Madam, – Whatever David McDonnell (April 16th) may say, he is perfectly capable of speaking any language he chooses to learn, thanks in no small part to his early success with Irish.
The truly disadvantaged in the language stakes, it seems to me, are those who have no experience of learning a second language from a young age.
Mr McDonnell just needs to get on with it and stop blaming Ireland for not teaching him Persian,Russian, Mandarin or whatever, from the age of five. He would have us surrender totally to cultural cringe and effectively brand every child with the words “For Export” from their first day in primary school.
In these uncertain times none of us can say where life will take us but a strong knowledge of Irish is a guarantee that we know where we are coming from. – Yours etc,
CORMAC Mc MAHON,
Tweed Street,
Melbourne,
Australia.