The doctor's rights?

A tweet some days ago set me thinking.

"Reality is that if an Irish speaking child without English goes to a Doctor without Irish, people think that the child is violating the Doctor's rights!"

"Speak English to me!"

It stirred something in my memory. A poem from Msgr. Pádraig Ó Fiannachta, the eminent scholor and under whose guidance and incredible persistence the Biobla Magh Nuad was published.

The poem is dedicated to his brokenhearted mother and appears in his collection Deora Dé (1987)

Do Mháire Ní Fhiannachta

Bhí deartháirín agam tráth 
Ach sciob an bás é, 
Agus mise i gcoláiste. 
Ghlaoigh sé ar a mháthair 
Agus eisean i bpianpháis; 
Deoch ‘on uisce lena shásamh 
Ina íota géar a cháiseamh.

"Looking for his duck!" 
A bhí sé dar leis na húdaráis 
Ag tabhairt tuairisc’ ar a bhás 
Dá mháthair larna mhárach ...

An bhearna i mo chroí-se 
Riamh ó shin níor líonadh

Go bhfaca romham ar bhinse 
Máirín Óg Ní Fhiannachta 
Den dara glúin im dhiaidhse 
Is an gaol eadrainn chomh sínte 
Nach bhfuil aon seanchaí a ríomhadh 
Na glúinte trínar síoladh 
An mianach ceannann céanna 
Is an Ghaeilge aici chomh líofa 
Le Micilín i gclúid mo chroí-se.

The tells the story of his little brother, Micilín. He died in a hospital (I assume Tralee), cut off from his home in Corca Duibhne (Dingle Penninsula) asking in vain for a drink (deoch) of water but the hospital staff did not understand this final request from a dying toddler thinking he was "looking for his duck!"

When illness strikes a small or pre-school child in a family in the Gaeltacht it is hardly a defensible civil right that the child has the extra burden of having to communicate and understand in a language not that of his home. Yet there is no legal obligation on the State Services to provide that service, despite that fact that there is a law to this effect in the state since 1928 which by ministerial order has remained dormant - 54 times (see address of The Coimisinéir Teanga 3/9/2013 {in Irish})

I think this poem should be compulsory reading for all health service professionals in Ireland.