Sir, – The Official Languages Act is being used as a battering ram to increase the prominence of the Irish language in public life.
The first evidence of this was the copious public information signage during the pandemic, all needlessly translated into Irish. Since then, Irish is to be seen on the sides of buses and bins, on heritage signs, park notices and bathroom doors.
Every public service waiting room is a jumble of bilingualism. Irish Rail recently began displaying separate Irish and English signage, all the while combining the Irish and English route maps into an untidy clutter.
I accessed an EU website recently and had to change from the default language of Irish. My library emails me with the Irish language text above the English, as has my former university. In short, there is a movement in public service bodies to display Irish anywhere there is English, all enabled by little-known legislation.
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Compounding this, the Official Languages Act requires that the Irish on signage appears first and is no less “prominent, visible or legible” than the English.
All road signage with the Irish in italic or Gaelic script (an elegant compromise) is contrary to the Act and will soon be a thing of the past.
On any new pedestrian signage, as well as the Irish being above the English, it is now more common than not to see the Irish written in white on a dark background, while the English is written in a pale colour and sometimes a smaller font.
The rationale seems to be that if the Irish can be no less prominent, visible or legible, we should make the English so.
The Act also requires that 20 per cent of public sector advertising is in Irish, which explains the recent prevalence of Irish ads on TV, radio, podcasts and in cinemas. The official name of any new State agency must be in Irish. The first of these include Coimisiún na Meán, Coimisiún Toghcháin and Tailte Éireann.
I wonder how many citizens could identify the purpose of those important State agencies.
We should be in no doubt that this is a radical and recent change. Almost none of it existed 10 years ago.
Like most people in Ireland, I value the minimal presence of the Irish language in our culture, particularly on street signs. But there is a process of bureaucratic Gaelicisation occurring that is regrettable and receiving no attention.
It is a polite fiction that Irish is the first language of this country. Until Irish is widely spoken, it does not deserve a place on every public information sign, and certainly not above the language spoken by the overwhelming majority. – Yours, etc,
ANDREW O’DONOVAN,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.