Dup will never allow Irish language act

[Jim_Murphy_74]

Listening to some of the discussion about this, I wonder would there be a half-way house on this?

Putting Irish as an official language and all that goes with that (right to courts through irish, all government publications in Irish etc.) is definitely expensive and aimed at a very small minority in a practical sense.

Maybe funding towards language development and a formal recognition in law that Irish is part of Northern Ireland's history and identity would reflect the important of Irish to so many people?

/Jim.

I guess my question was not to Shinner negotiators as much as to board members from the North.

Regardless of opening positions you could go for a position where:

1) You get Irish formally recognised in a Bill, ensuring that DUP'ers have to acknowledge that the Irish language and culture is part of official Northern Ireland identity/culture.  It would also serve to flush out those in DUP that can't actually accept that by removing the issues associated with putting Irish on a part with English

2) The Bill would state that to reflect this recognition the Stormont Government would fund Irish classes in state schools, Irish language events etc...

So my question is, regardless of opening gambits, would these be an honourable/successful outcome for nationalists?

/Jim.



If you know you will have to give concessions in a negotiation you start of by demanding everything. Then the concessions are not so bad.

[general_lee]

So in other words call the Act a Bill?

[AhNowRef]

So in other words call the Act a Bill?

Irish Language Billy.

Liam?

Learn Irish Arlene .. Meh ! 

[Jim_Murphy_74]

So in other words call the Act a Bill?

Call it what you want.  However Arlene and her gang are representing the Act as putting Irish on a par with English in all aspects.  This will have a massive cost.

What I am trying to understand if that is a negotiating position or if anyone has scoped out an Act?

Has anything gone before the Assembly?  Has there been "Heads" of the Act published?

At the moment it seems that DUP can represent this Irish Language Act as anything they want.  So they paint a very expensive bogeyman.  However, if someone was to outline what the Act contained and if it was something more modest, then finance becomes less an issue.

Then any bigotry would be truly exposed.

/Jim.

[Harold Disgracey]

I may be wrong but I thought the act was basically going to be a cut and paste job of the Welsh Language Act 1993?

Brief overview https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Language_Act_1993

[haveaharp]

So in other words call the Act a Bill?

Call it what you want.  However Arlene and her gang are representing the Act as putting Irish on a par with English in all aspects.  This will have a massive cost.

What I am trying to understand if that is a negotiating position or if anyone has scoped out an Act?

Has anything gone before the Assembly?  Has there been "Heads" of the Act published?

At the moment it seems that DUP can represent this Irish Language Act as anything they want.  So they paint a very expensive bogeyman.  However, if someone was to outline what the Act contained and if it was something more modest, then finance becomes less an issue.

Then any bigotry would be truly exposed.

/Jim.

How exposed does DUP bigotry need to be ?

[Take Your Points]

I may be wrong but I thought the act was basically going to be a cut and paste job of the Welsh Language Act 1993?

Brief overview https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Language_Act_1993

As we have seen with cut and paste with the RHI scheme, important pieces get left out and cause issues at a later stage.

[T Fearon]

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland-assembly-election/dups-foster-right-to-resist-irish-language-act-says-gaelic-academic-o-coigligh-35477865.html

There you go,Ciaran says No,or should that be nil?

[vallankumous]

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland-assembly-election/dups-foster-right-to-resist-irish-language-act-says-gaelic-academic-o-coigligh-35477865.html

There you go,Ciaran says No,or should that be nil?

I wonder what hie views on RHI are.

[johnneycool]

Underneath the shouting O'Dowd made a good point on Nolan last night when he asked Peter Weir, if the ILA cost £1 mill a year would the DUP support it.  Weir said no.  It's not about the cost.

Edit:  O'Dowd actually said "Can Peter tell me would he support an ILA if it were reasonably priced?"  Weir said "No"

The Irish language act is just one of many ways the DUP have gone about alienating Irish culture in general, add in the "community halls" grants and what they tried to do locally in the Ards peninsula by trying to force
through a  cross community sports project by deliberately ignoring the three local GAA clubs to build a full size soccer pitch in Portavogie, totally unsuitable for Gaelic games irrespective of the location.
Arlene has taken the DUP down a very hard line approach to Irish culture that even Paisley and Peter didn't.

[Orior]

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland-assembly-election/dups-foster-right-to-resist-irish-language-act-says-gaelic-academic-o-coigligh-35477865.html

There you go,Ciaran says No,or should that be nil?

What is the background to this guy? He sounds like another Conor Cruise O'Brien or a male version of Ruth Dudley Edwards.

[seafoid]

There is something fascinating about DUP opposition to Gaeilge. The language is a repository of a people's experience going back thousands of years. DUP and wider Unionist thinking are more like a form of Groupthink which is psychological rather than real. It's like reality vs fakery

[vallankumous]

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland-assembly-election/dups-foster-right-to-resist-irish-language-act-says-gaelic-academic-o-coigligh-35477865.html

There you go,Ciaran says No,or should that be nil?

What is the background to this guy? He sounds like another Conor Cruise O'Brien or a male version of Ruth Dudley Edwards.

The constanst referrals to his faith seem to define him.

[T Fearon]

Seafoid.In 2011 I was present at a lunch in Portadown hosted for visitors from Ballina,which is twinned with Craigavon.Away from the cameras the DUP Mayor greeted the visitors in Irish,no problem.

If both sides would stop using the Irish language as a political football if would be of enormous help

[armaghniac]

Seafoid.In 2011 I was present at a lunch in Portadown hosted for visitors from Ballina,which is twinned with Craigavon.Away from the cameras the DUP Mayor greeted the visitors in Irish,no problem.

No doubt, just as if they might speak in French if twinned with a town there. But they do not admit the people of Lurgan or Markethill the same courtesy,

If both sides would stop using the Irish language as a political football if would be of enormous help

This is no doubt true, but are they likely to stop?