Madam, - If "language is the finest achievement of culture", then surely the people of Malta are to be applauded for the recognition their ancient language will receive when they join the EU.
The Maltese author Gorg Ifsud Chircop, whose own Maltese is flawless, will concede that the citizens of that republic speak a hybrid version of the language and that only 20 per cent of the island's population speak it properly.
This can hardly be surprising. From the time the awe-inspiring Tarxian Temples were built 4,500 years ago until British colonial rule ended in 1974, Malta has been under the influence or rule successively of Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, Spaniards, the Knights of the Order of St John of Jerusalem (and their eight langues), French and British.
By contrast, in Ireland, a unique literature had been produced for more than a thousand years, when a Gaelic poet, in despair at the collapse of his world, wrote:
"Ni aithnid aicme Gaedheal
Banba buime a macaomh,
'S ní aithnigheann Éire iad-san,
Téighid re chéile as a gcruthaibh."
Yet, long after Fear Flatha Ó Gnimh's world was transformed, Irish people produced remarkable works of art of the calibre of Eibhlin Dhubh Ní Chonaill's Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire or Brian Merriman's incomparable Cúirt an Mheán Oiche.
The largest party of our present administration was often called "The Party of Destiny", such was its support for the values, ideals and aims of those who brought about independence. Perhaps the leaders of this powerful party, like Fear Flatha, now believe that their idyllic world has been utterly transformed, that this generation of Irish people has no pieties and respects only the values of the market place.
Not true! If Maltese, Estonian Latvian, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Polish and Slovene gain a higher status in the EU than Irish, there will be consternation and outrage here.
The President of the European Union must demand of his colleagues forthwith that the Irish language be given its rightful status in the new Europe.
Múscail do mhisneach, a Thaoisigh, for the sake of all future generations of Irish men and women. - Is mise,
PÁDRAIG Ó CLÉIRIGH, Páirc na Trá, Port Mearnág, Co Átha Cliath.