Irish language efforts hard to sustain

Re Barry Walsh’s recent letter about the Irish language: many voluntary groups are working tirelessly to keep the cúpla focal bouyant, in a slowly ‘sinking’ ship, but are aware of how little funding is available ó Rialtas na hÉireann when they try to get a worthwhile project off the ground.

I refer to those of us grassroot promoters, and indeed Conradh na Gaeilge teams, who are also handicapped in affording us any form of reasonable funding. I think that our Gaeilge at home has lost ground as our native tongue since it became a recognised EU language. Who could contradict me when we cannot provide finance to produce a 10-page weekly nuachtán, Foinse, for countrywide distribution to help us with material for our Ciorcal Chómhrá, or to read nuacht na seachtaine as Gaeilge? I try, without success to get nuachtan Gaeilge na Mumhan circulating, but alas it’s too costly.

I am appalled at the revelation that such a vast amount of European taxpayers’ money is being spent on celebrating Gaeilge as an official EU language, while we see Ireland’s Gaeilge funding so diminished and almost as láthair.

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