of Primary school and First Year of Secondary School. Very few primary schools in Ireland offer a seventh class.) As Coláiste na Rinne is a Primary boarding school many students go on to secondary level boarding schools from here.
Many of the visiting students are accommodated by local families, many of whom only speak Irish at home. As such it is seen as a good way to improve the visitors' quality of spoken Irish.
Name
The official name of the area is An Rinn (Pronounced: "On Rine"), however the colloquial name in English for the area is Ring. Both An Rinn and Ring were present on the local road-signs until 2005, where the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív changed policy, resulting in the English language version being removed from sign-posts. Due to the similarity of the Irish and English names - the impact was minimal.
Irish Language
The Irish language plays an important role in the area, and also to people within the region enabling them to immerse in the Irish language, which is pivotal for improving their linguistic abilities. However in recent times, English has seen widespread use in the area. The strongest age-group of Irish speakers is the 10-14 age category, of which 50.8% use the language on a daily basis outside of educational institutions. However, only 30% of the population on average uses the Irish language on a daily basis. [2]