Wednesday 25 April 2012

Trouble in the Gaeltacht

This morning the Irish News (25 April) reported that until recently only one garda officer assigned to a station in the Donegal Gaeltacht could speak fluent Irish.

The Republic's Irish Language Commissioner found that of nine officers sent to the area, eight could not carry out their duties through Irish.

The issue came to light after a native speaker complained that when he went to the Garda station at Bunbeg in November 2010, the garda on duty said he did not have enough Irish to deal with him.  Presumbaly that was communicated to the native Irish speaker in English.

The Irish Language Commissioner then launched an investigation in February 2011 but this was temporarily stopped  when three Irish speakers were assigned to the station.  However this was not enough and the Irish Language Commissioner found that the Garda Commissioner had broken his statutory commitment to ensuring all staff assigned to stations in the Gaeltacht are able to carry out their duties through Irish.

This raises a number of interesting points:
1. It is clear that many members of the Garda are not fluent in Irish.  Only one of the original nine police officers was able to conuct his business in Irish and that may well reflect the general level of capability in the language in the police force across the Republic.
2. Since those garda who were not fluent in Irish were going about their daily work in the Gaeltacht it seems that many people there in the Gaeltacht were quite content to conduct their business in English - which raises questions about the level of usage of the Irish language in the Gaeltacht.
3. When Irish language activists talk about an Irish Language Act for Northern Ireland, this is what they are talking about and in Northern Ireland it would result in discrimination against those who do not speak Irish with preferential treatment in some sectors of employment for those who do speak Irish.  That is why I am resolutely oppsoed to the creation of an Irish Language Act.  It would be divisive and discriminatory.

The Irish language is part of the cultural wealth of Northern Ireland, as it is also part of the cultural wealth of the Irish Republic, but it should not be allowed to become a cultural weapon in a cultural war.  Sadly many cultural nationalists have tried to use it in that way.

2 comments:

  1. Nelson,
    Please. The ability to cope with inadequate service provision does not equate with the enjoyment of living a full and satisfactory life in your native language.

    A language act simply legislates for the official use of that language within a jurisdiction. Irish is sufficiently widely supported and publicly funded for it to warrant legislation. Opposing detail would be a more effective and reconcillatory strategy. Furthermore demonstrating that the assembly has the capacity to legislate rather than argue would deepen the peace process.

    Your acknowledgement of the cultural wealth of the language is appreciated. The language is in part already a cultural weapon in a cultural war, and surely legislation might be able to curtail this. Ulster Scots suffers similarly from the accusation that it is a cultural weapon. Surely it is time to move beyond both these positions and your department and the assembly could play a constructive role.

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  2. I am a Dubliner (my people are Dubliners as far back as I can go). I live in Dublin, where English has been the spoken language for centuries.

    Despite that, when I tried to look up the address of a state/semi-state body on the web, the website had Gaeilge-only addresses.

    Despite being as - I said, a Dubliner of many generations - I had no idea where these streets were in my own native city.

    Only a couple of years back a Fianna Fail / Sinn Fein motion to name future Dublin Streets "as Gaeilge" only was passed by the muppets of Dublin City Council: http://gombeennation.blogspot.ie/2010/01/dublin-city-council-irish-only.html

    Unionists such as Nelson are correct to oppose the growth of an Irish Language Industry in Northern Ireland. It is a racket down here, with students given extra Leaving Cert points for answering "as Gaeilge" and some state jobs closed off to non-Gaeilge speakers. Then are the extra promotion civil service promotion opportunities for Gaelic-language hobbyists, careersists and lobbyists.

    If you tried to Gaeilge outside the cash-draining world of public offices in Dublin, no-one would have a clue what you are saying. It is a racket, pure and simple. If you don't believe me Google "Irish language jobs for graduates".

    The talk of providing "services" as Gaeilge is simply a means to create a wasteful bureaucracy. That has happened in this crazy little country south of your border. Do not let it happen up there.

    As for all this talk of "native language", the vast majority of Gaeilge hobbyists are English mother tongue speakers. There is not one - not one- monolingual Gaelic speaker here in the so-called Republic. Not even in the Gaetacht.

    Cultural nationalists such as the Shinners (mother-tongue English speakers) are deliberately trying to create divisions, rather than celebrate our commonality.

    Do not let "Irish Language" careerists take over your civil service, as they have ours.


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