<div dir="ltr"><h1>"We spend mind-boggling amounts of public money on the Irish language. Cén fáth?"</h1>
<h2 class="gmail-main_excerpt">All-Gaeilge road
signs in tourist areas; a fortune spent on translations for legislation
drafted in English – Eoin Butler on why we need to talk about Irish.</h2>
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Source: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPk6f0l-g7ttqy-5gl2cSHQ">Screenworks Films</a>/YouTube</span><p><em>Eoin Butler, the presenter of the short film, above, writes:</em></p>
<p>WITH THIS SHORT film, director Paul Duane and I are hoping to accomplish the near impossible.</p>
<p>That is, to start a conversation about the Irish language that is
rational, unswayed by emotion, dogma or any political agenda, and
informed by the facts as they are, rather than how we might wish them to
be.</p>
<p>Like every Irish kid, I was required to study the language for
thirteen years in school. I needed Irish to secure a place in
university. So I spent a couple of summers in the Gaeltacht and learned
it well enough to get an honour in my Leaving Cert. And there, pretty
much, ended my engagement with the language.</p>
<p>A couple of years ago, on a night out with a mixed group of friends
and strangers, the subject of Irish came up. No one at our table could
speak it with any degree of competency, despite all our years of study.
Why was this, we wondered? The near unanimous consensus seemed to be
that Irish isn’t taught properly in our schools. But when I asked how it
might be taught differently, the replies I received were muddled or
contradictory.</p>
<blockquote class="gmail-coloured">
<div>So I offered my own off-the-cuff suggestion. Maybe the real problem
was that, fundamentally, we hadn’t wanted to learn Irish, because we
had no practical use for it.</div>
</blockquote>
<p>Going forward, I suggested, might it not be a more productive use of
schoolchildren’s time, as well as the State’s resources, if only
students who genuinely wanted to study Irish were taught the subject?
And if kids who’d prefer to study art, or music, or IT, or Mandarin
Chinese, were allowed to study those subjects instead?</p>
<p>Honestly, if I were a beauty pageant contestant advocating world
peace, I could not have felt that I were venturing a blander suggestion.
But the table was aghast. Most immediately noticeable was the vitriol I
faced.</p>
<p><strong>They felt personally affronted</strong></p>
<p>People didn’t just disagree with me. They felt personally affronted. I
mean, to the extent that, when I was returning from the bathroom a few
minutes later, I overheard one of my friends assuring the group that I
was being deliberately provocative and hadn’t really meant what I had
said.</p>
<p>More striking still was just how the flimsy the furious arguments
hurled at me, in favour of mandatory Irish, turned out to be when
subjected to any scrutiny. The takeaway, for me, was that I had stumbled
upon an issue Irish people engage with emotionally on a gut level,
while checking their brains in at the door. And given the mind-boggling
sums of public money at stake, this notion rather intrigued me.</p>
<p>Ultimately, it became the departure point for this short film.</p>
<p>In An Bhfuil Cead Agam? I highlight the absurd, expensive and
(occasionally) criminally irresponsible lengths to which we go in this
country to avoid recognising awkward home truths about our first
language. I debunk some of the myths that have impeded honest debate
about the language, and ask who benefits from pursuing policies that
have already clearly failed by any measure.</p>
<blockquote class="gmail-coloured">
<div>The piece is a polemic and I make no apology for that.</div>
</blockquote>
<p>The notion that Irish language policy, as presently constituted, is
sound and fit for purpose is one of the basic operating principles of
our entire education system, civil service and public broadcasting
apparatus. One short YouTube video explicitly outlining an opposing
viewpoint does not seem a disproportionate reaction to me.</p>
<p><strong>What we left out</strong></p>
<p>Paul and I set out to make a six-minute video. We ended up going
twice that long. And even still, there were mountains of material we
were forced to omit.</p>
<p>Like the time the Department of the Gaeltacht was caught using Google Translate on its website.</p>
<p>Or the DJ hired to present an alternative music show on Raidió na
Gaeltachta who was subsequently directed to play only Irish language
alternative music. (No such sub-genre really existed.)</p>
<p>Or the myriad links between Irish language activism and the for-profit Irish language translation services industry.</p>
<p>All of these will feature in a full length documentary we hope to make at a later date.</p>
<p>Finally, I should state that our original plan for the closing
section of the video was to shoot it outside Croke Park on a big match
day. When that proved unfeasible, on very short notice, we were forced
to relocate the grounds of my local GAA club. I should hope it goes
without saying that the views expressed in this film are mine, and mine
alone, and in no way reflect the views of Ballyhaunis GAA.</p>
<p>So by all means, call me a traitorous West Brit sleeper agent – or
whatever else you want to – in the comment section. Just leave those
good people out of it.</p>
<p><strong><em>What do you think? Should Irish be a mandatory subject in the Leaving Cert?</em></strong><br>
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