A chara, - I am appalled by the Government's surreptitious intent, in its policy review document published on November 4th, to renege on its very own commitment, declared formally as its first priority to Irish when it gained power in 1997: that it would seek European Union agreement to have Irish recognised as an official language of the Union - as was and is the position of all other first national languages of the other member States.
In 1971/72, when we were seeking entry into Europe, the union's own negotiators were astonished to discover that, instead of presuming that our first official language would be one of our basic entry conditions, our then supine Department of External Affairs asked not to have that logical step pursued but rather that only official versions in Irish of EU treaties be provided - which is still the miserable status of Irish there.
The "practical reasons" given were that Irish becoming an official language would entail the burdensome task of immediate translation into Irish of all daily documentation in Brussels. The truthful reason is that our own Department officials (who, in those days, would have passed a rather stiff Irish examination to get their jobs) did not want to put Irish into practical use in the Department.
They neglected telling us that other smaller countries in the Union, such as Denmark, which are notionally required to provide contemporaneous translations of all documentation are, in practice, not expected to do so: I can provide evidence to show that, in fact, such documentation is provided in Danish anything up to three months after its EU issue!
An Taoiseach was recently welcoming the Hungarian application for membership of our Union, and is, logically of course, presuming that Hungarian would become an official EU language. Gladly so be it, provided that Irish gets similar status: we have an absolute veto on the entry application of any new member State - and, on the nod, Irish could become an official language overnight!
And what would be the overall benefit? It would not alone add to the status of Irish in the education system (at present Irish may not even be presented as a second language in applications for EU appointments), but it would greatly stimulate the interest of our young people in other Union languages. Intellectually stimulating employment on the Continent would become a worthwhile and more realisable achievement - and at no cost to our Exchequer.
That is the positive side. On the other side, I ask is the Government planning to have us become a non-nation once again? - Is mise,
Donall O Morain, An Charraig Dhubh, Co Baile Atha Cliath.