Madam, - I am in the last weeks of a finance and economics degree course in Paris at the École Supérieure Libre Des Sciences Commercials Appliqués. There are 70 students from 30 nationalities on the programme, including representatives of almost all 27 EU countries. We had a party to celebrate the accession and I felt good to be the sole Irish person on the course, unofficially representing the EU Presidency.
Most of the students on the course aspire to EU jobs. They are all well qualified being fluent in their own native languages plus French and English, the languages of our degree course. To my shame, despite coming 4th in the class, I alone will have to spend an additional year to attain what all other nationalities can do from June onwards. My language does not count.
This is because my primary and secondary schooling and first year of third-level was in my own national language in West Kerry and DCU, with the balance of my third-level degree through French. I also got an honour "A" in English in my Leaving Cert.
My great-grandfather was Sean Moylan, a founding member of Fianna Fáil. My large extended family is very active politically.
I think I speak for most of us in saying that the refusal of this Government to allow Irish speakers the same rights as all 500 million other EU citizens is intolerable, and that Fianna Fáil will suffer for this.
There is a large community of Gaeilgeoirí here in Paris. It is our experience that having Irish as a first language makes it second nature for us to operate in foreign languages in a manner that our Anglophone friends cannot.
Commissioner Reding's recently reported remarks, pointing out that Luxumburgish is not an official language, were misleading. Unlike Irish, Luxumborgish is simply a dialect of German, which is already an official language.
I call on An Taoiseach to register Irish as an official language, and put an end to this discrimination. - Yours, etc.,
MAEBH NIC INNREACHTAIGH, Rue de Rosier, Paris, France.
Madam, - Several letters have recently been published advocating that Irish be recognised as an EU official language.
If adopted, it is doubtful if such a measure would accomplish very much toward reviving Irish as a spoken language. Such a concession would certainly require another cohort of official translators; then a library of official tomes, packed with legalistic jargon, unlikely to be ever read.
Instead of relying on signatures and statistics, ostensibly promoting the cause, would it be more logical that Irish people should speak the language in public, commensurate with their ability, and to honour the State sponsorship and financial endowment for the cause since 1922? - Yours, etc.,
NOEL MULQUEEN, Cappa, Kilrush, Co Clare.