Madam, - In his letter of February 16th, Paul Bowler wrote: "It is not, however, the responsibility of our European partners to give patronising credence to the notion that we are a bi-lingual people when we are patently not".
This is untrue.We are very certainly a bilingual people. At least 40 per cent of us are bilingual. We have newspapers, radio and TV in Irish. The Irish Times itself has a long-standing tradition of publishing articles in Irish. BBC TV is broadcasting an Irish language programme.
A nation is defined by its culture and the Irish language is a basic part of our culture.
It is very neglectful of our Taoiseach, Mr Bertie Ahern, and his Ministers not to insist on the Irish language being recognised as an official language by the EU.
We are entitled to conduct our business in Irish if we want to and almost 2 million of us are able to do so. - Yours, etc.,
SEAMUS LANTRY, Father Mathew Street, Cork.