Madam, - Pádraig Ó Conghaile (December 11th) erroneously attempts to link culture with "cultured". He further claims that the imposition of the Irish language on children is our responsibility both to our nationhood and to our identity within the greater European culture. How small is his vision of Irishness? How incomprehensible that he fails to recognise the damage being done to the language by force-feeding it to uninterested children?
There is no Irish culture; there are many cultures that have evolved and that will continue to evolve on this island and among the emigrants that left these shores. All that we have, or can have, in common is a conscious decision to regard ourselves, individually, as Irish. This militates against the possibility of a hierarchy of Irishness. Language, skin colour, religion, the sports we play or where we live are not barometers of cultural or national allegiance.
That in reality our national language is English does not make us any less Irish. For those small Irelanders who insist on affirmation regarding how cultured we are, they only have to look at the multiple Nobel prizes our literary giants have garnered through the medium of English. I prefer to think that as a monoglot Irishman I do not need anyone to pat me on the head and congratulate me for being what I have chosen to be. Nor do I accept that an Irish speaker is better than I am though I congratulate them on not being limited to just one language to express their identity.
The Irish language is not the unique expression of Irish identity, though it may be a unique language. Hurling is a uniquely Irish game. We do not, however, insist that all children play hurling (though I would be open to the idea if it would bridge the 115-year gap since our last All-Ireland). The forcing of a cultural expression onto a child fosters only resentment towards that culture and devalues the intrinsic worth of that expression.
The Irish language is in good health despite the best efforts of the language fanatics. Irish speaking schools are opening at a tremendous rate. They do so with minimal state help or interference. These centres of learning are bastions of voluntary cultural expression. They ensure that the language is being taught as an actual mode of communication rather than a pathetic attempt at paying lip service to a petty ideal.
The Irish language may one day become more relevant to the majority of those people who call themselves Irish. Or it may join the thousands of other extinct languages. The fate of the language will only depend on individuals making informed choices for themselves. While I would mourn the increasingly unlikely loss of the language I certainly will not feel any less Irish if it does disappear. - Yours, etc,
PAUL BOWLER, Lixnaw, Co Kerry.