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<h1>We must listen to civic unionism’s concerns about Irish language Act</h1>
<h2> State intervention may only deepen divide and it could prove counterproductive</h2>
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<time title="about 9 hours ago">about 9 hours ago</time>
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<a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/profile/diarmaid-ferriter-7.2925393" class="gmail-gtm-event">Diarmaid Ferriter</a> </div>
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<img title="Irish-language protesters outside the Education Authority in Belfast last year, protesting against the withdrawal of funding from Irish-medium youth providers. File photograph: Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker" alt="Irish-language protesters outside the Education Authority in Belfast last year, protesting against the withdrawal of funding from Irish-medium youth providers. File photograph: Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker" class="gmail-responsive-img" src="https://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.3429682.1521213513!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_620_330/image.jpg" width="620" height="330"> <p class="gmail-selectionShareable">Irish-language
protesters outside the Education Authority in Belfast last year,
protesting against the withdrawal of funding from Irish-medium youth
providers. File photograph: Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker</p>
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<p class="gmail-no_name gmail-selectionShareable">Recently,
more than 100 unionists in Northern Ireland put their names to a letter
urging nationalists to discuss building a “society for the betterment
of everyone”.</p>
<p class="gmail-no_name gmail-selectionShareable">The move was in response to a
letter from “civic nationalism” that had urged Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to
protect the rights of Irish citizens in the North. In their letter, the
unionists call for “a transparent and inclusive debate concerning
rights, truth, equality and civil liberties”.</p>
<p class="gmail-no_name gmail-selectionShareable">That is a hell of a big ask in the
North, but the request needs to be given proper consideration. The
signatories “find it frustrating and puzzling that civic unionism,
pluralists and other forms of civic leadership have been rendered
invisible in many debates focused on rights and responsibilities”.</p>
<p class="gmail-no_name gmail-selectionShareable">Nationalists also have reason to
express concern about their status given current uncertainty about
Brexit and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar acknowledged in December that one of
the failures of the southern State historically was that it left
Northern nationalists “behind”.</p>
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<h4 class="gmail-crosshead">Frustrations</h4>
<p class="gmail-no_name gmail-selectionShareable">Almost 20 years after the Belfast
Agreement, the letters underline the frustrations at the enduring, if
not increasing polarisation in the North. Whatever hopes existed that
cross-community integration might facilitate a broad healing have faded.
One of the signatories of the recent letter from civic unionism was
solicitor Trevor Ringland, a former Ireland rugby player and member of
the Ulster Unionist Party who has elaborated on his thoughts in the <em>Sunday Business Post</em>.
He sees himself as a unionist who is “comfortably Irish” and emphasised
what those involved in rugby had achieved to bring people together who
were constitutionally apart. He also observed that the Irish language
was flourishing in the North but there was a unionist fear that an Irish
language Act would be used to “deepen divisions rather than heal them”
and that “if given the opportunity, civic society here could find an
acceptable solution”.</p>
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<p class="gmail-no_name gmail-selectionShareable">This is an important point, too
often overlooked. There is much preoccupation with “legacy issues” from
the Troubles, but there are longer-term “legacy issues” arising out of
the events of 100 years ago that have been addressed fairly,
imaginatively and honestly in recent years by both civic unionism and
civic nationalism beyond the fray of polarising politics.</p>
<h4 class="gmail-crosshead">Delicate issue</h4>
<p class="gmail-no_name gmail-selectionShareable">The way these commemorations have
been approached in such a divisive society could well provide a template
for dealing with some of the current contentious issues, including the
Irish language, as Ringland suggests. With all the focus on the 1916
commemoration in the Republic there was not enough appreciation here of
how the delicate issue of centenary commemorations in the North from
2012-16 was managed. One of the crucial points about their success was
that they were not led or driven by politicians. Groups such as the
Community Relations Council (CRC) and the Heritage Lottery Fund combined
to encourage thoughtful debate and a pluralist response to the
centenaries with an emphasis on events that could deepen understanding
of the period with a strong emphasis on “respectful listening”, multiple
narratives and the insistence that both communities “must travel”.</p>
<blockquote class="gmail-inline__content gmail-inline__content--pullquote">
If the language issue is in a very healthy condition, is the best
thing for it legislation that would inevitably be divisive?
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<p class="gmail-no_name gmail-selectionShareable">One of the reasonings was that
such an approach could “underpin future community relations work”. As
the CRC put it: “Remembering in public space could have at its heart a
commitment to reflect the variety and complexity of cultural life… to
create gateways for engagement and to resolve political issues in a way
that is consistent with the overarching values of equality, human rights
and reconciliation.”</p>
<h4 class="gmail-crosshead">Heavy intervention</h4>
<p class="gmail-no_name gmail-selectionShareable">Could the language question be
approached in the same way? If it is in a very healthy condition, is the
best thing for it legislation that would inevitably be divisive? The
experience of the South is a reminder that heavy State intervention is
not a recipe for success. By the 1950s, many aspects of State promotion
of the Irish language had failed. As historian Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh has
noted: “The ritual symbolic use of Irish by politicians was frequently
so limited that it seemed no more than tokenism and the degree of real
penetration of Irish in the apparatus of the State continued to
disappoint. Crucially, the evidence was unmistakable that insisting on
competence in Irish for entry to the public service did not guarantee
increased use of Irish in the actual services being supplied to the
public.”</p>
<p class="gmail-no_name gmail-selectionShareable">Nor did State policy on preserving
vibrant Gaeltacht areas work and, ultimately, it was “the voluntary
efforts of parents and language activists rather than State policy or
planning or policy” that was the driver of the more recent Irish-medium
school movement.</p></div></section>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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