WITH THE sod, turned for Teilifis na Gaeilge, the debate over the supposed need for an expensive Irish language channel is about to ignite again.
That is a very poor sentence but there is no time this morning for expensive rewrites.
Quite a few commentators have drawn attention to the comment in the Green Paper on Broadcasting on the sizeable gap between actual levels of linguistic competency and usage, and positive attitudes to the language as a focus of Irish identity."
It's a bit like peace. We are all for it, but doing anything about it is asking a bit much. Or neutrality: the line in the sand is clear but we will not get involved in Article Five commitments which demand active engagement.
There is nevertheless the feeling that we have to escape from (the mire of) our native passivity, the state of paralysis evoked in Joyce's Dubliners, and actually do something.
It can be only a matter of time before we are advised to take a proactive approach.
Maybe this has something to do with Irish itself. Not too long ago, Fintan O'Toole pointed to the operatic view of the world implied in the first official tongue. In it, he noted, emotions don't belong to people, they happen to them. You can't say "I am sad" or "I am happy", you have to say sadness/happiness "is on me" (ta bron orm/ta athas orm). People don't have feelings - feelings take possession of them just as they do in opera.
It is just possible then that Irish simply reflects the way we are, open to feelings which take possession of us, angelic, demonic or otherwise, essentially passive as a race, prone to withdraw from aggressive modes of behaviour in a fevered world, to shyly hold back, allow others take the limelight. Or is this all questionable since Joyce with his damnable theory of Dublin paralysis was notoriously anti nationalistic, making fun of the Gaelic League long before that became a popular sport?
Meanwhile John Waters tells us, in connection with learning Irish and/or other languages, that only when we have taken care of the source of our own culture have we the right to go in pursuit of the experiences of others.
He is right I suppose, but there is a lot of petty squabbling about the precise location of Ireland's source of culture. The foot of Sliabh Bloom is a prime contender, along with the Poulaphouca reservoir, sweet Corofin, the pools above Glencar, Ballyjamesduff, St Enda's School, the Hill of Tara, the banks of my own lovely Lee, the Great Blasket, the fields of Athenry, O'Sullivan's shebeen (formerly "The Shop House"), the Mountains of Mourne, the Old Bog Road, the Wexford Slobs, Ryans of Parkgate Street and the lonely hills of Upton (far away). They each and all make a good case with sound geological and moral back up.
There is also a well connected Irish crowd over in Boston researching the claim for the Black Hills of Dakota.
John says too that we must stay awake to the fact that the globe is but the sum of its localities, and there is no "great outdoors" to which a loyalty superseding the loyalty to one's own place can be declared.
It's only right then that there were no arrests among the Cork and Kerry crowd involved in the Killarney riot last weekend, and that no charges are being brought. The Cork lads were there to celebrate a 21st birthday and having taken care of the source of their own culture they were well within their rights to pursue new experience elsewhere. The Kerry lads are equally well aware that the globe is but the sum of its localities and nothing supersedes their loyalty to their own place.
Of course we don't know exactly what language was used, or how many native Irish speakers were involved.
The reports said the Cork crowd numbered about 20, and in all, some 60 people took part. This means the visitors from Cork were out numbered two to one, yet casualties were more or less equal. This is not a bad outcome for people engaged in a foreign cultural war, the Cork crowd can hold their heads high.
Killarney people are often a bit uppity as a result of the town's long reign as a tourist mecca. There is a certain cultural imperialism in the area, though Kerry folk on the whole are very decent people. This latest debacle is embarrassing but they will probably emerge the stronger for it.
