Sir, - While sitting my Junior Certificate examinations last June, I noticed on the front of my answerbook a box marked "bonus marks for answering in Irish". According to the Department Of Education, my efforts in maths, science, etc., are inferior because they are expressed using my native language. Irish, however, is so sacred that it grants a significant headstart to those who use it in the State exams.
Already being an involuntary student of the Irish language, this is an unacceptable insult to my inherited culture and lifestyle. For 11 years I have been forced by the State to learn a language which I will neither need or want to speak during my lifetime - a situation which is not only impractical, but wrong.
In a democratic and relatively tolerant society, this verges dangerously close to a form of cultural oppression. A long-overdue review is needed of the crude (and failed) methods used to promote one of the State's languages, if, indeed, this policy can be justified. The Irish language will further decline unless the learning of it becomes an optional privilege, not a compulsory duty. - Yours, etc.,
Eoin Daly, Kanturk, Co Cork.