Language policy critic hits the wrong target

IN his letter (April 25), Darren Mac an Phríora seems to adopt the bizarre tactics of the more extreme elements of the Irish language lobby by attacking politicians who have distinct policies on the language and praising those who have none at all.

He asked the Fine Gael frontbench “if they thought the party had failed the Irish language?”

In asking this, he focuses on their proposal to make Irish optional after the Junior Certificate and completely ignores the many other excellent proposals made by Fine Gael.

These include the creation of a new ‘Communication in Irish’ subject which would focus on spoken rather than written Irish; the creation of an Irish language support corps within the Department of Education to give direct assistance to schools which have a particularly poor record of Irish results, and the development of Irish sign language education for deaf students.

Together these proposals would bring about a revolution in the teaching of Irish. So why does Mr Mac an Phríora ignore them?

Instead he seems to have written to several FG politicians asking a very leading question in an attempt to illiicit responses which could then be used to attack them. The only people who have “failed” the language are those who ridicule genuine attempts to save it, thereby aiding those in Government who stand idly by as the language dies.

Barry Walsh

Brooklawn

Clontarf

Dublin 3