Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE COUNCIL OF Europe has recommended that the United Kingdom introduce legislation to protect the Irish language and the rights of Irish speakers.
In a new report published today, the organisation also recommend that the UK government attempts to create a “political consensus” to ensure this happens.
The Council of Europe is distinct from the European Union and aims to promote human rights, the rule of law and culture across Europe.
The European Court of Human Rights is under the Council of Europe and 47 states are signed-up members.
Part of the Council of Europe’s work is to promote language and it is under this role that it is critical of the UK’s progress on minority languages.
As well as Irish, the council has also encouraged greater protection for the Cornish language.
Among today’s recommendations were that the UK:
Adopt appropriate legislation protecting and promoting the Irish language and take measures to ensure progress on language rights of Irish Speakers
And that the UK government:
Should engage in a dialogue to create the political consensus needed for adopting legislation.
The push for a standalone Irish Language Act by several Northern Ireland parties was cited by the DUP as the reason talks with the Sinn Féin over government formation broke down last week.
In its report, the Council of Europe also said the Northern Ireland Executive has a duty to ensure that national and ethnic minorities have access to their rights.
The recommendations from the Council of Europe have been welcomed by numerous Irish language groups.
Conradh na Gaeilge said it again shows that the British government has “clear outstanding obligations” in this area.
“This is not the first time the British government has been subject to criticism from international committees due to the lack of progress on Irish-language rights but we now hope, with the spotlight currently focusing on the language questions, that satisfactory provision will be implemented without further delay,” said CnaG president Dr Niall Comer.
Irish language advocacy group Pobal said the British government now has “no escape” from the need for an act to protect the Irish language.
“In this case, we see no reason why Westminster should not now act to bring in Irish language legislation,” said Pobal director Janet Muller.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Considering that there are laws in Scotland and Wales to protect their indigenous languages one would imagine that there will be no problem putting similar measures in place in northern Ireland.
@John Fergus: Except Scots Gaelic isn’t taught in schools there.
@John Fergus: that being said with the DUP propping up the Conservatives in Westminster this likely will not happen under direct rule. As important as this issue is too many there are other arguably more serious matters that need to be ironed out.
I think that when looking back at this situation in hindsight we will regret backing “team EU” as strongly as we did.
The UK is our biggest trading partner, given how the EU and ECB twisted our arm into bailouts and paying back bondholders is clear that they care little about us. We are foolish to think our national interest will be a priority for them in negotiations. They are going to make things as tricky for the British as they can so as to deter other countries from leaving. They would happily shaft us to do that.
@John Fergus: Arlene only likes to follow the guiding light of the union on issues that suit her.
Indigenous language or marriage equality no chance. A la carte Arlene.
@Eamonn Duggan: I like the sound of that….A large carte Arlene. It could catch on!!!
@Eamonn Duggan:
If the union whose guiding light you’re referring to is the union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland then I must remind you that education (i.e. languages) and marriage are devolved matters in Northern Ireland, which is different from England in several ways. Therefore, Arlene is not being “a la carte”.
Does it not occur to Sinn Féin that education and health and social services are more important than indigenous languages?
@Ciara Ni Mhurchu: there are NO laws saying it can’t…..
@Ciarán Masterson: Why do you blame SF, Ciaran? An Irish Language Act was already commited to in the St Andrew’s Agreement. Is it not entirely fair to ask that that commitment be followed up on? Especially since a majority of MLAs and parties support the Act, not just SF?
@Tír Eoghain Gael: poor shinners, isolated, alone, irrelevant. Will that ever change?
@Ciara Ni Mhurchu: ah yes it is
@John Fergus: These countries don’t have a fundamentalist DUP.
@John Fergus: John, as a Brit living in Cork my biggest concern about the whole Brexit issue is that the EU will throw Ireland under the bus as soon as it suits them to in the negotiations. Some might even say it suits the EU to create barriers between the UK and Ireland.
The EU have already shafted Ireland twice before, with the fisheries at ascension and, as you rightly point out, by forcing the Irish taxpayer to take on debt to ring-fence continental bond-holders.
The UK, on the other hand, has a vested interest in Ireland being a thriving economy, and speaking as a Brit (Londoner) we want the closest possible ties, culturally and socially, to our nearest neighbour.
If a hard border comes into existence, it won’t be because the UK desires it, it will be the EU insisting on it..
@John Fergus: UK is not our biggest trading partners it’s no 4 with Belgium. Our history with the UK isn’t good, they have never treated us kindly, interred us without trial, used live ammunition on Civil Rights protestors and then protected the soldiers that murdered our citizens, behaved in a blatantly racist fashion to us. I’ll take my chances with the EU anyday
First lesson for the DUP AND BREXIT, Póg mó thon…
@David Dineen: you mean thóin?
@David Dineen: Make sure to tell me how it goes after all the DUP members and the 17 million people that voted for brexit queue up to kiss your arse like the Blarney Stone.
Arlene and her unionist allies in the Orange Order are vehemently opposed to recognising any semblance of Irish culture in the Six County region as it would dilute the Britishness of their wee country. They want to be free to express their kulture through hate marches and displays of perceived supremacy. All eyes are on them now.
@Jamie McCormack:
They’re not against the Irish language – they simply want Ulster Scots to have the same legal protection as Irish.
Do you not think that education and health and social services are more important than languages?
@Ciarán Masterson: Are you for real, Ciaran? The DUP are “not against the Irish Language”? Is that why they scrapped the Liofa scheme? Is that why they repeatedly mock it (Sammy Wilson calls it a “leprechaun language”, Gregory and his “curry my yogurt” etc)? Is that why they spent several hundred pounds to change the name of a fisheries protection vessel from Irish to English. Make no mistake, the DUP opposition to the Irish Language is driven by nothing more than sectarian bigotry and intolerance. Sad to see there are apologist clowns like yourself ready to jump to their defence and make excuses for them.
@Ciarán Masterson: Gregory Campbell said he’d treat an Irish Language Act as toilet paper. Paisely once described Irish wording on anything official as graffiti. Need I say anymore? Yes. They are fearful of the Gael.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: never have two communities deserved each other more than in your part of the UK. A match made in heaven :)
@Ciarán Masterson: You underestimate language.
@Ciarán Masterson:
Their is also an Ulster scots act being proposed.
@Ciarán Masterson: part of the deal they refused did give recognition to Ulster Scots. This lot don’t know how to be “for” anything, they only know how to oppose.
It makes no difference what you think of the Irish language right now, nor how much you use it, or how futile you perceive it. This ‘recommendation’, comes in order to ensure that IF, at any time, you wish to learn it, to regain what was stolen from your land, (what was beaten into submission over centuries, on the pain of imprisonment or death for a mere utterance of it), then you will have every assistance to excel in it, by the very hand that initially banned it. There’s much more that was stolen from Éire, squandered by the conquerer to excess, but no country should shun the chance to receive assistance in retrieving their lost teanga naisiúnta. To the Council of Europe, Bualadh Bos Mór.
@Paul Culligan: Ufaiseach!
@Paul Culligan: good to know that if we want to learn what was ‘taken from us with the lives of our sons and daughters’ that we have the power, moral authority and international enforcement of this recommendation to stand in front of.
A great day…. have another drink
@Paul Culligan: We have had 100 years of independence during which there was no impediment nor barrier to learning Irish yet the number of people who speak it today is laughable compared to other national tongues with similar problems (eg. Welsh, Hebrew etc.)
Isn’t it about time we stopped blaming the English for our own abysmal attempts at keeping Irish alive?
Faoi dheireadh Tá rud éigin ag dul i bfhabhar dúinn
Its only a recommendation. Arlene and teresa will ignore it.
@F. Wood: If it passes as or becomes an EU Directive, before Brexit, the European Government, I’m sure will tick all the boxes, & make ensure it’s made a Law, before the U.K. leave. I’d be disappointed if they didn’t. The Irish language was formally recognised by the EU as an international language approx.10 years ago & all European directives have been available in Irish since then.
@donnyb: all eu law has been passed en bloc by parliament as uk law recently.
@donnyb: it’s the council of Europe, nothing to do with the EU. It includes all European countries from Iceland to Russia to Turkey. It is the body that sets European human rights. Funnily enough, a lot of the fools who voted for brexit made the same mistake. Claims like prisoners rights are forced by the EU. No, they come from the European Convention on Human Rights.
@donnyb: You seem to be confusing the Council of Europe and the European Union. They are not the same thing. The EU does not tell member state what to do when it comes to things that are within the member states competance (ie things not dealt with at an EU level like the Common Agricultural Policy). The Council of Europe on the other hand will monitor the actions of states that have signed international treaties (in this case the charter on regional and minority languages) and make recomendations if they feel those states are not complying with agreements they signed up to.
Brexit is because Brits don’t like to be told to behave by their peers.
@Jamie McCormack: Eu is here to stay. Box up against Asia U.S. and RU
Europe says this – Europe says that.
Do this – Do that.
Follow orders….Or else.
Is it any wonder Britain wants out of the EU and we’d be better off following them if we had any sense which we haven’t obviously.
Did you hear Fine Gael telling the people of Ireland that they must be evicted from their homes because ‘The EU told us to do it’? What a remarkable admittance by a party claiming to represent the Irish people.
What good will protecting the Irish language be when we have no cultural identity left?
When we’re the Aran Islanders of the European mainland.
@David Sinclair: well said
@David Sinclair: We speak English in Ireland even with an Irish language act. The Eu is the best thing ever, trade..
@gregory:
‘Trade?’
Trading in our soul more like.
@David Sinclair:
Ireland has been on a rollercoaster as an EU member state but it is still in much better shape than Greece or Italy. Furthermore, it is because of EU membership that discrimination against women in Ireland, i.e. the marriage bar, was defeated (not to mention the many benefits there have been for consumers, e.g. the fight against mobile-phone roaming charges).
@David Sinclair: We *are* the Aran Islanders of the European mainland. Always been, always will be.
@David Sinclair: echr has nothing to do with the EU. Moron.
EU also found cruel and unusual treatment but that didn’t change a whole lot!
Today we call it Waterboarding, sleep and sensory deprivation.
The UK wont listen to Leo and Simon, perhaps they might listen to the EU?
If they were happy to purchase DUP votes for 1 billion, they may negotiate with the EU for their Brexit Divorce bill?
Guess that may give Arlene pause for thought, unfortunately the Unionist psychology of not an inch and no surrender is not conducive to external pressure, the UK Govt need to deliver this cohort, they need tough love!
The DUP want to reverse the GFA . Violence and conflict makes them popular. Peace and prosperity weakens them.
There can be no going back on the GFA
What’s the Alternative…
Recommended. RECOMMENDED.
1.7 million people are denied a government over a ILA that would benefit just over 3 thousand Irish speakers . It seems to be that because something exists in the republic , it should also exist in the north . It took over 90 yrs for a same sex marriage ref in this country . Unionists in the north are now bigots because they don’t have same sex marriage. Does that mean we where all bigots in the south before 2015 . We chose to waste millions of tax payers money on a language that nobody has any interest in so the people of the north have to do the same or they are all anti Irish bigots . People in this country needs to cop on and grow up .
@Tommy Whelan: Read through your own comment again and just realise how 1) idiotic it is and 2) how short-sighted and narrow-minded it is. Not to mention your complete lack of statistics to back up your claim (except using an extrapolation from the number closest to your viewpoint – a case of confirmation bias).
@Brian Ó Dálaigh: Truth hurts.
The Tories intend to leave the Council of Europe too. Throwing it into the mix with their “interpretation” of Brexit means Brexit.
@Clarke’s Patriots: Yes, it is really rather sad that a senior politician in the UK (T May) does not seem to know that the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights are quite different organisations to the EU and the Eiropean Court of Justice.
who is in majority in brussels flemish or french, ach doesnt matter they do both
Iontach are fad.!
So the UK still has to do what its told if it likes it or not, that will make the DUP as mad as hell lol.
Yeah Britain. Not so great.
Suck on that.
@T Beckett is back: Did that little bit of willy-waving make you feel better? Bless.
As a director of Pobal, I really do hope Janet Muller realises how ridiculous her statement is that a Council of Europe report recommendation leaves Britain in a situation of “No escape”
@Untriggered Non-Snowflake: there was much celebration around the fire in Janet’s house last night. Stories were told and songs sung all with the sweet taste of victory over their mortal enemy. “Your move Britain!”
Britain: “who are you?”
They should apply the same in Latvia. Ethnic Russians (born there) are fined for speaking Russian. They pay tax but have no vote, carry an aliens passport which is no good for travel. If they want a Latvian passport they pass a test in Latvian, there are 5 different levels.
The 16th of March is the 15th SS Division commemoration day and a public holiday and people MUST fly the national flag on there houses
If You wanted to work or set up a business the same applies. You must conduct transactions Latvian. Not English or any other EU language,
The Language Police, yes they really exist, wander around shops and public areas listening and issuing on the spot fines,
The EU know this but choose to do nothing for some reason,
Oh great a European council I had no say in electing is making decisions about our island and future proofing a language the state couldnt brainwash in to me due to over payed and under performing teachers with 10 years to play with.
Yes, the Council of Europe is really stacked full of credibility. Co-founded by Winston Churchill with the best of intentions. A President who was sacked last year after visiting Assad via the kindness of Putin. Can make recommendations, no powers to act. A quasi “govt” Bruxelles little finger that is funded by taxpayers.
My son is learning Irish in school, he’s 16 on a higher level. Learns mostly by his own devices and desire actually. He hasn’t and isn’t really being taught it, he’s expected to utter monosyllabic mutterings from time to time in class. He loves the language, has been to Gaeltacht twice, last time he was theatened with being sent home because his 19 yr old tutor overheard him pass a quiet remark in English to a friend. He visits relatives in Kerry every year and picks up, as he says “real Irish”.
And guess what, do you, Poba, or any other language advocates on here think this a great way to educate and develop the irish language is world class ?
Do you think his younger siblings think, after listening to his experiences will have an appetite for the same ?
Do you think we, as parents will encourage his brothers and go through the same ?
Britain are no longer within the E.U. So really don’t give a damn what Any European body has to say. As a matter of fact they will probably dig their heels in further now.
A state has no right to refuse the language of its citizens. Neither does it have the right to force a minority interest language on the majority. States are the tools of its citizens, not the other way around. Arlene is right on this one no matter how unlikable the lady might be. The facts are plain, Irish people speak English. Irish is simply the language of a tiny minority and the political weapon of the shinners.
have your say