Gaeilge is not a Hobby
Nollaig 10, 2013
Further to Ian O’Doherty’s column yesterday where he refers to the Irish language as a hobby in the context of Sean O Cuirreain’s resignation as language commissioner, I would like to speak for Irish speakers.
Mr O’Doherty has grown up in a world where all the services that he deals with to conduct his life are offered in his first language. Not so the thousands and thousands of people who have grown up with Irish as their first language. Imagine going to the doctor, to the bank, to a garda, to a counsellor and they don’t speak your first language. Not only do they not speak your language, but if you try to obtain the service in your own language you’re labelled as awkward, a ‘Gaeilgeoiri Grenadier’ to quote Mr O’Doherty.
We are not from another country, we are from Ireland, believe it or not, and the fact that we are being marginalised does not change the fact that we have a right to be here. Mr O’Doherty forgets that millions upon millions in state money is being invested in supporting the infrastructure of the English language — every government service in the country. Because it’s for the majority it’s okay. He forgets that we have a right to exist as well. It isn’t a hobby. It isn’t a cash cow. It’s who we are and we have a right to be here.
BRIDGET BHREATHNACH
TURLOCH BEAG, ROS MUC, CO NA GAILLIMHE
www.independent.ie
Fudge, farce, falsehood
Nollaig 9, 2013
It speaks volumes about the Government’s apparent lack of interest in its own policies towards the Irish language that the State’s first ever Language Commissioner, Seán Ó Cuirreáin, has chosen to resign his post early rather than carry on watching while the Government continues to shirk its obligations towards Irish speakers.
Mr Ó Cuirreáin has been measured and constructive in his duties as Language Commissioner and his concerns for the language are well-merited. His blunt assessment is that the Government’s lack of action in providing services in Irish for the Gaeltacht and adequate capacity in public administration may be seen as “a fudge, a farce or a falsehood”.
It is widely accepted, by both Gaeltacht communities and academics, that the language is in dire straits in its traditional strongholds. It will not survive unless people are given adequate reason and encouragement to speak it. Yet it seems that the Government expects the people of the Gaeltacht to save the language simply because they have just about managed to do so until now.
The truth is that the people of the Gaeltacht cannot keep Irish alive simply by dint of being native speakers. They need and are entitled to services in their own language from their own State. Mr Ó Cuirreáin has rightly noted they have been obliged to use English in their dealings with State agencies and that this should not be allowed to continue. That it has gone on for so long is not only an affront to the people of the Gaeltacht but a damning indictment of so many governments over so many decades.
That there are people in Ireland who wish to speak Irish, both in the Gaeltacht and in urban areas, is not in doubt. That they have rights in this regard too is not in doubt, particularly since the enactment of the Official Languages Act in 2003.
That it takes the resignation of the Language Commissioner to remind the Government about those wishes and rights is simply shameful.
www.irishtimes.com
What’s the Irish for ‘do not resuscitate’?
Nollaig 9, 2013
The Irish have always displayed a remarkable ability to pick the wrong argument at the wrong time.
In fact, we seem to have an almost comical capacity to take a step back from things, look at the bigger picture and then completely ignore it as we continue to be bothered only by what happens in our own small world. That’s what’ s infuriating about the recent push by Ming Flanagan to have a serious Dáil debate about the legalisation of cannabis. As it happens, I’d broadly agree with him, even though being on the same page as that spoofing little ham is enough to force anyone to have a long, hard look at themselves. No, my objections to this piece of political pantomime (Mick Wallace obviously has the role of the Widow Twankie, he’s been rocking her look for years now) are in the simple fact that now is not the time.
We have too many pressing, crushing issues to sort out to be wasting already limited Dáil hours arguing over something that isn’t going to go away any time soon. And, in a very different, yet very similar case, the head of Teanga, one of the main Irish language groups in the country, has resigned in a huff because there aren’t enough civil servants who can speak Irish. Now, I know that Seán Ó Cuirreáin, as the acting head of a body devoted to the Irish language has every right to be peeved about the lack of a working knowledge of Irish, but that’s not the point. The point is that, presumably, the only way for his concerns to be allayed would have been for the Government to pour more money down the endless toilet of the Irish language and send more civil servants off on a language training course.
He argues that Irish speakers are being discriminated against when they are forced to conduct official business through a cúpla focail and says: “Requiring the people of the Gaeltacht to conduct their business in English with state agencies flies in the face of any policy which suggests that the survival of the Gaeltacht is on the State’s agenda.” So far, so what? I very much doubt anybody, apart from the few cantankerous souls who stubbornly insist on costing the State money by demanding special accommodations for the language, really cares one way or the other if someone in Spiddal has to use their English name. I don’t mean to sound uncaring or inconsiderate here but … no, wait, I do. Because most people are sick to death with the juvenile posturing of the Gaelgeoirí Grenadiers who think that everyone should be as interested in a dead language as they are.
But in fairness to Mr Ó Cuirreáin, he has raised some very valuable arguments. For example, he accused the Government of ‘ hypocrisy’ by insisting that Irish be maintained on the respirator of being a mandatory subject, where it will never revive and is held in a kind of limbonic stasis, regularly drip fed just enough to keep it from completely flatlining. Don’t get me wrong, I have certainly views on Irish since I — sort of — lost an argument with former TG4 supremo Cillian Fennel. It was around the time of the station’s launch and we got into what could be politely described as a vigorous exchange of ideas on the subject. In my corner, the argument was that this was a ridiculous waste of taxpayers’ money being spent on something that, if it was an animal, we would have put out of our own misery.
Fennel believed equally passionately that the State has a duty to support the language and argued even more forcibly that the new channel would make the language hip again. Well, on that second point he was proved emphatically correct — TG4 is by far and away the most inventive and innovative broadcaster on this island. But I still don’t think it’s the Government’s job to fund it, or any other as Gaeilge boondoggle, for that matter. So if you think the Irish language is a vibrant part of our cultural identity? Well, good for you. There can never be anything wrong with learning and using a language. But you wouldn’t expect the Government to subsidise guitar lessons, or any other hobby. So why should we pay for something people can learn on their own time and, more importantly, their own dime?
www.independent.ie
Irish language story launch
Nollaig 9, 2013
Derry City Council is set to launch a new exhibition and guide illustrating the story of the Irish language in the area.
The Story of Irish tells the story of the Irish language from its first beginnings right up to the present day and explores the journey the language has made throughout the course of our history. The exhibition and the small book which accompanies it aim to develop awareness of the language among new audiences and the resource will travel to schools and community organisations throughout the Council area during 2014 and beyond.
The project was developed by Derry City Council in partnership with the local Irish language community and BT Portrait of a City, which now hosts an archive of interviews with a range of local people about the Irish language in the area. The Story of Irish project was funded under the Culture for All programme which aims to help communities participate in the 2013 City of Culture celebrations. The exhibition will be launched by the Mayor, Cllr Martin Reilly on Thursday at the Guildhall. If you would like to attend the launch event please contact Pól Ó Frighil, Irish Language Officer, Derry City Council, T: 028 71 376579, gaeilge@derrycity.gov.uk
www.derryjournal.com
Commissioner resigns
Nollaig 6, 2013
A chara, –
It is a cause of shame that the greatest threat to the Irish language is and always has been the ruling State of the day.
As Coimisinéir Teanga, Seán Ó Cuireáin has made great strides in supporting our constitutional right to use Irish in public life despite the immense obstacles in our State bureaucracy.
It is the same bureaucracy that has made the role of an Coimisinéir Teanga both vital and impossible.
– Is mise,
Maitiú de Hál,
Páirc na Canálach Ríoga,
Baile an Ásaigh,
Baile Átha Cliath 15
www.irishtimes.com
Fury as education blueprint ignores integrated schooling
Nollaig 6, 2013
Government commitment to integrated education has been challenged after an official business plan failed to refer to the sector.
It is the second consecutive year that the Department of Education has omitted any reference to integrated education in its 2012-15 business plan, which is updated annually.
Alliance MLA Trevor Lunn (right) said it was astonishing that the department dedicated pages to projects promoting shared education and the Irish-medium sector, without mentioning integrated education.
The 37-page report focuses on shared education over three pages and references the Irish-medium sector. It lists targets to promote the debate on shared education, the development of 10 new shared education campuses, and a Programme for Government commitment for all pupils to participate in a shared education project by 2015.
Pupils of integrated schools – who hail from different religious, social and academic backgrounds – learn and socialise side by side all the time, instead of some of the time under the shared education model, it has been claimed.
The ‘rush’ towards sharing resources instead of all pupils’ classroom time risks turning integrated education into a “Cinderella sector”, Mr Lunn warned yesterday.
“It astonishes me that there is no mention in this plan of integrated education. I do not object to shared education, but it’s being used as a means to turn integrated education into a cinderella sector,” he said during a briefing to the Assembly’s education committee.
“What sort of message are we sending out to the integrated education movement when the department’s corporate plan does not mention it?”
Stormont departments are obliged to encourage integrated education under a pledge contained within the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
Tina Merron from the Integrated Education Fund (IEF) said it was disappointing that integrated education had been sidelined in the department’s plans again.
“It is a model which should surely be at the heart of the education system if the Executive is sincerely committed to a shared society,” she said.
Only 7% of children attend integrated schools in Northern Ireland, with the vast majority educated in the State or Catholic sectors. In June, a LucidTalk poll revealed that more than half of those surveyed believed politicians should set a target date for the complete desegregation of the education system.
Department of Education deputy secretary John McGrath has insisted the integrated education sector, which has not been reviewed in years and lacks specific targets, is “confident and stable”.
“Stable means it is not growing,” Mr Lunn said.
“To encourage and facilitate integrated education, it should involve at least a mention of where the department would like to see the integrated sector going.”
www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Quinn rejects claims over Irish language
Nollaig 6, 2013
Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn has rejected Sinn Féin claims that the Government had done “untold damage” to services for Irish language speakers but he pledged to have a full Dáil debate on the issue before Christmas
Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said Irish language commissioner Seán Ó Cuirreáin announced on Wednesday that he intended to resign in February in the wake of the failure to implement legislation that would improve services and support for Irish speakers.
State organisations are ignoring their legal obligations and “in 2½ years in office the Government has done untold damage to the provision of services and supports for Irish language speakers throughout the State”.
Mr Doherty said “the Government changed the rules. Mr Ó Cuirreáin does not think there is any way at all that the new regime would work”.
The Donegal South West TD and Irish language speaker said the commissioner’s resignation “is a damning indictment of the Government’s policy on the Irish language”.
‘Major concern’
The commissioner, in announcing his resignation to the committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions, said three-quarters of the Irish language schemes had expired. “He expressed major concern about the standard of many of the others,” Mr Doherty said. The commissioner had to take the unprecedented step of resigning “because the Government is totally undermining the work he is doing”.
Compulsory to use English
Mr Ó Cuirreáin expressed his belief to the committee that the Government was moving towards making it compulsory to use English when engaging with public bodies.
Mr Quinn said, however, he had been assured by his colleague Minister of State for Gaeltacht Affairs Dinny McGinley “who has direct responsibility in this area that these criticisms by the commissioner are not accepted and that in due course, when his resignation takes effect, a new commissioner will be appointed”.
Mr Doherty said the Government promised two years ago that it would revise the 2003 Official Languages Act but nothing has happened yet.
Mr Quinn rejected the commissioner’s comments about the Government’s attitude to the language but he offered a comprehensive Dáil debate with the Minister of State for Gaeltacht Affairs “where he can respond to all the Irish language commissioner’s claims”.
www.irishtimes.com
Crisis in Irish-speaking community following resignation, warn activists
Nollaig 6, 2013
The decision by Seán Ó Cuirreáin to resign his position as Coimisinéir Teanga this week points to an emerging crisis in the Irish-speaking and Gaeltacht community, language activists and politicians have warned.
Mr Ó Cuirreáin told the Joint Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions on Wednesday that the Irish language is being marginalised by the system of public administration. He said he was tendering his resignation following repeated failures by Government to implement measures that would improve access to State services for Irish speakers.
Irish language groups, politicians and academics have voiced concern at Mr Ó Cuirreáin’s resignation and have criticised the Government for not implementing the Official Languages Act.
Conradh na Gaeilge called on the Government to undertake to “immediately resolve” these problems in partnership with An Coimisinéir Teanga. Donnchadh Ó hAodha, president of Conradh na Gaeilge, said Mr Ó Cuirreáin’s resignation was “undoubtedly the worst blow to the Irish language in many long years”.
Dr John Walsh, NUI vice-dean for research at the College of Arts, Social Sciences & Celtic Studies in Galway,said he believed Mr Ó Cuirreáin had no alternative.
“I don’t think Seán Ó Cuirreáin had any choice. He presented evidence that the Government and the Department of the Gaeltacht together have not been serious about the implementation of the Official Languages Act for some years.” Dr Walsh said he was concerned the vacuum left by Mr Ó Cuirreáin’s resignation would be used in a forthcoming review to weaken the Act.
Sinn Féin Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh said it was “a dark day” for the Irish language. Speaking on Raidió na Gaeltachta yesterday, Mr Ó Clochartaigh said Minister of State for Gaeltacht Affairs Dinny McGinley should resign.
Fianna Fáil spokesman on Gaeltacht Affairs Michael Kitt said the resignation was “a wake-up call” for the Government. Welsh language commissioner Meri Huws expressed her disappointment at the resignation and thanked Mr Ó Cuirreáin for the role he played in establishing the International Association of Language Commissioners.
www.irishtimes.com
Language chief quits over lack of Irish in civil service
Nollaig 5, 2013
THE head of one of the main Irish language groups has resigned, claiming many of those working for the civil service and other public bodies can only conduct business through English.
An Coimisineir Teanga Sean O Cuirreain accused the Government of being “hypocritical” on the issue. The former deputy head of Radio na Gaeltachta said the authorities insisted on Irish as a mandatory Leaving Cert subject – while at the same time denying citizens the provision of various services through Irish. An Coimisineir Teanga monitors compliance by public bodies with the Official Languages Act. Mr O Cuirreain was formally appointed as the first Coimisineir Teanga in 2004 and was reappointed for a second term in 2010. But yesterday he said that we were moving towards a situation where the use of English would be compulsory for citizens wishing to interact with public bodies. He said Irish speakers in Gaeltacht areas were not being catered for, and warned it was now time to confront this issue “once and for all”.
SURVIVAL
“Requiring the people of the Gaeltacht to conduct their business in English with state agencies flies in the face of any policy which suggests the survival of the Gaeltacht is on the State’s agenda,” he said. He told a sitting of the Joint Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions that the absence of staff competent in Irish was a key problem. Accordingly, recruitment and promotion in the civil service needed to be “immediately” examined. He stressed that the Official Languages Act should be reviewed in this context otherwise the process would be seen as “a fudge, a farce or a falsehood”. The Irish language group Conradh na Gaeilge described the shock resignation as “undoubtedly the worst blow to the Irish language in many years”.
Donnchadh O hAodha, President of the Gaelic League, said he could “understand his reasons” for stepping down as the Government had made “bad decision after bad decision” in relation to the Irish language. Minister of State for the Gaeltacht Dinny McGinley said: “I regret, of course, that An Coimisineir has decided not to complete his term of appointment – which extends to April 2016. “
www.independent.ie
Commissioner resigns over Government failures on Irish
Nollaig 5, 2013
An Coimisinéir Teanga Seán Ó Cuirreáin has announced his intention to step down following the failure by Government to implement legislation designed to improve services to the public through Irish.
The Coimisinéir Teanga, whose role is to monitor compliance by public bodies with the provisions of the Official Languages Act, told a sitting of the Joint Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions that he believed the State was quickly moving towards a situation where the use of English would become compulsory for citizens wishing to interact with public bodies. The former deputy head of Radio na Gaeltachta said it was “hypocritical” of the Government to insist on Irish as a mandatory subject for the Leaving Cert only then for the State to deny citizens the provision of services through Irish.
Citing the widespread failure of departments and public bodies to take measures to ensure the right of citizens to use Irish when interacting with state agencies, Mr Ó Cuirreáin said three quarters of statutory language schemes had expired without renewal by the end of 2012 with a quarter of them out of date for three years or more. The failure to promote these “fundamental pillars” of the legislation – agreed by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht with state bodies – represents a “significant risk”, Mr Ó Cuirreáin said. Criticising of the lack of services provided through Irish for Gaeltacht communities, Mr Ó Cuirreáin said it was time to deal with the issue “for once and for all”. “Requiring the people of the Gaeltacht to conduct their business in English with state agencies flies in the face of any policy which suggests that the survival of the Gaeltacht is on the State’s agenda,” he said.
The absence of staff with competence in both official languages is one of the main obstacles to the delivery of services in Irish as well as in English, Mr Ó Cuirreáin said. He added that it is “essential” that the issue of the Irish language in recruitment and promotion in the civil service be revisited “immediately”. Mr Ó Cuirreáin warned that any review of the Official Languages Act would be seen as “a fudge, a farce or a falsehood” if these failures are not addressed. “As we begin to regain our economic sovereignty, it would be a travesty if we were to lose our linguistic sovereignty – a cornerstone of our cultural identity, heritage and soul as a nation. I believe this to be a clear and present danger.” Mr Ó Cuirreáin was formally appointed as the first Coimisinéir Teanga in February 2004 under the Official Languages Act and was reappointed for a second term in 2010.
www.irishtimes.com
