[lg policy] Irish language act

Fri Mar 15 16:16:05 UTC 2019

Irish Language Act: Laws not threatening says Welsh commissioner
By Robbie MeredithBBC News NI Education Correspondent

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[image: Meri Huws]Image captionMeri Huws became the first Welsh Language
Commissioner in October 2011

Language laws are not "threatening" but strengthen communities, according
to the Welsh language commissioner.

Meri Huws was speaking in Belfast at the launch of a report into how local
councils treat the Irish language in Northern Ireland.

Appointed in 2012, Ms Huws was the first language commissioner in Wales.

"Nobody will be disempowered by this, everybody over time will become
stronger and empowered," she told BBC News NI.

The commissioner promotes the Welsh language, protects the rights of people
to use it and polices the standards required of public sector bodies in
their use of Welsh.

   - Northern Ireland Assembly divided by Irish language
   <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-38601181>

Welsh has official status alongside English in Wales, and the government
there has set a target of having a million Welsh speakers by 2050.

The population of Wales is currently around three million.

However, the creation of an Irish language act in Northern Ireland has been
contentious.
[image: Irish language protest]Image captionThere have been calls for an
Irish language act in Northern Ireland

DUP leader Arlene Foster has said there will be no standalone act
<https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-43048025> and UUP leader
Robin Swann has also previously said there is no need for an Irish language
act.

However, other parties have supported calls for one.
<https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-politics-41095799>
ADVERTISEMENT

Ms Huws said the creation and implementation of language legislation was a
"journey".

"Bilingualism is a norm across the world and it's not threatening," she
said.

"We've been on that journey for many, many decades in Wales and it'll
continue."
[image: picture of a road with a welsh slow down sign]Image copyrightGETTY
IMAGESImage captionWelsh language legislation in Wales means visible
bilingualism

"By now we've had four or five pieces of legislation over the 20th Century
and this century in Wales."

"Over time - and it is step by step - attitudes have changed and it has
strengthened the communities in Wales."

Ms Huws said the Welsh language was a part of everyday life in Wales, but
not everyone had originally welcomed legislation to protect and promote it
there.

"People have been quite concerned that this will disable them, it won't
allow them to be employed etc," she said.

"Rather than saying that's rubbish, it's actually about engaging and
talking to people and trying to explain why this is a norm."

The commissioner was speaking at the launch of research from Conradh na
Gaeilge and the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) on how
Northern Ireland's 11 local councils are complying with their statutory
obligations in respect of the Irish language.
[image: Street signs in Welsh and English]Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage
captionThe latest figures show a rise in people able to speak Welsh

A number of agreements including the European Charter for Regional and
Minority Languages (ECRML) - which the UK government ratified in 2001 -
outline statutory measures for the protection and promotion of languages
like Irish and Ulster-Scots.

Local councils have authority over things like bilingual street signs,
support for Irish language cultural activities and translation services.

However, the research suggests that council provision of those services is
uneven.
'Significant gaps'

While some of the 11 councils were fulfilling some of their obligations
under the ECRML, the report said that some had no Irish language policy and
had not taken steps to promote tolerance and understanding of the language.

Some did not give any information to the researchers on what services they
made available through the Irish language.

Ciarán Mac Giolla Bhéin, from Conradh na Gaeilge, said there were
significant gaps in provision across several councils.

"It is unfair in our view that if you're living in Belfast you receive some
services through Irish - you have an Irish language officer and a language
diversity policy - but if you live in Glengormley you have none of those
things," he said.

"When you're travelling across the council areas here you will see maybe a
proliferation of bilingual signage in some council areas and you go across
to the next and there is next to none.

"What we would like is a move towards a uniform approach," he added.
'Game-changer'

"We would hope that councils will look at this as an aid or a guide for
them to use to start to make progress in terms of meeting the obligations
that are already on them with regard to the language."

Mr Mac Giolla Bhéin also said that the debate around an Irish language act
still needed a "resolution".

"An Irish language act would be a game-changer," he said.

"If the parties were to come back tomorrow again and sit round a table to
try to flesh out a deal, number one or maybe number two on the agenda
behind Brexit would be the Irish language act, so it's still very much
there."

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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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