[lg policy] "We spend mind-boggling amounts of public money on the Irish language. Cén fáth?"

Fri Oct 7 15:12:51 UTC 2016

"We spend mind-boggling amounts of public money on the Irish language. Cén
fáth?" 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.
20 hours ago 17,648 Views 75 Comments
<http://www.thejournal.ie/should-irish-be-mandatory-leaving-cert-3012978-Oct2016/#comments>
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Source: Screenworks Films
<https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPk6f0l-g7ttqy-5gl2cSHQ>/YouTube

*Eoin Butler, the presenter of the short film, above, writes:*

WITH THIS SHORT film, director Paul Duane and I are hoping to accomplish
the near impossible.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

*They felt personally affronted*

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.

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.

Ultimately, it became the departure point for this short film.

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.

The piece is a polemic and I make no apology for that.

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.

*What we left out*

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.

Like the time the Department of the Gaeltacht was caught using Google
Translate on its website.

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.)

Or the myriad links between Irish language activism and the for-profit
Irish language translation services industry.

All of these will feature in a full length documentary we hope to make at a
later date.

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.

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.

*What do you think? Should Irish be a mandatory subject in the Leaving
Cert?*

   - Yes
   - No
   - I don't know

http://www.thejournal.ie/should-irish-be-mandatory-leaving-cert-3012978-Oct2016/

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