Sir, - In his Irishman's Diary of December 15th, Kevin Myers quotes de Valera as saying that if he could chose between having freedom with the language and the language without freedom, he would rather have the latter.
I am sure that de Valera meant by this what Cathal Brugha did when he expressed the same sentiments. But Brugha elaborated on the matter further by stating that if Ireland was Irish-speaking, freedom in the truest sense would be inevitable anyway, whereas, freedom without the Irish language would have no proper or permanent foundation.
Of course, Kevin Myers is correct when he states that languages can die, but he should also understand that languages can revive and expand also, as indeed did the English language, which was probably a minority language in these islands right up to 1800, when the majority of people spoke Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Irish, Manx and Cornish.
English made remarkable headway during the 19th century. Why did it flourish and spread? Because of course, it had status, legal support and structures such as English-speaking universities and an English-speaking Civil Service.
I wish that the Irish language would flourish to the point that it would be a generally spoken language throughout the entire island. This would be done by giving it status and structures. Let us have 500 all-Irish primary schools outside the Gaeltacht (we already have 134) and give us 100 Irish medium secondary schools (we already have 31). And then let us have an all-Irish university that will give the status to Irish which Oxford University gave to English. It is also necessary to have an Irish-medium teacher training school, an Irish technical college, and college of art, a language rights Act giving all people the right to do business in the national language with all State organisations, and the Irish Language as a full working language of the EU.
I believe a major revival of the Irish language can be achieved by establishing the structures that will enable it to do so. I am convinced that this can and will be done. Indeed, we have no choice but to do so. The alternative of having an Ireland that would merely be a tenth-rate England and America swamped by foreign ideas, drugs and attitudes and deprived of all idealism is dreadful!
Perhaps Kevin Myers can help us in the new millennium by adopting a more positive attitude the oldest written language in Western Europe and a unique part of the heritage of not just this country, but of Europe and the entire world.
Surely he can appreciate also that a major language revival will bring in its train a new pride and self-confidence to our people and especially our youth. And this may well be the key to solving the truly appalling social problems in Ireland at the present time. - Yours, etc.,
Padraig O Cuanachain, Dun an Oir, Sean Bothar na hEochaille, Corcaigh.