A chara, - After the comprehensive replies to his original clanger of April 1st, one might have expected Dr Maurice Guéret to hold his peace. One understands that the promotion of the Irish language is not central to the mission of our hospitals. Nevertheless it is consistent with it, especially in State hospitals.
Physical and mental health of patients, not of language, is the business of hospitals; but neither is it their business to assist in the harming or degrading of Irish. This is what is happening in many hospitals through neglect and inaction, however.
Whatever about certain journalists, one does not expect a neurologist to misdiagnose. When Dr Guéret writes (April 18th) of the health service being "fully resuscitaed" and "resuscitating the Irish language", he is surely guilty of overstatement.
His sense of geography is off the mark also as he speaks of Irish speakers coming "hundreds of miles" from the West of Ireland. I am a native speaker of Irish from Dublin. Is Dr Guéret unaware that there is a lively Gaeltacht community 40 miles from his home in Fortfield Road?
Is he implying that in 2003 patients in need from all over Ireland should receive appropriate care (including respect for their language) in specialist hospitals in Dublin - with the exception of Irish speakers? It would seem he wants them confined to their own regions.
Dr Guéret allows (thanks for nothing) that "what is left" from the health budget might be spent on Irish. What planet is he on? Unless it's integrated in the Budget, it won't happen.
Should I ever become a neurology patient of Dr Guéret's (nár lige Dia! - no reflection on his competence as a neurologist), my wish would be to converse with him in Irish.
Meanwhile it is disappointing to read such drivel from an evidently educated man whose surname suggests a multicultural background. - Yours, etc.,
PÁDRAIG Ó CUILL, OFM, Cap.,
Séiplíneach,
Ospidéal Beaumont,
Baile Átha Cliath 9.