Liadh’s new language role is her focus for the future
FORMER MEP NOW RESPONSIBLE FOR INCREASING THE USE OF IRISH IN GAELTACHT MHUSCRAÍ
MORE than a year since her recount drama which saw her lose out on retaining her European Parliament seat in Ireland South, former MEP and Presidential candidate Liadh Ní Riada this week embarked on a new chapter in her life.
To date she has been a film and TV director, a cultural activist and a director of a pioneering sean nós project which has helped singers from her native Múscraí garner some of the traditional art form’s top prizes.
Now the Cúil Aodha woman has taken on a new challenge, revitalising the use of Irish as a spoken language in the Múscraí Gaeltacht where she has been appointed in the role of Oifigeach Pleanála Teanga/ Language Planning Officer.
Mother of three daughters and wife of Nicky, Liadh spoke this week of her joy to be back working at home with her family close at hand though she does feel that her work in the parliament was unfinished.
“I’m after leaving politics for the time being,” the former MEP told RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta’s Saol Ó Dheas. “It was wonderful - it was a great opportunity and there were things which I greatly enjoyed.
“I have to say it’s great to be at home and given this great opportunity by Comharchumann Forbartha Mhúscraí and Údarás na Gaeltachta.
“But there’s plenty of challenges ahead, particularly with COVID about, and it may be about for a much longer period, in trying to promote Irish with organising events in the normal sense - it’s challenging, but not impossible at the same time.”
The scale of the challenge she faces is daunting and her priority is to implement a plan that has as its aim the increase of the number of daily speakers of the Irish language in the mid Cork Gaeltacht community.
The local community co-operative, Comharchumann Forbartha Mhúscraí, is the lead organisation in the area which is responsible for the implementation of the language plan, a document drawn up in a community consultation in 2017 with over 70 different measures included across a range of sectors, business, education, youth, culture and sport among others.
The Múscraí Gaeltacht is one of 26 language planning areas throughout Ireland which have had language planning officers recuited - or are in that process - in order to increase the numbers of daily speakers to ensure that embattled Gaeltacht communities where the use of Irish is under constant pressure remain viable as areas in which Irish is spoken as the main language.
In a 2015 update of a controversial report issued in 2007 which predicted the death of the Gaeltacht where Irish is the dominant community language within 15-20 years, four of the nine electoral districts in the Múscraí Gaeltacht were shown to be Catergory B Gaeltacht communities, ie where Irish was being spoken daily by between 44% and 66% of the community. The other five electoral areas were shown to be Category C, where the Irish lauguage is spoken daily by less than 44%
The former MEP isn’t daunted by the scale of the challenge as she has added to her skills and experience through tough electoral campaigns as well as what’s widely acknowledged as an effective term in the European Parliament.
“One of the things I miss is that I was able to help people and prepare and enact legislation which, I knew, would support the fishermen, for example, and even in the Irish language sphere, I succeeded in getting a fund of €3.2m for translation and language interpreting.
“There was power there to get things done and I miss that but I certainly don’t miss the travel and I don’t miss being away from home. It used to be terrible being away from home five days, four nights every week.
“When you’re in politics to that extent, you’re never off the clock and it’s impossible to be in two places at once.”
She thought she was doing well in the European Parliament, she was voted the hardest working MEP in parlimaent during her term, she prepared numerous reports, as well as being an active member of the EU Budget Committee, the EU Fisheries Committee and taking part in an EU Delegation visit to China.
However, she felt she was on a hampster wheel and had this suggestion in terms of politics in the future, a suggestion which some politicians might not welcome: “I think elected politicians should take a term out in order to reconnect with the people who elected them”.
She also famously went on a language strike during Seachtain na Gaeilge in 2015 where she refused to speak except in Irish, a language whose simultaneous translation was not provided for in the parliament at the time. This was due to the failure of the Irish Government to seek an end to a derogation which allowed the European Parliament not to provide simultaneous translation for Irish despite the language gaining official status in 2007 after a public campaign forced the Irish Government to seek such status.
This led to scenes during parliamentary debate when people chairing those discussions silenced the native Irish speaker because of the unavailability of simultaneous translation. The Ireland South MEP did provide a translator who would do consecutive translation but this was not allowed under standing orders.
As a result of the MEP’s ‘stailc teanga’, there is increased interpretation of Irish available in plenary sessions of the EU Parliament but, due to a lack of fully qualified interpreters, this is not available on a par with other EU working languages yet.
Her loss in the European Elections last year, where she failed by 300 votes, after a recount, to retain a seat clearly still stings but she’s philosophical about it. “If that hadn’t happened I would be back in Europe but now I’m back at home with my family, doing something I’m enjoying immensely and doing something I think is worthwhile.”
There are things she has marked as immediate priorities in her new role. “I was thinking of ways to bring the community together in the context of COVID and I notice how some older people might need support and help in getting the most out of their phones to send pictures and the like. We think everybody knows how to use the internet but they don’t and I think that’s one of the fundamental things I’d like to move on.
“I think signage is important - people can come in to Múscrai and not realised it’s a Gaeltacht community at all.
“These are small but significant things in their own way and after that I want to set up an internet site which will cater for the entire community, people who like every sort of thing, cooking, sport, reading, relationships because I think that one of the things we fall into is that we’re always talking to ourselves.
“This is about bringing people in to learn and use the language.
“That said I don’t think we’re going to start with Irish language classes - I believe it would be better if it happened more naturally and more organically .
“Imagine you’re learning to cook - and you’re doing it through Irish. These are some of the approaches and ideas I’d be looking at but, of course, I’m only after starting the job in the past few days.”
In the duration of a wide ranging interview, Ms. Ní Riada, who was the Sinn Féin candidate for Uachtarán na hÉireann in 2018, dealt with a number of thorny questions.
She said that her comments about wearing a poppy in her role as President, and not as a Sinn Féin member as if she were elected she would be outside politics and not a party member, were well received by republicans who came to her.
“I was trying to go about saying how would we establish friendship with people and if you’re talking about a symbol like that, which has a lot of awful baggage, at the same time, if we’re grown up enough to extend the hand to people who are not on the same side as us, someone has to start that conversation.
“And on the same basis, if you were talking to Arlene Foster and asked her if she would wear the Easter Lily and she would say I’d wear it if you wore the Poppy.
“I was only trying to start a conversation but I got some support from people who felt the Poppy had done a great deal of damage to their families and I was surprised as to how wonderful they were with me about it.”
On contesting the Presidential election at all, she said: “If I got the opportunity to relive it, I would have preferred to stay in Europe. I always wanted to do two terms because there were certain things I was doing which I wanted to finish - I had sought a derogation for the islands and worked for the fishermen and I had worked on the EU’s engagement with the Good Friday Agreement.
On the plight of rural Ireland: “I have to say to every party, Sinn Féin included, that they are not doing what they should for the people of rural Ireland. Not enough people are standing up for the people in rural areas as everything has become so concentrated on Dublin and I think that’s a big mistake.
On the aftermath of losing the European Election: “Politics is hard, when you’re out, you’re out.”
She said that Sinn Féin didn’t approach her to run in Cork North West in the recent General Election partly, she felt, because they didn’t think it would be fair given she had been involved in two difficult unsuccessful campaigns.
She didn’t rule out a return to politics saying the door wasn’t closed but ‘it was on the latch’. When pressed she said she was uncertain if she should return as a Sinn Féin candidate and hinted she might run as an independent.
Her focus for the forseeable future, however, is her new role as Oifigeach Pleanála Teanga Mhúscraí, a role she is passionate about.“When I set something in front of me, I always do it wholeheartedly, I don’t give it any half effort. I will light a fire under it and I’m looking forward to that and driving significant improvements around the area.”