Is this the first speech in Irish in the Commons?

John Paul Madine: I learnt Irish in school. I love it, but let’s be honest: it’s as foreign to many as French or Italian. It’s a beautiful language, but it has no practical use.

Ceallaigh Ni Muiris: Let’s take the Canadian experience in preserving French across the nation. My language is at the heart of my identity. No one has the right to rip it from me just because the English got away with it for 800-plus years. Richard James: John Paul Madine, there is a very good reason why the Irish language is in the state it’s in. You need only look at its suppression by British governments (now unionist governments) over centuries.

Muriel Brush: Richard James, it was the Presbyterians who kept the Irish language alive. Anyone who wants to learn it is free to do so. SF tried to take it over and used it as a political issue. Tracey McIlree: In the whole of the island of Ireland, only 2% of people speak Irish daily.

John Parry: I may have missed a point, but surely Irish is an important spoken language and should be recognised? It existed before English.

Betty White: Costs too much money. Hospitals need it more.

Catherine McKay O’Kane: Betty White, well then, if the Protestant community want to pay for the Twelfth, let them.

Stewart Moore: Languages and their cultural ramifications can be intriguing. Ireland has just become a member of L’Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, often called “the French Commonwealth”.

Feathers O’Malley: Stewart Moore, the Francophonie thing is about promoting the French

language in schools.

Tony Gallagher: Interesting argument. The point is made that it’s not possible to consider an Irish Language Act at Westminster, as it is the responsibility of the devolved Assembly. And this point is made during a debate on a Bill that is only necessary because the devolved Assembly is suspended, and the Bill makes it okay to keep it suspended for at least 10 more months.