Sir, - It takes a particular talent to link the scandals of paedophile priests with the teaching of Irish. But David Herman (November 23rd) is well up to the challenge.
His letter follows a well loved format. Statistics about relative educational attainments are slung around with abandon. The hypocrisy of the State in the matter is mentioned. The dodgy attitude of the populace to the language is not forgotten. The failure of successive generations is recalled. And so on and so forth, until the essential thesis is arrived at. And this is that if time were not spent teaching the Irish language in schools then people would somehow be better educated.
Consistently, the definition of "better educated" is avoided. So I'll offer one of my own. Education is all about finding oneself, as an individual, and as a member of a tribe or nation. Education is about discovering oneself, one's humanity, and where one fits into the great scheme of things, things beyond oneself, beyond humanity. Education has nothing to do with learning foreign languages so that one can man or woman multilingual telecall centres, answer queries about foreigners' credit card accounts and the like. That latter process is "job preparation", a different thing entirely. Education and job preparation are not incompatible. But there is an essential difference. We educate to build and participate in a nation. And, while the nation goes on forever, the jobs we prepare for are here today, gone tomorrow.
Job preparation is a short-term expediency, whereas education is a process that takes place over generations. In Ireland's case, because of our history, much education is essentially a rebuilding, a rediscovery. This takes time. A personal example: my Church of Ireland, unionist grandfather spoke not a word of Irish. (And no doubt, as one of the founders of the IRFU, he was very proud of that fact.) Next generation along, my father would have had a smattering of words. I have a lot, but no way would consider myself a speaker. But my children, aged eight to 18, all speak Irish fluently. I find this a positive transition, a renewal, a family-sized version of the national renewal that the Irish language is experiencing. Mr Herman's analysis would imply that this is some kind of regression into a primitive past. But he is wrong.
Like it or lump it, the future is the Irish language. Not this generation, or the next, but the future. Surely Mr Herman can see the writing on the wall? Or, if not that, he must notice the (bilingual) writing on supermarket signs? And doesn't he know that parents are beating down the doors to try and get their children into Gaelscoileanna? Mr Herman may very well dismiss those realities as irrelevant; he obviously has a bee in his bonnet. Sadly, in addition to this relatively harmless anti-Irish language bee, he seems also to have, buzzing in that overcrowded bonnet, the killer bee of anti-Roman Catholicism. His remark that "the Roman Catholic Church stinks to high heaven" is really most intemperate and outrageous. While grossly insulting to the majority population of Ireland, it is equally offensive to those of us who are not Roman Catholics. Were it to be made about one of our minority religions - Islam, Judaism, or Free Presbyterianism for that matter - there would be shouting from the liberal rooftops. I haven't a bull's notion of Mr Herman's religious affiliations, if any. But, if "the Roman Catholic Church stinks to high heaven" is an example of his position, I don't really want to be enlightened further about his theology. This is the language of hatred, intolerance and, ultimately, the language of pogrom and war.
Mr Herman mentions that readers may suggest that he is suffering from a post-colonial inferiority complex. Au contraire. His complex would appear to be quite colonial, and very superior indeed. - Yours, etc., Gerry Kennedy,
Gore Street, Killala, Co Mayo.