Learning Sinn Feinish

Whatever the Irish language is to you, whether you are a native speaker or are interested in learning it (or not), it is not nor has it ever really been of primary concern to Sinn Fein. Sinn Fein have used the Irish language primarily as a political weapon; where they have failed to advance their cause through the IRA, Sinn Fein has always sought to gain politically through a game of cultural one-upmanship, this has only helped add to the idea of an exclusiveness in "Irish" identity which keeps the Gaelic language firmly within the Catholic Nationalist community.

Last week Gerry Adam's stated that the "language itself isn't a republican language, it isn't a Sinn Fein language. It is actually the heritage and the property of everybody who lives on this island." Of course Irish isn't a republican language, but the problem is that republicans and nationalists have exacerbated that theme of exclusivity, meaning that Gaelic is identified within the Unionist and Protestant community as a part of nationalist identity.

Gerry Adams is correct in his above comments, however his proposal for protecting the language is not the way to best go about either protecting it or promoting it, it is merely another way of "greening the north"; once again Sinn Fein's actions speak louder than their sugar coated words.

If Sinn Fein and republicans really cared about the Irish language the proposed language act wouldn't be top of their agenda, allowing people to write to government exclusively in Gaelic would be a waste of energy and money, so too would be exclusively protecting a community of native speakers which makes up less than 2% of the population. Money and resources would be better spent and directed towards providing schools for teaching and learning the language, preferably voluntary, and free from the influence of any one political party or community.

Culture in Northern Ireland is a political sport were one sidedness reigns supreme, and the quango bodies set up to promote each sides culture seem self-serving and over financed. It is always about getting "one up" over the opposition; if one side gets financial funding, the other side wants the same, which isn't about promoting ones cultural heritage or identity exclusively for the benefit of said cultural heritage, rather it is about the cultural one-upmanship represented by both the DUP and Sinn Fein.

The last thing we need in Northern Ireland is yet another over financed quango, with another overpaid chairman, which promotes a politicised culture, and pays merely lip service to cross-community bipartisanship. What we should have is one central and independent body for the promotion of culture in Northern Ireland - The Ulster Ministry of Culture - with a bipartisan non-political charter and staffed by cultural enthusiasts.