Another year, another name-and-shame report from Ireland’s Language Commissioner, the independent ombudsman tasked with overseeing the implementation of the country’s Official Languages Act of 2003. This legislation guarantees limited rights for Irish-speaking citizens alongside their English-speaking peers (emphasis on the “limited”). However since its inception the profound levels of institutionalised discrimination in Ireland’s Anglophone public services has ensured that the act is more often breached than implemented, with hundreds of complaints being lodged every year against the Irish state by its own citizens (that’s several thousand over the last decade). Unsurprisingly 2013 has turned out to be another poor period for pluralism in Ireland. While 24% of complaints came from within the Gaeltachtaí or recognised Irish-speaking communities overall some 76% of complaints were made outside of those regions. Dublin had the greatest percentage of recorded issues (38%), which at least indicates that Ireland’s indigenous language has become a national one once again.
Reading the report in detail the extraordinary lengths various government bodies go to in order to deny Irish-speakers equality of service with English-speakers is nothing short of astonishing (and remember the use of the Irish language is deliberately restricted under the legislation through the use of so-called “schemes” and “exclusions”). Civil servants up and down the country will engage in hundreds of hours of work, and at considerable public expense, defending decisions and policies that are blatantly discriminatory in form and function. What’s more they will often do so with the backing of locally elected representatives. We are left with a culture of law-breaking by the very people tasked with upholding the law because they disagree with it. And what happens when officials are found guilty of failing their legal duties under the regulations. Why, they simply remove the offending regulations of course. What else? Is it any wonder that Seán Ó Cuirreáin, the previous Language Commissioner, resigned in despair when faced with these Kafkaesque-levels of bureaucratic chauvinism? One stand-out controversy features a decision by the Department of Education to try and impose an English-speaking teacher with no native fluency in Irish on an Irish-speaking community to teach, through Irish, Irish-speaking schoolchildren. To call it an extraordinary decision is to be generous. A more honest appraisal would be that sections of the Irish government clearly regard Irish-speakers as lesser citizens simply because of the language they speak. Lesser citizens deserving of lesser treatment. And that includes their children.
I strongly recommend that you read the report for yourself. It is certainly an eye-opening insight into the culture of linguistic apartheid that continues to pervade the apparatus of the modern “Irish” state.
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
Athbhlagáladh é seo ar seachranaidhe1.
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But Irish is a compulsory subject at schools in Ireland.
And English is a compulsory subject at schools in Latvia (from the 1st grade to university).
So why aren’t the Irish as fluent in Irish as I’m in English? (And I’m not 100% fluent yet)
Are your teachers really bad and incompetent?
Or maybe everyone just HATES that language with passion?
What’s the problem?
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Colonialism, closeness to a culturally dominant neighbour, etc. What can I say?
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Well, Great Britain will always be there – deal with it.
If that’s the main reason why the Irish don’t want to learn Irish even as a second language, then maybe you should just give up and forget that Irish language ever existed, because it’s nearly impossible not to be exposed to the British or the American culture.
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Arguments that I’m sure were – and perhaps still are – current in Latvia. What do the 27% of ethnic Russians in Latvia think of Latvian-first policies? Without the language laws and constitution would Latvian still be able to survive Russification? Or would a large Russian minority and Russia’s omnipresence in the region have long ago swung the balance in the favour of that language? Latvian survives by discriminating against Russian-speakers to some extent.
In Ireland we fight the same anti-colonial linguistic and cultural struggle that Latvia faced in the 1990s. Unfortunately you guys started from a better place than we did. Your success should not be undervalued nor should it be unappreciated how difficult it is for others. 800 years of non-stop occupation versus 300 years of on-off occupation makes a big difference. We had our Jaunlatvieši and our national awakenings but we are still in the middle of them.
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This time I was talking about the SECOND language skills and education. How come that after 12+ years of education people don’t have even the most basic language skills?
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Latvian survives by discriminating against Russian-speakers to some extent.
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Latvia discriminates against Russian-speakers exactly the same way as Ireland discriminates against Latvian speakers.
There is NO discrimination.
Either learn the national language of the state or GTFO to a country with a different national language – the one you prefer.
And that approach is working – most of Russians in Latvia are fluent Latvian speakers.
I also act the same way in Ireland and do not demand service in Latvian from the Irish state despite the fact that I also pay taxes and probably more than many people in the Gaeltacht.
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Well now, on the point of Latvian vs. Russian in Latvia I must defer to your better knowledge but that is certainly not how Russian-speaking Latvians present it. They talk about a system of regulatory and social discrimination and forced language acquisition: you must speak Latvian to be Latvian. Otherwise one is left in a state of limbo, citizenship-wise. That is certainly the view from outside, even amongst sympathetic observers (UN says Latvia’s language rules discriminate against Russians and Discrimination Against Latvia’s Russian Minority).
I’m not sure why you assume that you pay more money than many in the Gaeltachtaí or Irish-speakers in general. Given the numbers of fluent Irish-speakers in the IT industry I suspect they are disproportionately in the top tax-paying brackets. I know I certainly am! 😦
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You must speak Latvian to be Latvian
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That’s right – if you don’t speak Latvian – you’re not one of us.
But that’s not really a problem, because most of ethnic Russians do not want to assimilate and become Latvians anyway.
They’re learning Latvian, but still keep their own Russian identities and teach Russian to their children.
And that’s absolutely fine by me – people who have forgotten their own native languages are freaks – and I don’t expect that from Russians.
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Otherwise one is left in a state of limbo, citizenship-wise.
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That’s right – you can’t naturalise if you don’t speak the language – many EU countries have the same requirement.
And it was absolutely fine not to give Latvian citizenship to immigrants and their descendants, because we never had jus-soli citizenship laws – either naturalise – or go away.
And Ireland did not give me citizenship either – I’ll be able to naturalise after 4 years and that’s absolutely fine by me.
I’m not demanding citizenship from Ireland – unlike some Russians in Latvia who for some reason believe that they’re entitled to it.
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They talk about a system of regulatory and social discrimination
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They’re Soviet-Russian supremacists who believe that Latvia is a Russian land and that everyone there must speak Russian.
Just like I don’t expect Latvian language skills from the Irish – Russians should not expect Russian language skills from the Latvians.
Speaking Latvian in Latvia is not a discrimination it’s the same thing as speaking French in France.
I don’t speak Russian in Latvia at all and never will – either learn the national language or GTFO.
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In Ireland we fight the same anti-colonial linguistic and cultural struggle that Latvia faced in the 1990s.
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Against who?
Among Latvians there has never been a struggle – we all speak the same language.
People who have a problem with Latvian language are 100% foreigners – mostly Russians.
Doesn’t matter where you’re born – if you’re acting as a (hostile) foreigner – you’ll be treated as one.
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So Latvian-born and living Russian-speakers are “foreigners” and should be treated as such if they do not acquire fluent Latvian?
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Yes, if they want to deal with the state in any way – they must learn the national language.
Russian officially is treated like a foreign language in Latvia.
Schools are an exception – we do have state-sponsored Russian schools, but Latvian still is a compulsory subject there.
State-sponsored higher education however is in Latvian only.
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And BTW – for example – my cousin is an Irish citizen – he was born in Ireland.
And Irish state treats him like a foreigner too – he can’t access state services in his native language.
Same thing with Russians in Latvia.
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If he was born and raised in Ireland wouldn’t his native language be Irish or English or both? Latvian would be a heritage/home language. Interesting points all the same. Always good to see the situation elsewhere.
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At least in Latvia “native language” means – the first language a person has learned from birth.
And the one he thinks in.
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The forward to the report includes this gem of an understatement: “In general, 2012 was not a vintage year for the promotion of the Irish language in the public sector, and for every one step forward there appeared to have been two steps backwards.”
Yes, I’d say it wasn’t a “vintage” year, not by a long shot.
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Very true 😉
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