A review by a committee from the 47-nation Council of Europe into the status of indigenous languages in Britain and the north-east of Ireland has condemned the continued hostility towards Irish-speaking communities under the British government and the power-sharing regional administration at Stormont. It also highlighted the lack of co-operation from British and Unionist-dominated authorities with its investigatory team. From a report in the Irish Times:
“Growth and promotion of the Irish language in Northern Ireland is being blocked by hostile attitudes in Stormont and a lack of support for its use in the courts and in education, according to the Council of Europe.
The body has warned authorities they may also be in breach of a charter of rights because of delays and attempts to block requests for bilingual street names.
The review of minority languages in the UK said the government had not been able to justify banning the use of Irish in the courts or allowing people to take citizenship tests through the language.
The Council of Europe criticised attitudes to Irish in some official circles and what it said is the Stormont Assembly’s “persisting hostile climate”.
The review team hit out at a lack of political consensus in Northern Ireland on the language and the lack of a long-awaited Irish Language Act.
In education it found many obstacles hampering an adequate offering of Irish-medium pre-schools and it called for concrete steps to be taken to meet the growth in demand for primary education in Irish.
It called for new measures to allow for simultaneous translation in the Assembly.
It said work has been hampered by a lack of information from the authorities and the UK Government was also criticised for late and incomplete responses to requests for information about the standing of Irish in Northern Ireland.”
It is worth remembering that legislation protecting the rights of Irish-speaking citizens in the north-east of the country has been pledged since 1998. However sixteen years later it is still not forthcoming. Furthermore Irish-speakers continue to face institutional discrimination in public services, the courts and elsewhere despite the presence of Sinn Féin in the cross-community regional government at Stormont. The warnings from the Council of Europe are not just a condemnation of the endemic racism within the political leadership of the British Unionist minority in Ireland and the British state itself. It is also a judgement on the dire performance of Sinn Féin, the SDLP and the government of Ireland who have all failed in their democratic obligations, and in the case of the latter party their constitutional duties too.
Sinn Féin forms one half of the regional government in Belfast. It has failed to govern.
[With thanks to @ClubLeabharNYC, @DaDearga, @NuaEabhrac and all those who messaged me today]
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
Reblogged this on seachranaidhe1.
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This I assume is from the latest round of monitoring under the ECRML, must look it up, I read the last one a while back. IIRC Irish was going forward in NI under direct rule from Westminster and only got bogged down once the locals were allowed back in charge. Interestingly the official status of Irish south of the border means that it doesn’t count as a ‘Regional or Minority Language’ although it is certainly the latter by any objective criteria. This means the RoI has no need to sign up to the Charter and be subject to international monitoring. The one country that should have signed up but which refuses point-blank is of course France. One good reason why the frogs in Canada can go *** themselves IMO. (C’mon, we all need to have a pet prejudice to nurture).
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Yes, the great irony is that Irish speaking rights would probably fair better in the north-east of Ireland under the administration of Westminster and nationally under the Charter than under the present executives north or south. That is why I singled out Sinn Féin for its failure to take the lead on the matter.
France’s position on language rights (Breton, Corsican, Basque, etc.) is dreadful. François Hollande’s promises of more openness have proved utterly empty. The man is a political shyster.
Actually many Québécoise are sympathetic or supportive of Breton and Basque rights. Many in Québec are of Breton heritage.
Ah, we all have our prejudices. I personally am a walking contradiction! 😉
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I’m afraid my totally irrational feelings about French/the French are conditioned by school experiences not unlike those of many Irish citizens regarding the Irish language. But French is amongst the world’s “killer languages” and they seem to enjoy putting down others whereas nine times out of ten the English do it out of simple ignorance and incomprehension. Why then should French receive any protection, Canada has a great many of its own languages that really do very badly need support and protection, and if you’re going to start supporting immigrant languages there are an awful lot of those over there too.
Actually it seems now that the French (in France) are giving ECRML-type recognition/support to Breton at least (don’t have the ref. to hand), they just have a constitutional hang-up over formal ratification, kinda the opposite situation to the RoI.
Belgium also hasn’t gone with the Charter, which leads to some strange anomalies where the same language is spoken across the open borders with Holland and/or Germany. See here, may be relevant to ‘Ulster Scotch’ 😉
Click to access 03f3dd81-dec3-4d76-894f-7b45f18185eb_TPCS_43-Swanenberg.pdf
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