In the 1950/1960s, hundreds of family members from the Connemara Gaeltacht had to emigrate to England and US to seek employment. Most did not have a word of English. A lady working in the buffet at Ceannt Station, Galway, during this time told me how sad it was to see them all heading off on the train while their relations and friends stood on the platform waving them off with tears in their eyes, maybe never to see them again.
Maybe the battle to save the Irish language died in those years.
Padraic Pearse declared: âTĂr gan teanga, tĂr gan anam â A country without a language is a country without a soul.â Has Ireland lost its soul? Have we traded Irelandâs soul for 30 pieces of silver?
Nowadays, there are all sorts of Government grants and funding to promote the Irish language, creating jobs in the process. In Gaeltacht areas, most of these high-end jobs are not given to the native Irish speakers, they are given to those with âBook Irishâ coming from outside the Gaeltacht areas.
This is patronising, to say the least. The Irish language should not be used in a cynical way to get hold of funding or way of creating âjobeensâ for the âboys and girlsâ. The sheer lack of urgency with which these Connemara areas were treated during the devastation and after the recent Storm Ăowyn is evidence of how little value we place on our real native speakers who live in this beautiful area which takes the brunt of wild gales frequently during winter months.
A countryâs language survives because the ordinary âSean agus Sheliaâ love it, and love to speak it. It has nothing to do with funding or lack of funding. After all, the Danes have held on to the Danish language without funding.
Nuala Nolan, Bowling Green, Galway
RTĂ needs to stop the Dublin focus
Regarding the heavy focus on Dublin by RTĂ: Residing myself in leafy west Killarney, itâs a well-known fact that the RTĂ weather forecast is as worthwhile as a hedgehogâs pillow to us in âda whestâ. In fact, you could predict with some certainty that the weather in Dublin will closer resemble the London forecast than what we will get.
Another gripe or whinge of mine is the shocking diversion of tax money to Dublin. All the recent public waste of money projects all happen to be in ........Dublin.
Thereâs hardly a car suspension left in Cork and Kerry with the reckless abandonment of public spending on infrastructure. Sure, we can hardly get a train or bus to anywhere in Ireland unless itâs via Dublin at a time that suits the public service holiday allowance.
Tom Maxster, Killarney, Co Kerry
Green energy
Why is this Government not considering creating a green energy industry for the nation independent of the energy markets? As a step in that direction, it could at least have taken equity on behalf of the nation in the wind energy developments along the prized and sought-after west coast of our country. Then we would not be dependent on the energy markets through which our citizens will continue to pay some of the highest prices in Europe, a policy that continues to demonstrate an incompetence and âcouldnât-care-lessâ attitude towards the people.
We are heading into a period of global instability in the energy markets through which dependence on energy imports will place an undue burden on our ability to maintain a balanced economy and provide a reasonable price for energy in the home and workplace.
Failure to see this obvious but vital need, and act decisively upon it at this time, renders our Government unfit for purpose.
Joe Brennan, Ballinspittle, Co Cork
Protect facilities to stay neutral
Recent views on neutrality need to take into account that due to the historic use of Ireland as a landfall for Atlantic cables, and now, a myriad of fibre optic cables and interconnectors, our waters may be an attraction to those who wish to damage Europeâs communications network.
If we decide to be neutral, we will at least need a means to protect facilities in our charge. New systems in the sonar range will need vast amounts of training and this is generally acquired by joint training with other navies. Likewise, stand-off weapons, helicopters, and drones will require levels of foreign training.
The alternative could be unilateral action by those most affected unless we visibly arm and train to a deterrent level in the next few years.
John Jordan, Cloyne, Co Cork
David Clifford is the âking of Kerryâ
Although the South-West has been ravaged by wind, rain, and snow since Christmas, a perfect karma descended on the Kingdom of Kerry last Sunday when King David took to the field in Pomeroy. Our Gaelic football team hadnât made the best of starts in the National Football League campaign. Losing to Donegal, and especially arch rivals Dublin, provided fuel for the naysayers. But our spirits were given a mighty lift as we watched the silken skilled maestro warming up on the pitch.
The supreme genius that is David Clifford proved in no uncertain terms that he is more lethal than ever under the new playing rules. Tyrone found him to be well-nigh unmarkable. His presence also inspired his gallant colleagues to victory in the Northern heartland. He scored three wonderful goals. It could so easily have been five. Even the sporting Tyrone supporters applauded his brilliance.
Later that afternoon, Mo Salah, the best soccer player in England, netted another goal for Liverpool. In monetary terms, Mo is priceless. He earns ÂŁ350,000 for his weekâs work as a soccer player. David is a secondary teacher earning far less than this.
David and Mo are supreme football artists, Mo in a professional sport where players are bought and sold, David in an amateur sport where he plays for the love and glory of Kerry. David may never achieve Moâs wealth, but he is priceless to all of us in Kerry. The King has returned. Long live the King!
Billy Ryle, Tralee, Co Kerry
Pope Francis has carried a burden
As Pope Francis struggles with serious illness, we think back on his visit to Ireland in August 2018. Francisâs visit was in marked contrast to that of Pope John Paul II 39 years earlier. The visit of the Polish pontiff, now St Pope John Paul II, marked a high point for the Catholic Church in Ireland.
John Paul was destined to play a major role in modern European history. There can be no doubt the monster crowds that flocked to greet him on his visits to his homeland, and his support for the trade union movement Solidarity, were significant factors in undermining the stability of the communist regime in Poland and, subsequently, the entire Soviet bloc.
A strong and forceful personality, John Paul was also a consummate performer on world media. By contrast with the confident and even triumphant image of John Paulâs visit, Pope Francis came to a very different Ireland and to an Irish church that had been rocked to its foundations by the clerical child sex abuse scandals.
The crowds were away down on those that had greeted the Polish pope many years before. The face of the Church presented by Francis was a much chastened and penitent one. On his visit to the Capuchin Daycare Centre in Dublinâs inner city, Francis met homeless people and said he saw in them the face of Jesus.
Pope Francis has had to carry the heavy burden of the sins committed by others in the Church he inherited. In my opinion, he has done so with dignity and grace. As he suffers through what may be his last illness, people of goodwill everywhere will wish this humble man, who rose to be the leader of the Catholic Church, all the blessings he has long prayed for.
John Glennon, Hollywood, Co Wicklow
Time for DUP to take a stance
Who would have believed that the DUP would be attending the St Patrickâs Day events in Washington DC, but Sinn FĂ©in would be boycotting the occasion? Maybe weâll have Sinn FĂ©in attending the Twelfth of July parades this year and the DUP boycotting because of some controversy in the world?
But from another perspective, the PIRA had no monopoly on terrorism, and at any time in the last 80 years we could be guarded about doing anything that could have been judged to be giving passive support, or otherwise, to United Statesâ foreign policy initiatives.
After all, wasnât it John Lennon who returned his MBE as a protest against British involvement in the Vietnam War? The US has been constantly involved in what we might call âcounterinsurgencyâ operations around the world since at least 1945. Too many to mention.
Genocide has been committed in Gaza against the Palestinians and thereâs no doubt about that. Britain and the US have been complicit in this. Weâre not going to turn around and call what happened during the Northern conflict as just a tiff, or a spat, so letâs have the same respect for a people â the Palestinians â who have suffered outrageous crimes against them recently and in the past. If Sinn FĂ©in has now decided to take a âprincipledâ stand, then so be it, but the DUP needs to realise that terrorism doesnât just come from an IRA gun, and that similar depravities of terrorism take place all the time and all over the world. Maybe the DUP should take an unbiased stand against all terrorism at some stage in their development.
Louis Shawcross, Co Down, N Ireland
