Now we know the state of play!

The current government has not made a single decision which encourages the use of Irish among the people. 

See other articles and comments on this decision at bottom of page!

My basis for this startling statement is the list of hypocritical statements and decisions made, some under the apparent guise of fiscal rectitude and others based on esoteric and dubious linguistic meanderings hidden deep in the inscrutable minds of those who inhabit Merrion Street! It has not made a single decision which encourages those small areas of our people where Irish is the vocabulary to develop and grow as an Irish speaking community. It has not made a single decision which was applauded with enthusiasm by any Irish Language organisation. Indeed the only piece of legislation that it has put on the books, the Gaeltacht Act 2012, was guillotined through the Oireachtas.

Aire ró-chiúin na Gaeltachta

As far as I can see they have never produced a single language planning professional, independent (or indeed dependent) in support of their position. All they do time and time again is wheel out a hapless Junior Minister to defend the indefensible (The actual minister of the Gaeltacht appears incapable of speaking to or for the people under his care!).

More readily disposed to use Irish?
The latest debacle is their decision made to abolish a system of attributing points for language proficiency, instituted by the last Fine Gael/Labour interparty government in 1974. In that year Richie Ryan abolished the requirement for proficiency in both Irish and English in candidates for the civil service. He stated that he was “satisfied that by replacing the compulsion which did so much damage to the Irish language over the past half century with enthusiasm for the language, we will have people more readily disposed to use Irish.” (see Richie Ryan decision made language marginal 4/2/2011)

Some years ago the Coimisinéir Teanga, Seán Ó Cuirreáin, made a finding in this matter after two investigations. His report for 2011 stated that these both "found that the Department of Social Protection failed to correctly award bonus marks for competence in Irish and English in internal promotion competitions. 

"The system, which is in operation since 1975, was set up as a replacement for ‘compulsory’ Irish, and  it was designed to ensure that Irish-speaking staff would be available at all grades in the Civil Service. 

"The Department of Social Protection did not appeal the decision of the investigation to the High  Court, but neither did it implement the recommendations. That in itself is a matter of concern but the  situation is made worse by the knowledge that the practice of failing to award bonus marks correctly  is common throughout the Civil Service. " (Report 2011)

The fact that the Department did not appeal the decision, as was it's right, meant that the finding of the Comisinéir stood. However as they also failed to act on his decision, he laid the matter before the Oireachtas. The relevant Houses of the Oireachtas committee has heard submissions but no report has issued as yet.

Left untried!
Today's Irish Times reports, "At the weekly Cabinet meeting, Ministers accepted a recommendation by Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin to discontinue the bonus points system on the basis that it is an anomaly and its intention of promoting Irish speakers within the Civil Service has not worked."

Thus instead of having the courtesy of waiting for the report of the Oireachtas Committee the government dictated its own judgement. It stated that the system is an anomaly and does not work. One is tempted to ask "How do you know?" since, as the Comisinéir found, it was not so much that the system failed but rather that the system was never operated.

There is a saying of the eminent English apologist G.K. Chesterton in another matter which comes to mind, 'The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.' (GKC, What's Wrong with the World, 1910).

Less than hollow!
The report in today's Irish Times goes on to say: "Mr Howlin’s department has yet to devise a specific plan to achieve this aim. It has indicated panels will be set aside for those who are fluent or proficient in Irish."  How this will actually work is not stated. Unlike the Ryan decision we are not even palmed off with a hollow statement that this might be helpful development for the language. In fact it is little less than a further reduction and retreat from minimalist position adopted in 1974, a position which has led to the position that only 1.5% of the staff Department of Education can conduct business in Irish, not to mention the other Departments.

There is no obvious saving of resources in this decision. It appears it is in fact a further change in policy in relation to our language. A policy which will instead of encouraging the use of Irish among Civil Servants will positively militate against its use by establishing quotas. Why would a civil servant seek to improve his knowledge of Irish? It is in fact a further isolated from "real-life!"

It is hardly a month ago since the Comisinéir Teanga addressed the opening of Coláiste na Gaeilge in Dublin and spoke about the hypocracy of successive Governments since 1928. At the conclusion of his address he listed two things to be included in the new Language Act which would demonstrate the current Government's  good-will.

"1. To copperfasten in the Act that every employee dealing with the Gaeltacht community be proficient in the language.

2. The the position of Irish in staff recruitment to the public service in general be dealt with clearly.

If these two questions are dealt with in the amendment process (of the Language Act) there would be some hope that progress could be made. If these questions are avoided, or if a lukewarm effort or further wearysome pretences are introduced, we will understand more clearly the state of play and the direction of the wind!" (My translation)

I fear that the Kenny/Gilmore government have given him and us his answer!

The answer is brutal!

Verily we now know the state of play and the direction of the wind!

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These are comments and statements on this the latest blow struck against our language by an uncaring government! 

The Commentator "An Sionnach Fionn" has quoted extensively from this in his blog, "SOWING A GAELIC STORM". I'm not sure that I like the terms Hibernophone and Anglophone and would hardly think of myself in such terms. I think Gael is a far more humane term!

Cén fáth go bhfoghlaimeodh aon stát seirbhíseach an Ghaeilge a thuilleadh? (An Tuairisceoir, 31/10/2013)
Deireadh le pointí bónais as Gaeilge – fíorscanradh na Samhna (Nuacht24, 31/10/2013)
Abolition of points system means there won’t be enough Irish speaking civil servants, claims group (The Journal, 1/11/2013)
An Ghaeilge deemed unnecessary for 94% of civil servants (Gaelport, 5/11/2013)
Since the Government through Foras na Gaeilge suddenly withdrew support for the Irish newspaper Gaelscéal there is little printed news published in Irish. This from the Irish Times: ‘Buille eile’ don teanga sa socrú nua státseirbhíse (6/11/2013).
Written response (in English to a Notice Question in Irish) from the Minister of Public Service, Irish Language Proficiency in the Civil Service. (Seanad Éireann, 6/11/2013)
Buile do phobal na Gaeltachta agus Gaeilge (Galway Advertiser, 7/11/2013)
Irish civil service incentive cut (Letter, Irish Times, 7/11/2013)

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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.

National archive reveals shocking state cynicism!

"Are we - as we approach to the one hundredth anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising - to foist compulsory English in place of compulsory Irish in the state system of this country?"

At an event in Dublin on the 3 September 2013, the Coimisinéir Teanga, Seán Ó Cuirreáin  officially launched Coláiste na hÉireann and its first course, a Postgraduate Diploma in Translation. Coláiste na nÉireann is a new third-level institution founded by the organisation Gaelchultúr.

In a short address prior to the official launch the Coimisinéir shared some startling information which, as he said, makes it difficult to view the Irish language policy of the Irish state from 1928 other than as an excercise in cynicism, deception and long fingering! (The text of the speech may be found in Irish here on the website of the Office of the Coimisinéir Teanga!)

In June 1928 the then Minister of Local Government & Health, Risteárd Ua Maolchatha, introduced Legal Instrument (No 23 0f 1928) which specified that any local or health authority employee with duties in the Gaeltacht (Irish speaking area) be given three years to learn sufficient Irish to be able to perform their duties in the local language. If they failed to do this they were to be let go.

In 1944 Seán McEntee, the thne minister with these responsibilities strengthened the scope these provisions (No74/1944) with the same three year period as in the first instrument. This means that there was a legal mechanism in place to ensure that people were enabled to transact their business with the state in Irish.

Research by the Office of the Coimisinéir Teanga has discovered however that these provisions were never implemented. The fact that they were never implemented would indicate that they should be riscinded but in fact they never were, indeed what happened, in the words of the Coimisinéir, was far more cynical. As a target date approached a new instrument was signed which postponed it for a further six or twelve months. Research of the State Papers indicates that this happened not once nor twice but at least fifty four (54) times between 1928 and 1966. Surely an exercise in cynicism, deception and long fingering!

In further research his office has investigated the background to Richie Ryan's announcement of the abolition of the requirement of proficiency in the National Language for applicants to appointments in the civil service in 1974. At the time he proclaimed to the Dáil (27 Sept 1974) "...there will be no weakening of Irish in the civil service and there will be a greater desire to use it because of the ending of compulsion..." (The Comisinéir has commented on this as reported in "Richie Ryan decision made language marginal" 4/2/2011). This in fact did not reflect the true position of the Government or the Civil Service.

The reality as revealed in papers now available under the 30 year rule at the National Archive. The Comisinéir  has seen these himself and slightly incredulously quoted from some of these in his address. From these papers it is clear that considerable pressure, if not influence, was exercised by certain civil servant trade unions, activists for people in Northern Ireland and the Language Freedom Movement (LFM) - a group which was strongly inimical to the State's role in promoting the use of Irish - papers from this group are preserved in the Hardiman Library at NUIG..

The minister (Ryan) himself wrote on the use of Irish in dealing with the public who wished or required to use it in dealing with the State bodies‚"There has been legitimate criticism that this responsibility has not always been discharged. The position will tend to worsen if staff without Irish are recruited."

A senior Civil Servant somewhat prophetically warns that the removal of the language condition "...could lead eventually to a situation where few, if any, civil servants would have any knowledge of the language and it would almost certainly make it impossible to provide staff in sufficient numbers to deal with those who...would be entitled to expect to be able to conduct business in Irish with Government Departments and Offices..."

Perhaps the most cynical is the remark of another, very hostile to Irish, civil servant which dismissed the efficacy of the additional points supposed to assist the Irish speaking applicant for a position. "In most cases, the interview board will make certain, through the marking system, that the candidate who, to them, is best qualified for the job, irrespective of his knowledge of Irish, will get it...."

The Taoiseach of the day (Liam Cosgrave) although fully supportive of the new regime showed that he did understand what was being done. He said, "..that the abolition of the requirement might cause some difficulties in regard to the Constitutional position of Irish as the first official language of the State and might lead to a situation where few civil servants would be able to conduct business in Irish with those members of the public who would wish and would be entitled to do so..."

From left: Risteárd Ua Maolcatha, Seán McEntee, Richie Ryan, Liam Cosgrave

We now know the pitiful result of these decisions and provarications.

The Civil Servants appointments procedure has (in the judgement of the Coimisinéir Teanga) consistently misinterpreted the points system which Richie Ryan stated would ensure a renaissance of Irish usage in the Government. It has led to the situation in the Department of Education where only 1.5% of the administrative staff are capable in the language. One shudders to think what the position in other Departments might be.

The civil service have made their position clear in a recent (November 2011) appearance before a joint Oireachtas committee. A judgement made by the Language Commissioner on the procedure in appointing points to applicants for positions with regard to language found the procedure illegal. The representatives of the Civil Service explained that they disagreed with his decision because that was the way they always did it! Sir Humphrey Appleby lives on!

The new language act is being formulated at present and in his address Seán Ó Cuirreáin asks, "Are we - as we approach to the one hundredth anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising - to foist compulsory English in place of compulsory Irish in the state system of this country?"

We will be able to judge their bona fides in the Heads of Bill for the new Irish Language act promised shortly by this Government, and for which they asked submissions almost two years ago. The Coimisinéir lists two things - that will incur no extra spending - that will demonstrate their good-will.

1. To copperfasten in the Act that every employee dealing with the Gaeltacht community be proficent in the language.

2. The the position of Irish in staff recruitment to the public service in general be dealt with clearly.

Can we say that the actions of Government and the Civil Service today will be any different than those who have occupied positions of responsibility since 1928? Has our experience of the policies of the current administration led us to expect otherwise?

What do you think?

The text in Irish in HTML on An Tuairisceoir: Óráid an Choimisinéara Teanga, Seán Ó Cuirreáin, i nGaelchultúr/Coláiste na hÉireann!

Linguistic chaos...

"Séasúr na seafóide sna meáin!" (The silly season in the media!)

An extraordinarily ignorant piece of "journalism" appeared in yesterday's Dublin Evening Herald. I would have missed it but for a tweet sent by one of those mentioned. This was a realtively anodyne and perhaps weary response: "It seems Aoibhinn and I are causing "linguistic chaos" with our names dár leis an Herald. Oh dear! ;-)"

However it did spawn a number of one-line responses such as "Náireach," (Shameful), "dochreidible," "aineolach" (ignorant), "Maslach" (Insulting) and a Conamara man tweeted that inimitable word beloved of the late Hugh Leonard, "Gobshite." One tweeter even searched for an obscure word in their copy of the venerable Rev. Patrick S. Dinneen and found "galldúda, m. = a very ignorant person!" Another stated "Níl aon leithscéal don aineolas a bhí ar an té a scríobh an méid sin." (There is no excuse for the ignorance of the person who wrote this.)

It is written under the byline of a guy called Michael O'Doherty (mod@herald.ie). He claimed that the fact that the "Aoibhinn Ni (sic) Shuileabhain (sic)" interview caused "linguistic chaos" not only in pronouncing her own name but also by interviewing the "little known native traditional Irish singer," Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh. (her website!)

Were it not for the fact that it highlights the malaise of much of the English language journalism it would be laughable. (Professional print journalism in Irish has all but been extinguished by Government Agencies recently, nevertheless there are some fine journalists acting independently as on the website An Tuairisceoir who have reproduced the Herald article with the statement: An fáth a bhfuil meáin Ghaeilge de dhíth orainn!  - why we need Irish media -)

This Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh is the same singer that Siobhán Long of the Irish Times has described as "One of the earthiest and most distinctive voices, not just in traditional circles, but anywhere..." She has broadcast not only here in Ireland but also in Britain. Just because she is little known to Michael O'Doherty does not necessarily mean she is little known.

As I had never heard of Michael O'Doherty I did my own little test for "known-ness" and ran a google search for Michael O'Doherty Herald and got just over 44thousand returns. I then ran a search for Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh and got nearly 58 thousand.

Non-native?

Native

Finally I would like to know the purpose of the word "native" in his description. Would he not regard himself as "native?" Is the fact that he was born in Killiney exclude him from being "native?" Or could it be that it is a gratuitous insult to our - if not his - own native language?

The right thing to do!

Last May an important and indeed unique international gathering took place in Dublin which appears, as far as I can see, to have been completely ignored by the English Language media in Ireland, with the possible exception of RTÉ's on-line news service (surprisingly monolingual for the  "national" broadcaster.) With the withdrawal of funds at short notice to the newspaper and internet news service, Gaelscéal, the Irish language print media has been effectively emasculated!

This was a the first gathering of the world's language commissioners, The International Conference of Language Rights.   The daddy of them all is Canada's Graham Fraser, who occupies the pioneering office of Commissioner of Official Languages, the first such office in the world. The event was organised by our own Commissioner of 10 years, Seán Ó Cuirreáin.

Seán Ó Cuirreáin, (partly hidden) introduces the President to the recently appointed Sandra Inutiq, Nunavut Commissioner.

The event was opened at Áras an Uachtarán by President Michael D Higgins himself. In a strong twenty minute extempore address the President said that rights are denied when people are discouraged from speaking a language or when a language is allowed to become subordinate in usage.

The speechs and presentations by representatives of linguistic diversity in areas as distinct as Canada, Kosova, Finnland, Catalonia, the Inuit regions of North America and South Africa who shared their experience were shared with an equally diverse group of international delegates. The sometimes controversial nature of the work of a Language Commissioner was thrown into sharp relief when the contribution of the Catalonian Ombudsman, Rafael Ribo, was flatly contradicted by a representative of the Spanish Embassy.

A comment by Ireland's Commissioner, Seán Ó Cuirreán, in his presentation also was echoed by other presentors.  He described the perception, indeed it appeard to be his own perception too, of the attitude of the Irish state bureaucracy: ""Labhraigí Gaeilge le chéile ach nár labhair linne í! (Speak Irish to each other but don't speak it to us!)" Though the Junior Irish Minister, charged with responsibility in this area, Dinny McGinley, did make an appearence briefly at the meeting, his absence for the bulk of the event perhaps told us more about the attitude of the Government than a thousand words.

A very full and accurate report on the event has been published, International Conference on Language Rights, Dublin, May 24, 2013, by the distinguished Swiss based cosmopolitan, Daphne Romy-Masliah, writer and commentator on Multiculturalism, Plurilingualism and waht she calls Cosmopolitanism. The presentations themselves may be found here on the Comisnéir Teanga's website. The talks are in the language used by the speaker. The official languages of the conference were Irish & English and a translation service was provided.


A striking sentence made during the day strongly echoed those of the President. "We are talking not only about rights here but about the right thing to do!"

Revenue Language Scheme: "Setting goals containing work already complete is simply dishonest”

•Leagan Gaeilge

The new language scheme for the Office of the Revenue Commissioners under the Official Languages Act 2003 comes into effect today, 04 June 2013. When the Official Languages Act was first introduced in 2003, the language schemes, which are agreed by public bodies and set out their commitments towards Irish language services, were seen as an integral part of the legislation.

Ironic question in view of latest
Revenue Commissioners' Scheme!

Umbrella body for the Irish language voluntary sector, Comhdháil Náisiúnta na Gaeilge, has expressed concern in the past about how these schemes have been agreed, effected and implemented, and the latest scheme by the Office of the Revenue Commissioner does little to quell their concern.

In April of this year, Comhdháil Náisiúnta na Gaeilge highlighted the second language scheme of the Department of Education and Skills and demonstrated that not only did the scheme fail to build on the first scheme, but in fact it revoked many of the original commitments.

Like the language scheme of the Department of Education and Skills, the first scheme by the Office of the Revenue Commissioners expired in 2008, and it has taken five years for the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to ratify the successive scheme.

Also similarly to the language scheme of the Department of Education and Skills, an emerging over-arching reluctance across state services towards the implementation of the Official Languages Act is displayed in the new scheme with phrases such as “subject to resources being available” and “as resources permit” appearing after many commitments.

Excuses, escape clauses and caveats are all too common in the latest scheme. In relation to the Revenue website, it is stated that: “Where content is not available in Irish, a link to the English content will be provided, together with an appropriate explanation to the customer. This link will indicate that the destination page will be in English only”. No elaboration is made as to what “appropriate explanation” might entail, or as to how a user of the site could possibly understand what parts of the site are to be made available in Irish and what parts will be available in English only.

The second scheme commits again to the provision of 20% of pressreleases to be delivered simultaneously in Irish and English on the Revenue website, and a commitment is declared to ensure at least one Irish language advertisement will be deployed for every ten English language advertisements published in any Revenue campaign.

Thirty specific publications are listed in the second scheme, with the goal of having all 30 publications available bilingually by 2016.

Director of Comhdháil Náisiúnta na Gaeilge, Kevin De Barra, claims the scheme lacks integrity and says “the scheme contradicts the essence of the Official Languages Act 2003. The new scheme contains so many caveats and conditions, that the power of the Coimisinéir Teanga, to ensure compliance, has now been diminished. A goal of 30 specific publications has been set for 2016, of which 80% are currently available to the public. Setting goals containing work already complete is simply dishonest”.

The "B" spot - a new APP for parents and other learners!

Leagan Gaeilge

For the past year Forbairt Naíonraí Teoranta, in conjunction with Annertech, have been developing an app called BunGhaeilge. This app will be based on the phrase book BunGhaeilge do Thuismitheoirí agus Feighlithe Leanaí – that was being published by ITE up until 2007 when FNT acquired the publishing rights. The app has been designed in accordance with the structure of the phrase book, that is separated into chapters by theme; ‘Morning time’, ‘The Naíonra’, ‘In the shop’, ‘In the Garden’ for example. Even though this book is aimed primarily at families who wish to use cúpla focal whilst going about their daily activities, FNT believe that this app is useful for all language learners, especially in helping with pronunciation.

App users will have the opportunity to listen to every phrase in the book and to repeat them. A standardised version of the app will be released at first, though FNT plan to release versions in all major dialects in the near future. BunGhaeilge will be available to download free of charge from the Android store from May 15th, and from the Apple store from the start of next month.

According to FNT Chief Executive Clíona Frost, ‘There’s a new resource available for anyone who wishes to use Irish as the everyday language in the family. This app, through the medium of new social media, provides a unique opportunity for the global community to come easily access the Irish language. This app demonstrates great progress in the promotion of the Irish Language.’

Geoff Gray, a parent who wishes to add to his Irish vocabulary store commented, “Finally there is a user friendly app, based on everyday Irish. I can use the app on the go when I’m out with my daughter and my use of Irish has greatly increased since I downloaded BunGhaeilge to my phone. Maith sibh FNT!”