LL-L "Language policies" 2003.11.14 (11) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 14.NOV.2003 (11) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Críostóir Ó Ciardha <paada_please at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Language policies" 2003.11.14 (10) [E]

Mike Wintzer wrote:
"What is primordial is the political will of those who are in power. If I
understand correctly, this will was present in the creators of the present
constitution (I understand from your discussions that it is no longer).
But instead of "shoving Gaelic down our throats" (quote from some of my
Irish colleagues) they should have created abundant possibilities to acquire
the language on a voluntary basis AND, more importantly, created the
INCENTIVES to do so; by introducing the language into all domains of public
life, media, administration, education (most importantly pre-school) in an
unceremonious, unconvulsive manner. Of course, this is not done overnight.
The majority English speakers must be given the possibilities to go about
their daily lives in English. But a new generation could have been ushered
into a Gaelic-speaking Ireland
slowly but surely."

I would favour a language law similar to that in Finland, where the country
would be divided into monolingual Irish districts (Gaeltacht), bilingual
Irish-English districts, and monolingual English districts (Galltacht). For
example, if an area had over 90 percent Irish speakers (i.e., persons
capable of speaking Irish rather than speaking it daily), it would be
Gaeltacht; less than 10 percent and it would be Galltacht. In a Gaeltacht
area all schooling, administrative transactions, signage etc. would be in
Irish only; in Galltacht areas the same would be in English only. The vast
majority of the country, as has happened in Finland, would be a bilingual
zone, and children would have the choice of attending either an
Irish-language or an English-language school. Signage would be bilingual.
Official documents sent to houses in the bilingual zone would be in both
Irish and English. An Irish-medium university would also be important, and I
believe there should be only two t! elevision channels from the state
broadcaster RTÉ - one in English and one in Irish (at present there are
three: two in English - both of which mostly show British and American
imports - and one in Irish that also broadcasts a substantial amount of
English-language programming).

As Mike suggests, it is important to do this with as little fuss as
possible. Ireland and Irish has suffered from a succession of high profile
initiatives that have made small difference but a lot of fuss, and often
drawn the usually sort of lazy journalism about 'smoothing the pillow of the
dying language'. In fact Irish usage is increasing in large cities, as the
explosion of Gaeilscoileanna (Irish-medium education) has shown. It is a
harsh indictment on the Irish state that many of these Gaeilscoileanna
developed as private enterprises because the Government refused to fund them
and many take place in prefabs and mobile classrooms due to a general
Government unwillingness to encourage Irish-medium education.

Clearly, however, the state has to take the lead. The Government has to pay
more than the less-than-lip-service it is currently paying to Irish. As Mike
suggests, Irish needs to be seen not as a privileged, subsidised and
ultimately superficial 'language of the west' to be patronised and kept on
life support but rather as just another vibrant fact of life throughout
Ireland, as that is what it truly is.

Criostóir.

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