A Chara, - I am amused by the manner in which the outgoing minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht has tossed the perennially hot potato of Gaeltachi boundaries squarely into the lap of his successor by announcing a re-examination of existing boundaries. The new Minister will be faced with the prospect of large, hairy and unruly western hordes protesting at the removal of their Gaeltacht grants.
Nobody will dispute the need for this reassessment, but the new Minister should be strongly encouraged to seize the opportunity to revamp the whole concept of the Gaeltacht - not by further pushing the boundaries towards the coast, but by granting some status to those currently non-Gaeltacht communities all over the country where the Irish language is now being spoken, sometimes on a community level, as it has not been since the 19th century. It is hard not to notice the great jumps in Irish usage in places such as Galway city, West Cork, Claremorris, West Belfast, Clondalkin, Lucan and Ballymun, places that have no linguistic status at all and where the speaking of Irish is often rewarded with governmental antipathy.-
Is mise le meas,
University of Illinois,
USA.