Former president McAleese says inclusion of Irish in coronation ‘welcome sign of respect’

The inclusion of the Irish language, Scots Gaelic and the Welsh language in the coronation of King Charles III is a “very welcome sign of respect, inclusion and cultural sensitivity”, former president of Ireland Mary McAleese has said.

Traditional languages spoken in the four countries in the UK – Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England – will for the first time form part of a coronation service on Saturday, May 6th. The congregation gathered for the crowning of the king and queen consort at Westminster Abbey will hear three Celtic languages – Welsh, Scots Gaelic and Irish – alongside English.

According to the liturgy published a week in advance of the coronation, a verse in Irish will be included in the ceremony, which will then be repeated in English.

[ Coronation public allegiance oath is ‘tone deaf’, British republican group says ]

Former president Mrs McAleese said this decision to include these languages is “very welcome”.

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“It acknowledges the richness of the contribution each language makes and augurs well for a future where each is encouraged to flourish,” she told The Irish Times. “In the case of Irish in particular it challenges at the highest level in the United Kingdom those who would dismiss and disparage it. I am sure this is part of the late Queen Elizabeth’s legacy of building enduring egalitarian friendships across these islands.”

The late Queen Elizabeth II was praised for her use of Irish at a State banquet at Dublin Castle during her groundbreaking visit to this country in 2011. She began her speech with a phonetically correct “A Uachtaráin, agus a chairde”, meaning president and friends.

According to Mrs McAleese’s memoir, published in 2020, the inclusion of the Irish language was prompted by her suggestion as she believed it could “set to rest so much historic angst and resentment around the dire treatment of the language by the British when they were in power in Dublin Castle”.

Mrs McAleese has been an outspoken supporter of the Irish language, writing in The Irish Times in 2015 that speaking it had “enriched my sense of identity”.

“The Irish language is an important part of my own Irish identity, and always has been, even before I could speak Irish,” she wrote. “Is my life better for re-engaging with the Irish language? Definitely. It has been the gift of gifts, a remarkable source of endlessly renewable energy in my life; and I cannot imagine how poor my life would have been without these past 20 wet craic-filled summers in the Donegal Gaeltacht.”