Madam, - A further layer of outrage was added to the Cathal Ó Searcaigh controversy following his hour-long interview with Áine Ní Churráin of Raidió na Gaeltachta on Wednesday.
This did not concern the central issue of Fairytale of Katmandu , but the fact that Ó Searcaigh had the audacity to give this interview in Irish.
Both Damien O'Callaghan, stand-in presenter on Live Line, along with many of his callers, and Keelin Shanley, stand-in presenter of Drivetime on RTÉ Radio 1, found it hard to accept that Ó Searcaigh would give his first public interview on the matter in his first language and felt he owed it to the people of Ireland to address them in English.
It would seem that where the Irish language is concerned, though
it be an official language of the State and the native language of
Ó Searcaigh, it is but a "leprechaun language", as referred to
by Peter Robinson, and inappropriate for the national airwaves. -
Yours, etc,
FEARGAL Mac AMHLAOIBH,
Dún Chaoin,
Co Chiarraí.