If Maltese is an EU language, why not Irish?
The Irish Language will finally be a working language of the European Union. Recently Jim Yates wrote a letter to the Irish Examiner calling this a waste of money and time and calling the Irish language a dead language. What follows is a response by Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc an Irish speaker living in Kinsale, County Cork:
22/06/05
If Maltese is an EU language, why not Irish?
I AM writing in response to Jim Yates’ letter headlined ‘Irish language will never be the talk of Europe’ (Irish Examiner, June 15).
Mr Yates complains about the amount of money which will be spent employing Irish speakers as translators and in publishing European treaties and documents in Irish because he regards the language as a dead tongue belonging only to fanatics and academics.
Yet Mr Yates makes no objection to the status of Maltese as a ‘working language’ of the EU, even though there are more people speaking Irish than Maltese.
Why should Irish people finance the promotion of Maltese and 19 other languages as ‘working languages’ if Irish were denied the same status within Europe?
Mr Yates states that Irish is a “European irrelevancy” and a “nonsense,” and scoffs at the idea of Irish as a ‘working language,’ let alone a living language.
Far from being “lost in the mists of time,” as Mr Yates put it, my experience is that Irish is still a spoken, living language not just in official Gaeltacht areas but throughout the whole of Ireland.
I speak Irish fluently, though I have spent my entire life in predominantly English-speaking areas of the country. At the age of 22, Mr Yates could hardly consider me a relic from “the mists of time,” though I suspect he will still attempt to label me a “fanatic” because of his own obvious bias against Irish.
As a child Irish was not a spoken language in my home, nor did I attend a Gaelscoil. I learned Irish in my spare time after I finished secondary school and by visiting Gaeltacht areas.
Today I am fortunate enough to work with people who have an interest in Ireland’s culture and I speak Irish to my workmates regularly, even though we all have varying levels of fluency.
I regularly meet other Irish speakers by chance and have had conversations through Irish in places as far apart as Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Derry.
I neither need nor seek the approval of Mr Yates and the EU to speak Irish. I have no objection to Mr Yates describing English as “the main language of this country.”
Just because Irish speakers are a minority does not mean we should be denied our rights by the likes of Mr Yates.
Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc
20 Cork Street
Kinsale
Co Cork
22/06/05
If Maltese is an EU language, why not Irish?
I AM writing in response to Jim Yates’ letter headlined ‘Irish language will never be the talk of Europe’ (Irish Examiner, June 15).
Mr Yates complains about the amount of money which will be spent employing Irish speakers as translators and in publishing European treaties and documents in Irish because he regards the language as a dead tongue belonging only to fanatics and academics.
Yet Mr Yates makes no objection to the status of Maltese as a ‘working language’ of the EU, even though there are more people speaking Irish than Maltese.
Why should Irish people finance the promotion of Maltese and 19 other languages as ‘working languages’ if Irish were denied the same status within Europe?
Mr Yates states that Irish is a “European irrelevancy” and a “nonsense,” and scoffs at the idea of Irish as a ‘working language,’ let alone a living language.
Far from being “lost in the mists of time,” as Mr Yates put it, my experience is that Irish is still a spoken, living language not just in official Gaeltacht areas but throughout the whole of Ireland.
I speak Irish fluently, though I have spent my entire life in predominantly English-speaking areas of the country. At the age of 22, Mr Yates could hardly consider me a relic from “the mists of time,” though I suspect he will still attempt to label me a “fanatic” because of his own obvious bias against Irish.
As a child Irish was not a spoken language in my home, nor did I attend a Gaelscoil. I learned Irish in my spare time after I finished secondary school and by visiting Gaeltacht areas.
Today I am fortunate enough to work with people who have an interest in Ireland’s culture and I speak Irish to my workmates regularly, even though we all have varying levels of fluency.
I regularly meet other Irish speakers by chance and have had conversations through Irish in places as far apart as Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Derry.
I neither need nor seek the approval of Mr Yates and the EU to speak Irish. I have no objection to Mr Yates describing English as “the main language of this country.”
Just because Irish speakers are a minority does not mean we should be denied our rights by the likes of Mr Yates.
Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc
20 Cork Street
Kinsale
Co Cork
posted by Joe @ 4:22 PM
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