Sir, - "Chapeau!" to Eddie Holt on his article "The Language of Protest" (Weekend, June 23rd). His article is timely, in that we have just passed the halfway mark in this European Year of Languages.
Having studied and worked on "the Continent" for the best part of a decade (through the medium of four different languages and in four different countries), I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments expressed: that our ignorance of continental languages leaves us ignorant of many points of view and lacking in understanding of other EU cultures, and by not knowing European languages we are deprived of perspectives which might make some deeper sense of Europe.
Sad but true, it would appear that Mr Holt is also accurate in his assertion that we are doomed to remain for the most part bombarded by Anglo-American popular culture and unable to integrate more fully with Europe.
This is evidenced by the nigh impossibility of picking up any European radio stations in Ireland; the difficulty of finding current editions of European newspapers and magazines in Dublin - a supposedly European capital city; the dearth of European cinema (apart from the valiant efforts of the Irish Film Centre); the absence of any European theatre. (Instead, and for the umpteenth time, our National Theatre treats us to renditions of Big Maggie and The Playboy of the Western World).
The most ubiquitous and powerful medium of all - television - is ideally suited to providing easy access to living European languages and European culture. Yet, out of the miserly 15 stations provided by NTL, the monopolistic provider of cable television to the greater Dublin agglomeration, 13 are in English and only one is fully dedicated to a European language, namely the international French-language channel TV5 - and its frequency was changed recently, with the result that most NTL customers can no longer properly receive it.
And the reason the frequency was changed? To make room on the bandwidth for yet another example of "Anglo-American popular culture" the cartoon channel Nickelodeon! At the same time, NTL continues to allow three national channels from Germany (ZDF), Italy (Rai Uno) and Spain (TVE) a mere hour each per evening on a shared channel.
Is this NTL's contribution to the European Year of Languages? - Yours, etc.,
D. Breathnach, Glenanne, Terenure, Dublin 6W.