Given that Ireland is on the cusp of not having a conventional private sector banking sector; that its retail food chain and our national debt are predominantly dominated by foreign interests and that there are very few other true expressions of Irish identity in the country - it would be nice if a component of our national identity was expressed through the active and spontaneous use of the Irish language.

The target of this campaign, the latest of several in recent decades, is to increase the number of daily Irish speakers from the current level of 36,000 in the Gaeltacht to 250,000 in 20 years.

It is unlikely that not even the doting mothers of those who prepared what is described as a language strategy believe this so-called target to be relevant, realistic or remotely achievable.

Therefore, it must be seen for what it is, a farce lacking integrity - a facility for spending public debt for which nobody is accountable with a time lag that is so remote that not even a sedentary elephant will have a memory of it. In essence this is an intellectually lazy cop-out towards which spending money with no return is to be tolerated by politicians from all parties who simply want a headline and a photo opportunity.

Gael Scoil Ultain Monaghan, celebrating 25 years of Irish....theirishobserver.blogspot.com

Maurice doesn't actually say Irish is dead Mark!(even though you did put it in inverted commas!) What he does say is that 'English is and always has been the primary language spoken on the island' this is totally false and colours the rest of his argument with incredible ignorance. Only a tiny fraction of what is spent on English is spent on Irish. This is a shame as Irish is the single most important facet of our culture. Accept that Irish in an integral part of Irish culture and that it will remain so.

A schizophrenic and, ultimately, primitive viewpoint being expressed by Maurice in his letter. As it happens, those he pejoratively describes as "Irish language zealots" have no "ulterior motive" other than a strong sense of national identity, pride in our heritage and recognition of the importance of bilingualism.

Maurice bizarrely asserts that enthusiasm for the national language is fuelled by anti-British sentiment. It says more about his own post-colonial hangover, however, that he would interpret the promotion of Irish identity as anglophobic. In any event, the charge lacks any connection to reality.

More startlingly, however, he maintains that "English is and always has been the primary language spoken on the island of Ireland."
I suppose one can only despair at this public exhibition of ignorance.

The truth of the matter, of course, is that the case for the Irish langugage revival has been made stronger by the events of the past year. Irish identity has been severly diluted and our character and integrity as a nation have been called into question. Irish, as one of the richest European languages, should be a source of collective price, not of infantile shame.

It wasn't spending money on the Irish language that got us into this mess, and taking more money away from it will not solve our financial problems. Indeed, spending on promoting and improving services through our national language has already been cut in recent years.

Taking your argument to its extreme, what shall we eliminate next, that "serves" only a small number of people?
Wheelchair lifts, audible pedestrian crossings and other facilities for disabled minorities?

I think we all agree that it would be wrong to do so. Where, then, do you draw the line in cutting what you deem to be useless spending? Is the language that constitutes an extremely important element in our culture and heritage really so useless? Should we forget about it and put the last nails in the coffin just to save a few bob (which will probably be spent saving bankers and reckless investors anyhow)? Surely not.

And another thing...

I have to point out the fantastic contradiction in Mr. Fitzgerald's colourful rant. Firstly he asserts that:

The Irish language is not exclusive to this country. Gaelic has been spoken in Scotland as a second language since its early history.

Then later adds

Furthering Irish also has an anti-British sentiment attached to it and one cannot ignore the ulterior motive here.

My point would be that, if the speaking of a Gaelic language is not unique to Ireland and is in fact shared with our British neighbours the Scots, how is it possible that the promotion of said common language is an anti-British device?

Out of curiousity I would love to know whether Mr Fitzgerald also feels that the promotion of Welsh by the people of Wales (Wales is also in Britain) is anti-British?

Those affected by the contents of this letter should count to ten (as Gaeilge) and then read the "Coping with Anti-Irish Opinions" series by Colm Ó Broin. It really helps.

...It is also a popular myth that Gaeilge has been "dead" for a long time now and that it's only being kept alive by middle-class Zealots who want to get their hands on grants and EU funding. This is perhaps a very Leinster-centric myth as the reality of Gaeilge within the region formerly known as the Pale is that it probably is mostly middle-class people with children called Fiachra and Finnseach who speak Gaeilge. However, take a trip to Donegal, Kerry, or parts of Galway and you'll see a very different picture. I had grandparents on both sides of my family who struggled with English when they first moved to Scotland and England for work, that's only two generations ago… That doesn't really square with the argument that Gaeilge has been "long dead". I suppose these kind of myths are not surprising when you consider Maurice's unbelievable statement that "English is and always has been the primary language spoken on the island of Ireland."

I'm also not comfortable with the notion of simply conforming to whatever cultural trends happen to come our way from overseas. Maurice seems to have no problem drawing an arbitrary line in the sand and saying "this is the way things are, let's just get on with it," but where does that end? Perhaps if inward immigration reaches a certain tipping point, Maurice will happily abandon English and learn Polish or Nigerian instead? Sure everyone knows "Polish is and always has been the primary language spoken on the island of Ireland." Perhaps he will happily embrace Sharia law if enough people force it down our throats? Obviously these are rather alarmist hypothetical scenarios but they apply the same logic that Maurice applies in his arguments. If you kiss goodbye to your language, your history, your culture, what are you left with? Some people consider certain things worth fighting for because they have intrinsic value. We have seen how the Icelandic people are bouncing back impressively from the ignominy of the IMF bailout, one might argue that their keen sense of self-determination is underpinned by the fact that they still speak their own language and have a strong sense of identity and confidence in themselves. A week had barely passed in this country before people from certain quarters started calling for us to rejoin the pound Sterling. Let's stop thinking of ourselves in terms of another country, there is room for both English and Irish in our society and we're all the richer for the both of them.

As for the cost? €1.5 million is a drop in the ocean in the grand scheme of things - the salaries of a handle of TD's. Maurice's energy would be better spent attacking the banks or the wastefulness of the Senate in my opinion.

Is mise le meas,

Sean Mac Aoidh
Baile Átha Cliath

It would seem that others have beaten me to the punch here, but I feel that us language zealots have to fight our own corner here. Maurice, a chara, there are several flaws in your argument here. Firstly, Irish is our native language, regardless of whether it is (unfortunately) spoken by the majority of the island.
Nor is Irish a dead language, for a dead language is a language, such as Latin, that is no longer learned as a native language by a speech community. The Gaeltacht areas and countless families in my area in Newry who are raising their children through and with Irish prove you to be factually wrong here.
Thirdly up until the middle of the 19th century English was spoken on a daily basis by less than 5% of the population with Irish spoken by 98% plus. So clearly for the majority of the last three millenia the main language of this island.
As for tourists struggling to understand the language, the Irish language has proven to be a very popular tourist attraction, albeit I and other Irish speakers don't want to see it limited to that.
Finally, anti-British sentiment, are you referring to Irish people wanting to speak their own language as anti-British? Surely then your desire to see the Irish language die could only be called anti-Irish by that measure? You are in Ireland where the land is Irish, the people are Irish and the native language is Irish, when your Norman ancestors came here they embraced the language for its beauty as should you. An Ghailge go brách!

Our A&E departments are full of patients on trolleys and Maurice rightly points out that priorities are not what they should be. All I can see here from the comments posted to his letter is a lot of vested-interest SPIN!

I am Irish as are my ancestors & I, as they did, speak english. I learned irish at school for 13 years & enjoyed the subject but never had a teacher who succeeded in promoting the spoken word-in my opinion this has encouraged the downfall & erosion in the language. I am not any less Irish as a result of speaking english all my life, I have a strong Irish identity & love traditional irish music. Interestingly I know a lady who comes from a gaeltacht community who speaks fluent irish & english but told me recently that she needed the english version of the passport form because she didn't understand the irish version of the form because of the 'new' words used in it! Irish people who speak the gaelic language should not be derided but for goodness sake they should stop whinging about lack of funds to promote the language & if they want to encourage those of us who may understand a cupla focal & have a desire to become proficient in speaking the irish language, invite people into your homes for an informal evening where conversational irish is used & spread the love!!!

Slightly off the subject being discussed but something that has long amused me is the practice of using the gaelic translation of the name given to one at birth, ie on the birth certificate, & using that translated name instead. Now each to their own but is that not a bit of an insult to ones parents....yes there is the argument that gaelic names in some instances were forcibly anglicised in past centuries & I guess some people feel very strongly that this was a gross injustice but having read many historical tales it leads me to wonder how some of the aggrieved would feel if they delved into their family tree & discovered that their lineage may not be truly celtic!

Mr. Ross and Mr Rodrigues,

Most people who have posted on this article have focused on the many falsehoods and weaknesses in the piece. Instead of engaging the opposite side in meaningful debate on the topic you prefer to make sweeping remarks, dismissing all the points raised not with counter-arguments but by using labels like 'zealot' or 'spin' or telling them to 'grow up' thus making their opinions irrelevant.

Would you not agree, for instance, that Mr. Fitzgerald's point about English having always been the dominant language in Ireland is a complete untruth? Would you not also agree that calling the promotion of Irish an anti-British act is quite an ignorant and narrow minded falsehood?

As for emigration, I believe Irish is of value to those forced to go abroad to make a living. I have no doubt that the speaking of Irish is, for some emigrants, a treasured way of maintaining their identity when they have no choice but to live and work in another land with another culture. I would site Irish columns in foreign newspapers, hits on Irish language websites from abroad, Irish-speaking groups in foreign countries, and to an extent, the teaching of Irish in foreign universities as evidence of this.

As for Irish being useless in the modern world I would agree that it is difficult for somebody to become a millionaire through use of the language but on the other hand many people do not place value on things purely by how much money you can make out of it.

I think Irish is very important as it is one of the few things we have in this country that makes us different from other countries. In this 'modern world' where there is a starbucks and a mcdonalds on every corner and everybody wears clothes bought in the same shops I feel that our own language is one of the few things we have left that makes us different from any other country in the world. I think it would be a horrible world if everybody was identical, wearing the same clothes, eating the same food and speaking the same language. The Irish language is part of who we are, it is part of our history and our culture, to many people this is important so please don't dismiss it so lightly.