Most Irish people prefer the language of Wilde
sir – The intransigence of some Northern Irish Unionists has certainly caused many problems over the last 110 years; but it is now Sinn Fein that is being unreasonable by insisting on the introduction of an Irish Language Act as a condition of its return to Stormont (report, December 16).
According to the last census, only 0.2 per cent of the population of Northern Ireland use Irish as their main language in the home. There cannot be anyone in any part of Ireland who cannot understand English nowadays, and putting up bilingual road signs and having every document published in both languages is a colossal waste of time and money. While I would support the teaching of any native language to those who wish to learn it, granting Irish equal status in Northern Ireland makes no more sense than reintroducing Latin to record English court proceedings.
As long ago as 1886, the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language received a despairing letter from a teacher in Letterkenny who complained that the pragmatic parents in his area all wanted their children to learn only English.
The English that is spoken throughout the British Isles is portrayed by Irish nationalists as the language of the oppressor; but the Normans who conquered England and then Ireland spoke no English.
English is in fact a language that has developed over the last 900 years primarily in England and Ireland, and it belongs to us both equally – as the works of Swift, Shaw and Wilde have amply demonstrated.
Nicholas Young
London W13