Back in October of last year I examined a short documentary by the freelance journalist Eoin Butler attacking the position of the Irish language in modern Ireland, from legislation establishing limited equality of public services in Irish and English to the presence of our indigenous tongue in the general education system. The film, An Bhfuil Cead Agam?, claimed that it was starting “…a conversation about the Irish language that is rational, unswayed by emotion, dogma or any political agenda“. Unfortunately the documentary itself illustrated none of those things. Instead we were presented with the usual, petty or exaggerated rhetoric of hibernophobic sentiment, albeit repackaged in a snappy, twelve minute video geared towards sharing on Facebook and Twitter. Indeed the production bore more than a passing resemblance to the viral marketing of the successful anti-EU “Brexit” movement in the United Kingdom or the Trump campaign and its Breitbart-style supporters in the United States. Rather than recognising that anti-Irish feeling is a legacy of British colonial rule on this island nation, Butler and company simply added to the centuries-long tradition of animosity and contempt for our native language and culture. Far from being free of dogma or agenda the documentary and the views it espoused were intensely political, born of an anachronistic “Pale-mentality”.
A new, longer documentary has just been released challenging the disingenuous arguments put forward by Eoin Butler in October. Presented by Caoimhín De Barra, the Assistant Professor for Irish History and Culture at Drew University, New Jersey, the film is titled, An Bhfuil Tú Dáiríre?, and it succeeds in establishing the willfully partisan nature of the earlier production. You can watch it here or on YouTube.
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
that’s a really interesting clip, and a useful exercise in myth busting.
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So why is it after nearly 100 of independence are people still speaking English as a first language in the main? this video does not state why revival policies have failed to address this?
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Because there was no real attempt at a revival, just decades of lip-service and token effort, which ghettoised the language in the education system and with purpose.
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worse than that. the state has continued the process of anglicisation.
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Tha mi a’ faicinn nach eil ‘comments’ ri faighinn air YouTube. A bheil eagal air an duine? Có dhiugh ann an seo …
Ireland is not alone in having been decolonised after having it’s native language suppressed. Finland and Czechoslovakia come to mind, but I’m sure there are others even within Europe. These are the comparisons that ought to be made. Have they been made, and if so what were the conclusions? Even Wales manages a reasonable presence for its language, even under John Bull’s domination. So what is wrong with the Irish? Dé tha ceàrr leis na Éireannaich?
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Ní thuigeann siad na hAlbanaigh.
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