A chara, – Cuirim fáilte roimh stráitéis an rialtais i dtaca leis an Ghaeilge. I welcome the Government’s strategy for the Irish language (Home News, December 22nd). I have two main problems with it.
First, the period is too short. If, as a nation we want to promote the Irish language so that many more people speak it every day, we need to plan for 100 years, not 20. In order for a language to gain strength, it takes generations. Twenty years does not cover even one generation.
Second, in order for a language to make headway, strong policies are required. The English, when conquering Ireland, used strong policies to ensure the English language was used at the expense of the Irish language. This strategy does not have enough strong policies that will influence Ireland for centuries.
I became fluent in Irish by attending an Irish-medium primary school. Unfortunately most students in English-medium primary schools do not become fluent in Irish. A strong successful policy would legislate that all primary schools teach through the medium of Irish. It would be an enormous change for Ireland and its education system, but it would succeed in producing fluent Irish speakers.
Any private company that requires a government licence to operate (such as mobile telephone operators, broadcasting stations, transport companies) should have to fulfil a language requirement. Commercial radio stations should be required to broadcast 50 per cent of their prime-time output in Irish. Mobile telephone companies should offer all their services in Irish. In this way, Irish speakers such as myself would get the chance to use Irish every day. Currently we don’t, even though these companies are well aware that there are hundreds of thousands of people who can speak Irish.
If a government is not prepared to make tough decisions to implement strong policies, perhaps we should ask ourselves who we are as a nation. Would the rest of the world care if we completely lost our language? Probably not. Would they have more respect and admiration for us if we made a strenuous effort to speak Irish once again? Absolutely! Would tourists enjoy visiting Ireland more if they saw a unique and different culture in Ireland unavailable anywhere else in the world? Definitely.
– Is mise,