Ruth Dudley Edwards
Ultach writes:
As a wide-eyed, froth-mouthed, fáinne-wearing fanatic in a Geansaí Árann I enjoyed this [below] from the {‘Fenian’] An Sionnach Fion blog and thought some of your might readers might also…
Last week we had Malachi O’Doherty in the Belfast Telegraph asserting the primacy of the Lingua Anglica, now we have Ruth Dudley-Edwards in that same publication. Some choice excerpts:
“When all else fails, have the tribal drums beat out the well-known cultural battle hymn of the Irish language.”
In other words I’m attacking the Irish language by using a stale old sleight of hand to suggest that the object of my attack actually offended first. Good one, Ruthie!
“I always resent seeing this innocent language hijacked by politicians as it used to be for years in the south until the country grew up.”
Yes, that’s right. In reality Ruth Dudley Edwards E is a defender of the language, not its enemy, so anything she says must be seen in that light; however harsh or derogatory. That’s some classic old school polemics there, a chairde.
“Compulsory Irish is virtually a thing of the past and there are only a tiny handful of language zealots left…”
See, we can obviously agree that anyone who disagrees with Ruth must be some wide-eyed, froth-mouthed, fáinne-wearing fanatic: and probably in a Geansaí Árann to boot!
“There is plenty of resentment at the waste of money (roughly £2m a year) unnecessarily translating official documents written in English into Irish. The reason, however, is that the courts ruled it was a constitutional requirement and government already has to deal with more referenda than it can handle.”
Irish language translations for the entire government of Ireland now run at less than €500,000 per annum. That’s £367,000 a year not £2 million (however roughly!). In fact the combined costs of non-Irish translations by the state into European and global languages now exceed those for our native one. Oh, and on that court ruling? It never happened.
The Official Languages Act has been in place since 2003, which naturally includes the requirement for Irish and English editions of public documents. So no, there was no need for any referendums under the present Irish-hostile Fine Oibre coalition.
Newspaper bloggers columnists who espouse the Neo-Unionist line of Irish politics are like some amoral defence lawyer sitting in a courtroom who points his finger at the victim of a sexual assault cowering in the stand while repeating over and over: slut, slut, slut!
Sure, it doesn’t have to be true, and in some cases it maybe counter-productive, but say it long enough and loud enough and maybe, just maybe, the more gullible might take it for the truth. Which is the greatest shame of all.
TROID!
Slut Shaming irish Speakers (An Sionnach Fionn)
