A Donegal county councillor has hit out at the local authority's
policies towards the use of the Irish language for official Council
business. Councillor Mícheál Choilm Mac Giolla Easbuig was speaking
after a Special Purpose Committee on Housing and Corporate meeting which
he attended.
While at the meeting, Cllr Mac Giolla Easbuig spoke in Irish although there was no translation service available.
A number of councillors objected to this and claimed that he was being deliberately obstructive and disruptive. Before now, there had been calls from members of the SPC that Cllr Mac Giolla Easbuig should be ignored. As well as that, the Independent councillor claimed that, in the past, none of the councillors on the committee who are fluent Gaelic speakers supported his continued fight for Irish language equality rights.
Councillor Mac Giolla Easbuig countered those claims, stating that he was merely standing up for his rights as an Irish speaking elected representative for a Gaeltacht area.
He said: ‘I have been trying to speak Irish at every meeting of Donegal County Council since I was elected four and a half years ago and, while some progress has been made, I still have to fight and disrupt meetings to assert my right as a public representative for a Gaeltacht area to speak my native language in my local county council,’ he stated, while at the same time pointing out that this was not merely a local issue.
‘It is now December 2018, the end of Bliain na Gaeilge and local committees are starting to implement their local Language Plans throughout the Gaeltacht. It is also five years since the Language Commissioner, Seán Ó Cuirreáin, resigned because of the hypocrisy of the state's attitude to the Irish speaking community.’
‘The attitude of Council officials and local political party leaders shows that nothing has changed. Official Ireland is still saying to the Gaeltacht community “Speak Irish among yourselves as much as you want, but don’t expect to speak it to us.”
Cllr Mac Giolla Easbuig also called on councillors on other Councils throughout the country to use Irish as much as they could to force the state to face up to its obligations.
While at the meeting, Cllr Mac Giolla Easbuig spoke in Irish although there was no translation service available.
A number of councillors objected to this and claimed that he was being deliberately obstructive and disruptive. Before now, there had been calls from members of the SPC that Cllr Mac Giolla Easbuig should be ignored. As well as that, the Independent councillor claimed that, in the past, none of the councillors on the committee who are fluent Gaelic speakers supported his continued fight for Irish language equality rights.
Councillor Mac Giolla Easbuig countered those claims, stating that he was merely standing up for his rights as an Irish speaking elected representative for a Gaeltacht area.
He said: ‘I have been trying to speak Irish at every meeting of Donegal County Council since I was elected four and a half years ago and, while some progress has been made, I still have to fight and disrupt meetings to assert my right as a public representative for a Gaeltacht area to speak my native language in my local county council,’ he stated, while at the same time pointing out that this was not merely a local issue.
‘It is now December 2018, the end of Bliain na Gaeilge and local committees are starting to implement their local Language Plans throughout the Gaeltacht. It is also five years since the Language Commissioner, Seán Ó Cuirreáin, resigned because of the hypocrisy of the state's attitude to the Irish speaking community.’
‘The attitude of Council officials and local political party leaders shows that nothing has changed. Official Ireland is still saying to the Gaeltacht community “Speak Irish among yourselves as much as you want, but don’t expect to speak it to us.”
Cllr Mac Giolla Easbuig also called on councillors on other Councils throughout the country to use Irish as much as they could to force the state to face up to its obligations.
