Politics has no place in Irish language classes
sir – It is with a wry smile that I read why Sinn Fein and the DUP are not able to form a shared government in Stormont: the issue of the Irish language (Comment, February 16).
As an evacuee in 1939, I attended a local convent and later a national school in the remote west of Ireland. Most lessons were taught in Irish except for the occasional English lesson (usually anti-british history) and “sums”. We were not supposed to speak English in the playground and could be caned, if caught, for doing so.
It seems a great shame to politicise a lovely language that, to my knowledge, was never the preserve of one religious or political group; indeed, it tended to be either the far hinterland and island peoples or the intellectuals of both Irish and Anglo-irish persuasions who could speak Irish. Personally I never once heard anyone conversing in Irish. I very much doubt whether signposts in Irish, or the lack of them, would enhance or harm students’ Irish identity.
Patricia Parkinson
Odiham, Hampshire
sir – I was somewhat perturbed to read your Leading article (“The EU is muddying the Ireland issue”, February 21) – not because I don’t agree with this assertion, but because the article reads: “even as the Government insisted the Province would continue to be treated as though it were part of the UK”.
Just to be clear, Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom; it does not have to be treated “as though” it is.
Arlene Foster MLA (DUP)
Belfast