United In Hatred – Anglophone Fundamentalists In Ireland

Sometimes you’re not paranoid. They really are out to get you.

Well, they are if you are an Irish-speaking citizen of Ireland. And the “they” are the Anglophone bigots that dominate Ireland’s politics and media, regardless of where they live on the island or what nationality they formally claim. The Angloban fundamentalists have their very own form of a “United Ireland”. A united English Ireland.

From the Belfast Telegraph we learn that the DUP’s Gregory Campbell has launched a vitriolic attack on the use of the Irish language in publically-funded advertising in the North.

“The DUP has accused the Education Minister of wasting money on a new television advertisement broadcast solely in Irish.

The ‘Get Involved’ advert aired during the UTV news at 5.45pm, and was swiftly condemned by East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell.

Mr Campbell said the Sinn Fein minister, John O’Dowd, was “potentially acting illegally” and was more concerned with a party political agenda than the education of young people.

“At a time when all government budgets are under pressure and schools are seeing budgets cut it is entirely inappropriate for the Education Minister to sanction a politically motivated television advert in Irish,” Mr Campbell said.

“The last census figures we have available highlight that around 90% of the population of Northern Ireland have absolutely no knowledge or use of the Irish language.

“Of those who do speak, write or understand the Irish language in Northern Ireland, there are none who are unable to speak English.”

Nor, if Gregory Campbell and the British Unionist minority in Ireland get their way, will there ever be people in Ireland who are unable to speak the English language. Reverse centuries of British and English colonialism in Ireland? Never, never, never! 

No doubt Campbell and his ilk will be gratified to learn of their allies elsewhere in the country. Not, as you may think, in the Unionist community but in the theoretically Nationalist one. Irish journalist Declan Lynch regularly attacks the Irish language through the pages of the national print media. Or more correctly, he attacks Irish-speakers. For it is not just the indigenous language of Ireland that these Pale-mentality supremacists hate – it is the people who speak it.

From the Irish Independent newspaper Lynch force-feeds another dollop of his anti-Irish poison to the general public:

“…why are they still maintaining a Connemara bureau or whatever it is they call the place where they make An Nuacht and other such lamentable wastes of public space?

Whatever their limitations, no bureau in London or Washington or anywhere else should be closed as long as we’re looking at “an eilifint ins an seomra” which recently appeared during an item on Morning Ireland about this country being one of only two in Europe in which the learning of a foreign language is not compulsory for schoolchildren.

In an interview with UCD professor Vera Regan, presenter Cathal Mac Coille made the point that since English is usually the foreign language being taught in other countries, and since we already have English, perhaps the situation is not so bad. Which was fair enough. He also quoted a Department of Education line that the learning of Irish and English provides a “scaffolding” for the later learning of a foreign language — erring on the side of generosity, he did not mention that it was also a “scaffolding” for bullshit.

But mainly he managed not to make the point that our children do indeed learn a language which for the vast majority involves a process similar to the one whereby children in other countries learn a foreign language. Therefore, to all intents and purposes, Irish is the foreign language that is taught in our schools.

…arguably the promotion of the Irish language is now the core ideology of RTE, the one thing that is unchallenged and undiminished.”

So there you go. As an Irish-speaking citizen of Ireland not only are you denied your constitutional and legal rights; not only do you face abuse and discrimination in wider society and the institutions of the state; but you are also denied your very Irishness itself. To speak Irish is to be a foreigner in modern Ireland. Modern English Ireland.

And here is something from the Indo that would no doubt give the erstwhile allies in hatred, Campbell and Lynch, something else to sneer at. A report on Eugene Gillespie, the Irish-speaking citizen of this state who was brutally murdered over two weeks ago at his home in Sligo:

“FUNDS raised after the death of Sligo pensioner Eugene Gillespie will be used to fund a scholarship and prize in his honour.

Hundreds of people from around the world donated to the fund set up after Mr Gillespie’s death just over a week ago on September 22.

His childhood friend Declan Foley, who now lives in Australia, set up the fund after hearing of the sudden death. Mr Foley was overwhelmed by the response, and more than €1,000 was raised in 10 days.

Supporters want to use the money to fund a Gaeltacht scholarship in Mr Gillespie’s memory, in honour of his great love of Irish.

“Eugene did much in his own way to keep the Irish language alive in Sligo, and Feis Cheoil is an 80-year traditional event held at Easter in Sligo.

“Some people in Sligo have suggested it as a way to keep his memory alive in Sligo for future generations,” said Mr Foley.”

Not if the Angloban get their way.

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