The difficulties of the Irish language

"Human agencies, usually governmental, certainly institutional, are always central to the health of languages", writes Alan Titley, professor of Irish in University College Cork (UCC). "There can, and always should be, a healthy debate about the nature of this support. This debate is probably most lively and presents greater disagreement among the Irish-language community than anywhere else. ... Very few Irish speakers go through life without facing levels of comment and abuse that could be sometimes classed as racist. ... Most people make the right noises and say the language is great, and a national treasure, and part of what we are, and love to hear it spoken, and wish more people used it and whatever you're having yourself. But as soon as any proposal is made, big, small or indifferent, the barrage of excuses hit the fan ... ".

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