Irish language EU website welcomed by Anderson
December 20, 2013
Sinn Féin MEP Martina Anderson has welcomed the inclusion of Irish in the European Union elections website which was launched this week.
It is the first time Irish has been used on official European Union websites.
Irish is an official language of the European Union but until now it was not reflected in the organisation’s websites.
Ms Anderson has been campaigning for the inclusion of Irish in all official EU websites since she was co-opted onto the parliament.
“Since taking up the role of MEP I have lobbied the Commission to have Gaeilge, as one of the official languages of the EU, given equal recognition with all other official languages,” she said.
The MEP also said she hoped creation of an election website in Irish would lead to an official EU website in Irish to provide information for Irish speakers.
“The inclusion of Gaeilge on the EU Elections website is a first and I welcome it and hope that this is an indication that our native language will finally be given equal status in the working life of the EU Institutions alongside all others,” she added.
Irish became an official language of the European Union in 2007 following a long campaign by Irish language activists. The Stádas campaign had the support of a number of political parties and Irish language organisations.
Before that Irish only had treaty status, which meant that EU treaties were available in Irish. The move meant that all EU business can be conducted through Irish and MEPS can address the chamber in Irish.
www.derryjournal.com
Foilsithe ar Gaelport.com 19 Nollaig 2013
Derry Journal
Cruinniú ar son chearta teanga
December 20, 2013
Dea-scéal an Taoisigh caillte ar Ghaeil na tíre
December 18, 2013
Irish language efforts hard to sustain
December 18, 2013
Re Barry Walsh’s recent letter about the Irish language: many voluntary groups are working tirelessly to keep the cúpla focal bouyant, in a slowly ‘sinking’ ship, but are aware of how little funding is available ó Rialtas na hÉireann when they try to get a worthwhile project off the ground.
I refer to those of us grassroot promoters, and indeed Conradh na Gaeilge teams, who are also handicapped in affording us any form of reasonable funding. I think that our Gaeilge at home has lost ground as our native tongue since it be-came a recognised EU language.
Who could contradict me when we cannot provide finance to produce a 10-page weekly nuachtán, Foinse, for countrywide distribution to help us with material for our Ciorcal Chómhrá, or to read nuacht na seachtaine as Gaeilge?
I try ,without success to get nuachtan Gaeilge na Mumhan circulating, but alas it’s too costly. I am appalled at the revelation that such a vast amount of European taxpayers’ money is being spent on celebrating Gaeilge as an official EU language, while we see Ireland’s Gaeilge funding so diminished and almost as láthair.
Eilis Uí Bhriain
Caisleán Uí Liatháin
Co Chorcaí
www.irishexaminer.com
Will unofficial policy silence Irish forever?
December 17, 2013
The resignation of An Coimisinéir Teanga, Seán Ó Cuirreáin, adds to the growing suspicion that there is now an undeclared policy in operation to do away with what’s left of Irish in the public life of our country.
As someone who spent 30 years in the civil service,I know the deep dislike of Irish that is common among top civil servants. The days of Leon Ó Broin, TK Whitaker and Noel Dorr are long-passed. Our top officials will not openly express their dislike of Irish. Their tactic is to demean the language by ignoring it and marginalising those few who promote it. There was unanimous cross-party support for the Official Languages Act when it was going through the Dáil — proof that the legislation was positive sentiment about the Irish language and wouldn’t mean much in practice. Despite its limited scope, the Act conferred rights in legislative form for the first time. It provided cover for Irish speakers in pursuing their linguistic rights. But in the eyes of the mandarins, this was exactly what made it ‘a crank’s charter’ — to use a phrase popular in their circles at the time.
Without the active support of top management, the new legislation was doomedfrom the start. But what started as passive inaction in relation to it now seems to have moved up a notch or two to one of active undermining. It reminds me of a phrase used by President Michael D Higgins, when he was speaking at the biennial Tóstal na Gaeilge conference in Galway in 2010. He referred to those “for whom Irish was not half-dead enough.” Mr Ó Cuirreáin was appointed to his office by the President and will now be tendering his resignation to him in what are frustrating circumstances. As the courageous defender of minority rights that President Higgins has always been, and as the guardian of our constitution, I expect Uachtarán na hÉireann will have something to say about what appears to be the current, if undeclared, policy to undermine the standing of Irish in the public life of our country.
John Glennon
Hollywood
Co Wicklow
www.examiner.ie
Irish language law was ‘doomed from start’
December 17, 2013
John Glennon (Letters, Dec 16) referring to the Official Languages Act claims “Without the active support of top management, the new legislation was doomed from the start.”
The gap between aspiration and reality has never been greater in relation to the Irish language. While criticising Official Ireland, his own letter is written in English. We have a Constitutional declaration made in 1937: “The Irish language as the national language is the first official language.” 76 years later our Dáil and Seanad have translators in permanent attendance in parliament and committees in case our first official language is used. The cost of this service should be levied on the salary of each TD and senator. Or they could sign a declaration that they are proficient to conduct business “as Gaeilge” and we can reassign the translators.
The “people are sovereign” is a phrase often invoked to imply that we all share power and responsibility, so maybe it is time to recognise, with regard to Irish sadly or otherwise, the people have spoken and continue to speak through English. Apart from school, Irish had no relevance in my working or social life or my family. Still, we tick the box on the Census form.
T Murphy
Ballincollig
Co Cork
www.examiner.com
Céad Mholadh ó Uachtarán na hÉireann
December 16, 2013
Government ‘worst since foundation of State’ for supporting Irish
December 16, 2013
The Coalition may have been successful in exiting the economic bailout but it is the worst Government at promoting the Irish language since the foundation of the State, protestors have claimed.
Members of Conradh na Gaeilge and the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) held a vocal and colourful demonstration outside Leinster House today demanding that the Government act on its legal obligations to give Irish language speakers equality in their right to engage with the State through Irish. Some demonstrators wore Santa outfits, all wore Santa hats, with red T-shirts bearing the legend: “Níl uaim ach mo teanga féin a labhairt” (All I want is to speak my own language). Red tape across their mouths represented the failure of the State to allow them to speak their own language. During the protest they shouted slogans including “Enda Kenny, end of Gaeilge” and “Cearta teanga, cearta daonna” (language rights, human rights).
Posters included “Act now on Irish language” and “Fine GAEL??? Tribe of the IRISH???” Feidhlim Seoige, USI vice president for the Irish language, said the resignation of the Irish language commissioner showed how unsupportive the Government had been. Previous governments had been “half successful” in their attempts at resurrecting the language. But “this is the worst Government towards promotion of the Irish language since the beginning of the State”. The campaigners said they had only two requests for Christmas – language rights and the language commissioner. They want the Government to meet Irish language commissioner Seán Ó Cuirreáin before he leaves office in February, after the surprise announcement of his resignation last week over the State’s failure to act on its legal obligations to the first national language. Conradh na Gaeilge general secretary Julian de Spáinn highlighted the commissioner’s warning about the Government’s plans for a maximum of 6 per cent of new public service recruits to have Irish.
It would take 28 years to increase the 1.5 per cent of people in the Department of Education who provide a service in Irish to 3 per cent and 3 per cent “would still be woefully inadequate”.
And he praised the Garda Síochána as a role model for all Government departments to follow for Irish language development. Mr de Spáinn said the Garda Commissioner met the Irish language commissioner to work out how they would recruit additional people with Irish “to come to a point where 100 per cent of gardaí in Gaeltacht areas will have Irish in a number of years”. Niamh Ní Chróinín, a Trinity College Irish student said Irish has not been treated as fairly as English even though both are our national languages. Ms Ní Chroinin is also president of the 1,200-member Trinity Irish language society, one of the largest student societies in the college. “The language commissioner is the person you go to if you have a complaint about the Irish language and without him we’ve nowhere else to go,” she said.
www.irishtimes.com
Gaelcholáiste to offer more first-year places
December 16, 2013
A Cork city centre gaelcholáiste is offering more first-year places next autumn, which could ease difficulties for some families disappointed by a one-third cut in intake at a northside all-Irish college.
The move by Coláiste Daibhéid, a Cork Education and Training Board (CETB) school, will see first-year enrolments rise from 40 to 58 for the coming year after the board decided to consider late applications, which will be accepted up to at least the end of January. It follows anger among families of children at northside gaelscoileanna and other primary schools at enrolment changes at Gaelcholáiste Mhuire AG at the North Monastery. It will enrol just two first-year classes with 58 students next September, having accepted three classes with more than 80 students in recent years.
The school, owned by Edmund Rice Schools Trust, said student numbers are up almost 100 to 445 since 2010 and there were overcrowding concerns. But a decision has yet be made on whether to seek funding for extra permanent accommodation to cater for the continued high demand. Coláiste Daibhéid principal Tadhg Ó Laighin said his school’s move to modern, fully-equipped classrooms at the CETB campus on Sawmill St in the last year enabled the board of management to take the decision last week. The school has more than 220 boys and girls enrolled and students come from gaelscoileanna across the city and county.
“We are unusual in many ways as our catchment area is not defined by a physical boundary but by a language boundary, that is to say our potential students are any students who have Irish or who have the potential to operate through the medium of Irish,” Mr Ó Laighin said. With some local schools, particularly all-Irish primary schools, highly disappointed that their pupils are among around 50 turned down by Gaelcholáiste Mhuire for 2014, plans are being devised for a new gaelcholáiste in the area. But the Department of Education has told the Irish Examiner that it has no plans to provide any new second-level schools on the city’s northside. It can only sanction new schools after determining there is sufficient population growth and then after prospective patrons have had a chance to show demand for their type of school in an area.
www.irishexaminer.com
Keep Irish in schools
December 16, 2013
I see that some columnists and letter-writers constantly refer to the ‘ billions of euro’ that would be saved if the Irish language was removed from the curriculum of Irish schools – the pinnacle of what Irish patheticism seeks to achieve.
Unless the school day was made shorter, the teachers would still have to be paid the same; and if all Irish language teachers were dismissed, other teachers would have to be employed to fill the timetable. It costs no more or less to educate a child in Irish than in English, and I suspect that replacing Irish with Mandarin Chinese would actually cost more than teaching Irish. Ciaran Dunbar An Spideal, Co na Gaillimhe
www.independent.ie
