Gross insult to dedicated servant

Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan was not the only commisioner to appear before an Oireachtas Committee last Thursday.

The other commissioner appearing that day (Irish Examiner, Jan 24) was the outgoing Irish language Ombudsman Seán Ó Cuirreáin, who last month had announced his early departure from his post due to lack of Government support for his efforts to improve the provision of State services in Irish to the public. Mr Ó Cuirreáin had been invited before this Oireachtas sub-committee to give his assessment on the Government’s 20-year strategy for the Irish language.

The commissioner’s comments on the present sorry state of that strategy made for sad reading. But it was even sadder to note the absence from the hearing of any representative from either of the Government parties.

During his ten years in the job Seán Ó Cuirreáin proved to be a committed and hard-working coimisinéir teanga and won the trust of the Irish language community.

Whether deliberate or otherwise, the absence of any Government representative from the meeting on Thursday was, in my view, a gross insult to this dedicated public servant. And it was also a gross insult to the great numbers of Irish citizens who still value the Irish language as an essential part of our cultural heritage.

John Glennon

Hollywood

Co Wicklow