Grandiose folly of Irish language status venture

I MUST express my dismay regarding Minister Ó Cuiv’s application for Irish to be accorded official EU working status. As a lover and speaker of the language, I view this venture as grandiose folly.

Without picking apart the fallacious reasoning behind this argument, it is symptomatic of the attitude taken by the Irish language lobby - to which the minister is in thrall - in its attempts to focus on status, regulations and official recognition of our tongue, instead of actively attempting to rescue Irish from its pitiful state through grassroots encouragement. Irish isn’t dead yet, but officialdom is doing its best to squeeze the life out of it.

Daire Murphy