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Gaelic language supporters fighting losing battle in Ireland and Europe

15 April 2004, 04:42 CET


Gaelic may be the official language of Ireland, but it is far from gaining that status in the European Union and the dwindling number of Gaelic speakers highlights its shaky future.

Defenders of the language have stepped up their efforts to have it recognized, pointing to future EU member Malta and its 380,000 speakers of Maltese as an example.

"Maltese was eligible to become an official language of the Union because it is an official national language of Malta," Padraig O'Laighin of the Stadas association, formed to press the Gaelic cause, said.

Members of Stadas -- status in Gaelic -- have demonstrated in the streets of Dublin, while supporters and detractors regularly face off in the editorial pages of Irish newspapers.

"It is high time that the Gaelic enthusiasts took their heads out of the sand and realized that the national language will never be anything more than a curiosity in Europe," Brian Cowley wrote in the Irish Times.

Stadas in turn cites the 2002 Irish census, which said 1.57 million Irish out of a population of four million are capable of speaking Gaelic. The language has its own newspapers, radio and television stations and many "gaeltachts," exclusively Gaelic-speaking communities chiefly in the west of the republic.

The question is, what is the definition of capable?

Gaelic is obligatory in Irish schools, but the truth is aside from the "enthusiasts" Cowley refers to, and tens of thousands living in the gaeltacht communities, few people speak the language.

Twenty-year-old Micheal learned Gaelic at a "gaelscoleanna" in Carraroe near Galway, a school which exclusively teaches in Irish, and says he now thinks and dreams in the "true" national language. He is an example for the success of the schools, founded in 1973.

But the image is deceptive. Many Irish send their children to Gaelscoleannas because of the superior education quality, not because they want to preserve the status of Gaelic.

"Even my own kids, they speak English," Gaelic literature professor Cathal O'Hainle told AFP.

"My wife was very enthusiastic teaching in these schools, but eventually she was disappointed. For all the effort, the net result is disappointing," the teacher at Trinity College in Dublin said, pointing out that all you hear in the school playground is English.

Besides, Gaelic holds little attraction for young people when everything that interests them is in English -- movies, music, books, and the vast majority of programs on radio and TV.

Math professor Donncha O'Healla, who lives in the Connemara gaeltacht, is worried about the future of Irish after taking a look at the census figures. At most 70,000 people speak Gaelic every day, he said, and that number is steadily falling.

The government is keeping up the fight. The Irish Senate recently unanimously called on the government to plead the Gaelic cause at EU headquarters in Brussels, after a lengthy debate conducted entirely in... English.

"There is no dictionary for the Irish language which explains in Irish what anything means, can you believe that, and we want to have the EU treaties and directives in Irish, for whom?" O'Healla said.

There is one little loved institution where Gaelic thrives, though, according to O'Hainle.

"The only place that I find I can do my business in Irish is the tax office," he said.

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