Political World
The Irish language is being left to wither on the vine
We spent the Bank Holiday weekend on Inis Mór and as always had a fantastic time there.
The gap between life there and the mainland is not as stark as it was even when I was a child three decades or more ago.
I have distinct memories of the currachs coming out to meet the Naomh Éanna in Inis Oírr and Inis Meáin, and of lifestock being ‘swam’ out to be hoisted aboard. And even in my time with The Connacht Tribune, seeing all the older people on Inis Meáin filing down to Mass in their traditional báiníns, criosanna and shawls.
But there is still something different about the islands and life there. For one, the three islands remain, to varying degrees, some of the last outposts for native Irish in the country.
While on Inis Mór the Gaeilge these days is no longer a garden without weeds, it’s still spoken widely although the younger generations all speak English as adeptly as everybody else in Ireland.
Time doesn’t stand still. In the past generation technology has made just about everything accessible and just about everything these days in the technology generation is anglophone.
Sure, even when John Millington Synge visited Inis Mór over a century ago, there was plenty of English in Kilronan (and that may have prompted his decision to move onto Inis Meáin). But if the future of Irish was under threat, then it was a very distant one, as distant as somebody contemplating back in the 1950s the day that oil supplies would be depleted.
There’s a nostalgia or affection for the language and platitudes are expressed that it would be a shame for it to die.
However, when it comes to making any commitment to save the language, we go into the realm of the banal. It ranges from those who say (naively in some cases, maliciously in others) that if enough people are enthusiastic about it sure won’t the language survive, to those who say that there should be a limit to State support and that shouldn’t include any obligation on any State department to conduct any of its business in Irish; or for anybody to be obliged to learn Irish in school; or for any teacher in the State to have enough Irish to be able to teach Irish in Irish to his or her pupils rather than in English.
And then there’s the problem of the last few places in the country where Irish is spoken as a first language. The evidence on the ground is that the minority language is being swamped by English and that parents are fighting a losing battle to bring up their kids in Irish.
Should the State be doing its damnedest to ensure that the conditions are right to allow families grow up bilingually, to retain that rich texture of Irish, to have Irish as a true living language, rather than a kind of strange code used by a small minority class in cities who have learned it in much the same way that priests used to learn Latin in order to communicate with priests elsewhere?
There are some that say that sure don’t we have Hiberno English and isn’t that a very rich form of language. Yes, it was but not any more. And the reason it was rich was that it was heavily influenced by Gaelic. But as that influence has waned it has given away to an English that will be soon indistinguishable from, like, American English. So what does all this have to do with politics.
Well, the decision by Enda Kenny to appoint Joe McHugh as Minister for the Gaeltacht was symptomatic of the views expressed by Thomas Mason a generation ago. There’s a 20 year strategy for the Irish language to which the Government has committed but has done nothing.
The only thing Kenny has said of note in recent years is that he wants to scrap compulsory Irish for the Leaving Certificate. He’s got lovely Irish but has no real feel or commitment to the language. He has said there are other ways in which the language can be encouraged but of course he has never specified what they are, or indeed taken any action.
A couple of months ago, the Dáil was meant to have its only all-Irish day to mark Seachtain na Gaeilge but the Government was unable to find an Irish speaker to do Leaders Questions.
To add insult to injury, Kenny has appointed to people to the Gaeltacht portfolio (McHugh and Heather Humphreys) who can’t speak Irish. A little bit like Thomas Mason, the Government advocates a policy of festina lente. Oh sorry, I forgot to give you the translation for that: it means let it wither on the vine.
For more of this article see this week’s Connacht Tribune
World of Politics with Harry McGee
Academically, politics is described as a science. But in the real world, it’s more of an art – and one of the big decisions a Government has to make is to decide when to call an election.
Will they see out the full term, or will they go early – either to mitigate the damage they will ship, or to secure a victory before things go awry, or the economy takes a dip, or some kind of controversy erupts?
Timing is everything.
And there’s a bit of art to that – not to mention a lot of luck. If you call it early and win big, you’re a genius. If you call it early and lose, you are the political version of the village fool.
Charlie Haughey was a poor judge of the public mood. Twice he called snap elections and on both occasions they backfired. Haughey succeeded Jack Lynch as Taoiseach in late 1979 and did not – technically – have his own mandate. He tried to remedy that by calling an election in 1981. But it recoiled. Ray MacSharry warned him not to hold it during the H Block hunger strikes when republican prisoners were dying each day. He did not listen to the advice and found himself out of office.
After his return to power in 1987, Haughey tired of presiding over a minority government that kept on losing votes in the Oireachtas (the opposition won nine private members motions).
So he called a snap general election and it backfired. Fianna Fáil lost seats and had to broker a coalition deal with the Progressive Democrats and his long-standing political adversary Dessie O’Malley.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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World of Politics with Harry McGee
I was cycling down Mount Street in Dublin on Tuesday. It’s a wide esplanade that links the Grand Canal with Merrion Square. The street is a mixture of fine Georgian buildings and modern office blocks.
About half-way down is the office of the International Protection Office, which deals with asylum seekers who have arrived in the country.
Needless to say, the office has been overwhelmed in the past year. Besides an estimated 80,000 refugees who have arrived from Ukraine, there have been about 20,000 people from other parts of the world who have arrived into Dublin (mostly) claiming asylum.
The numbers peaked around Christmas, but they have been falling a little. In January, more than 1,300 people arrived seeking asylum but the numbers fell back to 831 and 858, in February and March respectively.
They are still huge numbers in a historical context.
So back to my cycle on Tuesday. I knew that some asylum seekers were camping outside the International Protection Office, but I was taken aback by how many. There were six tents lined up on the pavement directly outside. Then on the ramp that led down to the basement carpark on the side of the building, there were about another 20 tents.
It looked like what it was, a refugee camp in the middle of Dublin’s business district. If you pan out from Mount Street, you will find tents here and there in nearby streets and alleys. There were a good few tents in an alleyway off Sandwith Street about 500 metres away.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
World of Politics with Harry McGee
God that was a dramatic and historic weekend in England, wasn’t it? So much excitement, so much change, so much hype, so much out with the old and in with the new, and what looks like the coronation of a new leader. Yes, the local elections in Britain were something else weren’t they!
Apologies for not going on about King Charles III but the contract I signed when I became a lifelong republican forbids me to discuss the topic!
I know the British local elections sound a bit boring by comparison, but the results were stunning.
The Conservatives lost nearly 1,000 seats, the British Labour Party gained almost 500 and both the Lib Dems (with 350 gains) and the Greens (gaining over 200) also had amazing days at the polls.
It was Labour’s best day since 2002 but its victory was only partial. The Greens and the Lib Dems actually made gains at the expense of Labour in more affluent areas, and in parts of Britain where there were high numbers of graduates.
It was in the Red Wall constituencies in the North of England where the Labour recovery was strongest. These are working class constituencies with pockets of deprivation where people voted for the Labour Party forever. But all of those constituencies voted for Brexit and then voted for the Tories in the next general election. Labour is now winning back some of those votes.
Local elections are classified as second-tier elections which essentially means – from a national perspective – they are not life-or-death affairs, and not everything turns on them. Of course, it’s really important to have good local representation. But they are not an amazing weather vane for who rules the country.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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