(Seo alt ónár bhfoireann Gaeltachta. Is féidir an bunleagan as Gaeilge a léamh anseo)

DELEGATES OF CONRADH na Gaeilge (the Gaelic League) have voted over-whelmingly in favour of a constitutional amendment that will see the country’s largest Irish language organisation working “towards a united Ireland in the interests of the Irish language and the Gaeltacht”.

At the organisation’s ard-fheis (AGM) in Belfast, a large number of delegates and individual members voted in favour of the resolution proposed by Comhairle Ceantair Bhéal Feirste after a debate in which a large number of speakers took part. Conradh is the Irish language and Gaeltacht advocacy organisation and was founded in 1893.

This vote echoes a decision taken at Conradh na Gaeilge’s Ard Fheis in Dundalk in 1915 when the organisation adopted a resolution declaring that its aim was to make ‘Eire saor agus Gaelach’ (Free and Gaelic) As a result of that vote, the organisation split and senior members Eoin Mac Néill and Dubhglas de HÍde walked out of the conference.

The following year, senior members of the League, such as Pádraic Mac Pearse, were leaders of the Easter Rising.

This reference was removed from the organisation’s constitution by the 2008 Ard Fheis.

While the majority of speakers in the Europa Hotel were in favour of the motion, there were speakers who spoke against the motion. Cormac Ó Dúlacháin, a senior barrister who is a member of the branch of the Cumann Barra na Gaeilge, mentioned the statutory grant of €867,000 that the organisation receives from Foras na Gaeilge, a cross-border institution established under the Good Friday Agreement.

He also referred to the allowance on rates that the League receives for buildings in Galway and Dublin because of the charity status of the organisation and said that voting for such a political motion would jeopardise that status.

The mover of the motion, Conchúr Ó Muadaigh, responded to this motion by stating that the motion had been discussed by the business committee, the most senior committee in the League, and said that legal advice had been obtained to the effect that this grant would not be jeopardised.

According to Dáithí Mac Carthaigh, former president of the League, a vote in favour of the resolution would create a coldness in the minds of any member of a unionist party or any member of the Alliance Party towards the organisation.

In the end, a vote was taken on the constitutional resolution and it won by a large majority with only a handful of votes against.

The Journal’s Gaeltacht initiative is supported by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme