Irish is now an official language of the European Union, which means that all official documents, laws, regulations etc. have to be written in Irish along with the other 22 official European languages. This is for a a language that is spoken on a daily basis by approximately 300,000 people out of an EU population of 500 million. That works out at .06% of the entire percentage of the EU. Even if you just look at the percentage of the Irish population [PDF] that speaks Irish, it’s still only about 7%. And those figures include kids that have to speak it in school. In reality, only about 70,000 people conduct their daily business through Irish. That’s .01% of the EU population and less than 2% of the Irish population.
For the life of me, I cannot understand how this dying language managed to become an official language of the EU, and lets face it, it is a dying language. I’m Irish, and proud of it, but I am sick to death of hearing all these rubbish arguments as to why it should be maintained. Yes, it was a part of our culture, but that was two hundred years ago. It’s bad enough that we have to inflict it on our own citizens, but inflicting it on the rest of Europe is ludicrous.
I, along with most of my contemporaries, rarely ever use Irish. And that’s after spending a minimum of 13 years in school learning the language. I cannot honestly understand how the people of this country accept the costs associated with having to translate everything into Irish. Every road sign, every government department has to use it. And for what? So that the 2% of the population that want to connect with the 19th century can find their way to the European Parliament and talk to one of the 13 Irish MEP’s? What does it matter, because when they get there, everyone else is going to be speaking English? By the way, that’s 13 Irish MEP’s out of 785.
Judging by the speed that the EU normally works, it will take the best part of 10 years to translate everything into Irish, by which time, the number of people speaking the language will have further decreased. While the EU is renowned for it’s unerring ability to locate “black-hole” projects to sink money into, this has to be one of the most monumental waste of money ever conceived.
In addition to the waste of money, I also have to question the reasoning behind forcing our kids to spend 13 years learning a dying language. If the government wanted to teach our kids a dead or dying language, then Latin would probably be a better use of time and money. While it may no longer be used, as the foundation of most of the major European languages, it would be much more beneficial. At least kids would have a better idea of where the various words they use everyday come from, and how they are related.
My own personal preference would be for primary schools to teach Spanish, German, or French. At least these languages are in daily use by millions of people, and are living, evolving languages. By the time our kids actually leave school, it just might stand to them that they can speak a major European language. But we can’t have our culture from two hundred years ago being eroded now, can we? The fact that it no longer exists Ireland of the Celtic Tiger doesn’t seem to enter into the equation.
To paraphrase Yeats: “Romantic Ireland’s dead and done, it’s with the punt in the grave.”
Tags: celtic, eu, irish, language, money, official, Politics, Rant, tiger, waste, whatithink
What a load of capitalist rubbish you have written about the Irish language. You’d obviously want to monopolise the world with the blood dripping english language that was forced onto so many innocent people. Disgusting!
Capitalist? I don’t think so. My position is based on the fact that Irish is a minority language within Ireland, and even more so within the EU.
Outside of the Irish Gaelteact, how many people use Irish as their day to day language? Very few, if any. While you may not agree with it, English is the working language of this country, and pouring money into promoting a dead language is in my opinion a waste of resources.
It may be a hard fact for you to accept, but the majority of this country care little for the Irish language. It’s of no interest, and of less use, to majority of us who care to live in a modern Ireland.
“Capitalist? I don’t think so. My position is based on the fact that Irish is a minority language within Ireland, and even more so within the EU.”
Yes, it’s a minority language. So is Hebrew, a language to which Jews around the world are fiercely loyal.
>Outside of the Irish Gaelteact, how many people use Irish as their day to day language? Very few, if any. While you may not agree with it, English is the working language of this country, and pouring money into promoting a dead language is in my opinion a waste of resources.
Oh but you’re wrong! There are Irish speakers all over Ireland, and indeed around the world, who speak Irish amongst themselves. You wouldn’t be in a position to know this, given that you are not an Irish speaker, so whenever you’ve met them, they’ve doubtless spoken the language they have in common with you, namely English!
>It may be a hard fact for you to accept, but the majority of this country care little for the Irish language. It’s of no interest, and of less use, to majority of us who care to live in a modern Ireland.
Oh but of course it is of interest, if you have an interest! It also has an obvious use: speaking to other Irish speakers!
I realise that to many Irish men and women without Irish, Irish speakers can appear to berate, rather than encourage their neighbours to speak the language (a good example is perhaps the commentator above). It seems to many a snobbish “past-time” pursued by the out-of-touch, and perpetuated by an education system that refuses to take into account the rapid change of the past few decades and uses methods that have inspired a disdain, rather than love for the language among many young people (epitomised by students for decades gathering to burn Peig Sayers’ autobiography!)
I would rather encourage you to learn the language, not out of some grim patriotic duty, reminiscent of some supposed life-or-death “struggle” against the English language, but rather for the sheer joy of it! Knowing the Irish language gives every Irishman an instant bond with other speakers wherever in the world he goes, from Britain to Beijing. It gives us an insight into and understanding of the meanings of the personal and placenames of our country. It gives us access to a rich literary and cultural heritage the equal of any European or other nation on the globe.
You’re missing out!
Le meas,
Corum O’ Fallamhain.
Corum, that is probably the most reasoned and impassioned comment I’ve read in relation to this topic. Thank you for your insight.
I still don’t agree that Irish should be an official language of the EU – I think it’s a waste of resources and just adds to the mountain of unreadable and uncared for documentation that comes out of Brussels every year.
I also disagree with the fact that Irish is a required subject on the leaving cert. I think this alone is a sign that the language is in decline and is only being kept alive through the use of “extraordinary measures”.
Thanks again for your comment,
Paul McCarthy.