Everyone here is missing the point completely. As someone who speaks Irish daily one of the main criticisms is that it’s a waste of money to have services in Irish because “nobody uses them”. Here is a simple example where someone who speaks Irish did try to use a state service- and what happened: he was arrested.

The whole point of this Is that it is no extra cost for a Garda ask someone “Cad is ainm duit?” It’s not a waste of resources or money. It’s a simple change of attitude. We have such a negative attitude towards the language it’s shocking. I know so many people in this country speak Irish as their first language with family, friends etc and are forced to switch back to English for daily tasks because of this attitude.

In my personal experience of using the language people from Poland as per example above (and all other countries) are so much more open to people using the Irish language with state services, they have experience of being multilingual. They get it that people have a right to speak their language. The only time I have ever had trouble using Irish is with Irish people because of our own attitude towards the language

That chap who was arrested was being a difficult pain in the arse as he was probably well aware that the Garda wouldn’t be able to converse in Irish while at the same time being perfectly fluent in English himself. He could easily have saved himself some grief but chose to make matters worse. Maybe if it wasn’t compulsory in school we wouldn’t feel so hostile as we could have learned something useful.

Why not teach them to speak Polish? It’s the second most used language in the state. We’d serve a greater number of people than focusing on Irish.

@Kevin, that’s a common but erroneous misconception. Check the census figures.

In response to the response that I know you’re going to make, i.e. “but I never hear Irish being spoken on the streets but I hear Polish all the time” — the reason you don’t hear Irish on the streets is because of the attitude of many Irish people towards the language and people who speak it, as is only too evident from the comments on this article.

If anyone is in any doubt as to the value of the Irish language spend a week in the Gaeltacht. Our language, music and history is what defines us. Why do anything other than strengthen our sense of our identity?

Ní aithnítear é mar teanga bunreachtúil, so …ah…no.

Yes because knowledge of your native tongue is such a menace to society.

@Katie Does Where in the report does it state that the complaint was made in English? The quoted part could be a translation by the commissioners office. The commissioner was the one interviewed by RTÉ news. I’d assume it’d be illegal for the commissioner to give out the name of a complainant in the news.

Your comments are wrong on so many levels.

@leonard Knowledge of your native tongue is a great thing. But the reality is that not everyone who lives and works here is a native, and not all natives have a knowledge of the language. Lack of knowledge of Irish is no menace to society either.

@Bubba I may not have been clear – the person who complained spoke to RTE News in English, and he was perfectly fluent in that language. He thus will have had no problem understanding what the guard in question was saying to him. He was not arrested because he spoke Irish. He was arrested because he did not cooperate with a guard when stopped.

@Katie do you have a link for the complainant talking to RTÉ news about being stopped. The link on this article is to two reports one a Telly report and the other a Radio report in both cases only an RTÉ employee is talking. You’re making things up to make a point or else you score lowly in English comprehension.

I was born and raised in Ireland. Irish isn’t my native tongue and I’m sure I’m not the only person who wouldn’t identify with the Irish language in any way. Please don’t assume that everyone does because it’s a baseless assumption.

@katie “I am sick of this nonsense.”
Nice to see you empathising with your fellow countrymen there. The more hatred and disgust I see hurled at Gaeilge, the more I cling onto it for dear life.
Your attitude is laughable.

They’re not being asked to have detailed legal discussions on the side of the road. They are taught Irish in Templemore and should be able to deal with Irish speakers in our chosen language on a basic level at least.

Ummmmm. I’m a foreign national. I’m learning Irish, and nearly all the people in my classes so far have been from all over the world. And those who have English as a second language pick up things the fastest, followed by those are able to speak another language leaving us monolinguist for dust (that’s just an observation from my own experience).

I understand you don’t want a language requirement to be a deterrent of attracting Gárda from different backgrounds, but I’m not sure any of the communities you mentioned are unable to learn Irish

@sally Is breá liom gur dhúirt tú é sin!

Is é do cheart do cheart-sa.

Cén chaoi nach dtuigeann sibh nár chruthaigh mo dhuine fadhb ar bith? Más rud é go bhfuil sé mar ceart aige a ghnó a dhéanamh leis na péas trí Ghaeilge, níl an locht ar mo dhuine. Tá an fhadhb cruthaithe idir an garda ar dhiúltaigh mo dhuine a cheart agus an Garda Síochána mar eagraíocht.

Arís eile a deirim: is é do cheart do cheart-sa. Níor chuala mé ó éinne ar an bhforam seo atá in ann an fód a sheasamh i gcoinne an pointe sin. Más cóir an ceart a bhaint amach ó phobal na Gaeilge ionas nach mbeadh ‘fuath don teanga amach anseo’, sin topic eile.

Mura gcruthaíthear fadhbanna dóibh siúd nach bhfuil in ainm is ár gcearta teanga a gcomhlíonadh ní gcomhníonfar iad i riamh!

tá sé chomh simplí sin

What are you talking about?

Thanks for reinforcing my point James.
The Guards are employed to enforce the law, not their personal prejudices, something many of them seem unable to understand. Your asinine comments denigrate those officers who act professionally even when provoked.

Barry its plain as day you’ve a grudge against the gardai. Your bile and nonsense would be welcome on indymedia

@ Barry – The majority of Gardai do not command sufficient Irish to be able to handle the complex business of questioning and arresting someone “as gaeilge”. That is less a reflection upon them, than it is upon our education system which forces kids to learn Irish for 13 years and yet somehow, whether through failure of curriculum or of teaching methods, manages to have the majority emerge with little or no Irish. Compare that to continental kids who are generally reasonably competent in English before leaving primary school. On the other hand, you can be absolutely sure that the complainant had perfect English, probably more fluent than his Irish. If the Garda involved had gone to a gaelscoil or for some other reason had fluent Irish, it’s fair enough to invoke your right to conduct business through Irish. If he doesn’t, it’s still fair enough but just realise that you’re being unreasonable and it may inconvenience you just as much as you intended it to inconvenience them.

ni thuigim

Irish is a luxury we can’t afford.

Ni thuigeann moran faoi aon rud a Johnny!

Agreed! 700 plus made a complaint, there are 4 million living here approx; and the authorities feel the need to devise a plan to teach the Garda, to be able to converse in a language that evidently isnt used by the majority.

What a waste of time and money, again, no less.

It is part of our history and for a great many of us (more than you might think and growing. Yes, growing) it is part of our present. We shouldn’t be made to feel bad for speaking the native language of our country. We shouldn’t be resented for keeping alive a tradition of this Island; a unique feature of our heritage.

I understand the frustration on many people’s behalves, I do. I’m not saying that I think it’s despicable that the average Garda doesn’t have much Irish, I’d love if he/she did but I know that it’s not all that realistic. What does annoy me is the attitude on I’ve seen in the comments. The same Irish begrudgery we show to far too much. Take a big of pride in it.

Oppression and emigration were also parts of our history Fionn. Being a part of one’s history isn’t a raison d’être.

Stay classy Chris

“Aren’t there more people living in Ireland fluent in Polish than Irish?”

No

He should have been done for wasting police time.

One can only assume that he didn’t speak a word of English, as explained in the article he was quite intimidated and I think it’s quite reasonable that nobody would willingly put themselves through that if they could just as easily speak English and sort everything out. That is unless of course this person saw themselves as a militant enforcer of some misguided cause!

Bingo^^

God Ted, you’re very naive! I doubt if there is any Irish person driving around who doesn’t speak English.

Reg I fear I may have just had a humour fail on that one! I’ll work on my sarcasm!

Gardai not being able to communicate in irish is the least if our problems. Crappy equipment and falling numbers might take precedence

There’s an awful lot more wrong with the country than the fact we don’t speak Irish and I think if we did all speak our native tongue as our primary language we’d still be tripping over pigs in the kitchen. This man was not in the Gaeltacht he was in Dublin and he was more than happy to communicate everything else through English.

Like it or not the fact that we as Irish have English as our primary language is what has helped us to achieve our international successes in the past and is a major factor in external economic investment.

@Daithí About how many people do you think that would be? Realistically? And how many of those people are unable to understand and speak English?

Have you a URL for that poll? I am very surprised at so high a number tbh. Protected I can see, revived as our first language? Not seeing much support for that idea.

What gibberish are you spouting? Come down from your soap box before you fall and hurt yourself.

That poll asked if people thought others should learn it, very different if you ask should they have to learn it themselves.

Lol. .. are you drunk? So your argument is that people who choose not to want to speak irish are in fact British or want to be British? … we could extend on that theory For example if someone living in Canada does not speak french then they aren’t Canadian? And I’m sure there are many other examples. ….I don’t have to speak gaelic to be a proud irishmann…. nor do I have to listen to drivel and nonsense from the gaelic paratroopers to pay my taxes as an English speaking irishman to support gaelic speaking areas. .. by all means speak gaelic and enjoy it but don’t bully our countries majority who aren’t interested in gaelic

http://www.mayococo.ie/en/Services/OifignaGaeilge/Publications/PDFFile,15645,en.pdf (L. 124)
Preserve (52.5%) & Revive (40.9%): 93.4%
Discard: 6.6%

@ ieoinu – Standing up for your cultural heritage may well be gibberish to you, but for people with a basic self-respect for who they are, it is obligatory to challenge the kind of cultural racism from the likes of you. The fact that anti-Irish racism comes from an Irish person makes it no more acceptable! As for the soap box, perhaps you could squeeze in there so we can confine you to the dustbin of history!
@ Marc Anthony Power – How about you read my posting more carefully before you spout illinformed misquotes and other such drivel! In actual fact what Irish speakers are demanding are essentially their constitution rights of being able to use our language in all official capacities.
@ Seán Ó hAdhmail – Maith thú a Sheáin
@ Katie Does – Here’s your URL, honey! – http://www.mayococo.ie/en/Services/OifignaGaeilge/Publications/PDFFile,15645,en.pdf (L. 124)

And when you applied for your passport which form did you use, English or Irish?

So irishness is based on your ability to speak irish? Who’s the bigot now. Times have changed.

Billions? Actually the cost of the Irish language to the economy is negligible compared to the money it brings into the exchequer, emigrate if your that unhappy, we don’t want the likes of you.

What money does it bring exactly? Just out of interest.

Tá postanna ar fáil agus á gcruthú le Gaeilge le tionscadail ar nós TG4, Raidió na Gaeltachta, an mhúinteoireacht, an iriseoireacht, sa státseirbhíseacht, Údarás na Gaeltachta, obair riaracháin ar fud na tíre, na Coláistí Samhraidh a reachtálann cúrsaí ar fud na Gaeltachta gach bliain, scoileanna teagaisc srl

Mo náire sibh atá ag caitheamh anuas ar an nGaeilge, agus a rá gur cur amú airgid í. Is cúid lárnach agus luachmhar dár n-oidhreacht í. Murach an Ghaeilge agus an cultúr Gaelach, ní bheadh ionann ach Brits. Goilleann sé go mór orm nuair a fheicim daoine ag scríobh nó nuair a chloisim daoine a rá nár cheart go mbeadh seirbhísí poiblí ar fáil trí Ghaeilge. Tá cónaí orm i gCeanada faoi láthair, tír atá go hoifigiúil dátheangach: Béarla agus Fraincis. Dá ndéarfaí leis na Francaigh nár cheart go mbeadh seirbhísí ar fáil ina dteanga dúchais, nó sa teanga gur mian leo a ngnó a dhéanamh, bheadh raic ann. Ní ghlacfar leis. AR CHOR AR BITH. Tá an ceart ag an bhfear sin a stopadh ag na Gardaí; ba cheart go mbeadh sé in ann a rogha teanga a úsáid.

There are idiots out there who are content to deny the value of Irish because they feel threatened by it. Irish has become a symbol of cultural appreciation and of intelligence in recent years, and those who are ignorant to it are simply terrified by it. They should be ashamed of themselves, and think again when they call themselves Irish. As an Irish teacher, I am sick of this attitude. Tá mé braon de.

An té atá thuas óltar deoch air. An té atá thíos buailtear cos air.

That’s your interpretation of the Irish identity. It isn’t necessarily a universal one. None of us have any right to say what’s Irish and what isn’t. That’s a personal opinion and nothing more.

Hold on.
The person stopped insisted on speaking Irish and not English?
Why would they do this except to be an ass?

The world is a far different place than when we enshrined Irish into places it doesn’t need to be and is costing us all money to keep it there.

Comment of the week right there!

Amadán

@barry
Quite the opposite I would say. I believe it’s a case of an arrogant person caught for an offence who decides to use Irish as it suits them to make the situation awkward.

Barry. Do you not find it ironic that the complainant made his complaint in English and not Irish. I stand corrected, but I would wager this gentleman thought he was a smartass and his cunning plan to communicate with a Garda through Irish who probably was not proficient in our ” Native Tongue” backfired. Good enough for him!

A lady most well known does this all the time at sheel to sea protests but being irish speaking area plenty of guards to greet her.

Saying that last time any of us used irish was school. Whereas before id very brokenly hold my own, now id be just awful at it. Irish should not die but we really should not have it listed as high as the english we speak now.

@youdontknowme all languages are equal but some are more equal than others haha fair play to you Napoleon

@Jimmy I think you should go see a Doctor about the Stockholm syndrome you’ve got going there.

I’m confused Bubba, discuss!

Colm Tóibín; cultural quisling extrodinaire

Do you mind that Frank2521 insinuated that you’re a ‘Sinn Féin/IRA terrorist’ because you speak Irish?

The basis issue here is that a man was arrested for exercising his right to speak Irish to the Gardaí, the Gardaí were literally treating him like a foreign national (their words) in his own country.

People on the thread go crazy because he wouldn’t speak English with one saying the Gardaí should have assaulted him. Is that not agressive?

‘ To me it is a language used by IRA/SF terrorists ‘ – so anyone who speaks Irish is a terrorist? Pure and utter bigotry is what that is.

What an absolute muppet. Enda Kenny speaks fluent Irish, in fact every major political party leader in the Dáil does. You’ll soon be giving Willie Frazer a run for his money if you keep up your ‘Sinn Féin/IRA’ conspiracy theories.