The granddaughter of former president became the first Welsh language campaigner to be locked up in 11 years. Gwenno Teifi Ffransis was sent to a prison for five days after the 19-year-old refused to pay court-imposed compensation to a Welsh radio station. She damaged Radio Carmarthenshire’s Narberth studio in protest over its lack of Welsh broadcasts.
My Name Is Yu Ming.
This is simply the best movie short I’ve ever watched. “A bored Chinese shopkeep learns Gaelic and moves to Dublin only to find the locals no longer speak their mother tongue. Follow Yu Ming as he pursues his dream of life in the Celtic world.” To put it into perspective, imagine this fellow learning Hawaiian and coming here instead of Ireland. I was nearly in tears at one point, and laughing my behind off the next.
The Brave New World.
David McWilliams predicts that by 2031, Ireland is likely to have a significant black urban underclass, paying rent to a Chinese landlord class, a good chance that there will be a second-generation Polish Taoiseach, that Irish academia will feature a disproportionate number of Indians, yet the Irish language will be stronger than at any point since before the Famine.
Does the Celtic heart still beat?
Good question. Mahalo to my Celtic cousin “Scott” for the pointer.
Lasaifhíona On RTE Radio 1.
The “Rattlebag” radio program on RTE featured one of my favorite Irish singers, Lasaifhíona Ní Chonaola, in a program that can be heard via RealAudio.
Two simple ways to get Irish to flourish.
[ From the Daily Ireland ] A Professor of Semitic Languages in Tel Aviv University, Israel, identified two prerequisites for the survival, revival and flourishing of the Irish language in Ireland, namely idealism and necessity. Fascinating article.
Respect is lacking.
I pointed earlier to a statement by Northern Ireland’s chief electoral officer Denis Stanley where he insisted that all correspondence to him be done in English only. The Daily Ireland suggests that Mr Stanley should be asked to write out 100 times, in Irish, the following section from the Good Friday Agreement: “All participants recognise the importance of respect, understanding and tolerance in relation to linguistic diversity, including in Northern Ireland, the Irish language, Ulster-Scots and the languages of the various ethnic communities, all of which are part of the cultural wealth of the island of Ireland.” Perhaps it should…
Official refuses to answer in Irish.
A letter from one of the North’s top civil servants to an Irish-language rights group has been described as evidence of the need for language legislation that would guarantee the rights of Irish speakers in their dealings with the state. Chief electoral officer Denis Stanley sent the letter to the Irish-language umbrella group Pobal, making it clear that he wanted correspondence to his office in English only. Pathetic.
Words new ammunition up the North. (From the Irish Independent – subscription required)
It seems that the Wikipedia history of podcasting debate is not the only Wikipedia battleground. Unionists/Loyalists and Republican’s are busy changing each other’s entries regarding Northern Ireland/The Six Counties.
Shalini Sinha on the importance of the Irish Language.
Slugger O’Toole carries a wonderful post by Cathal O Foirreidh, pointing to a piece that advocates the elimination of compulsory Irish, followed by a moving piece by a Canadian immigrant of Indian (not Native American or First Nation’s Canadian) ancestry, on the importance of the language. I love this quote: Thus, one of the first things I did when I moved to Ireland was begin the journey of learning Irish – not because I thought it would be easy or was “fascinated”, but because I felt that this was the only way I would really understand the country that was…