A Eagarthóir, a chara, - As members of a group of Irish-speaking immigrants to Ireland, iMeasc, we wish to strongly dispute the insinuation in your editorial of June 20th that English, to the exclusion of Irish, will be the sole language of choice for immigrants to Ireland.
Our recently formed group currently has over 20 highly fluent Irish-speaking immigrants as well as Irish citizens with at least one immigrant parent on its list, and we are in the process of actively collating further members.
Almost all of our group are working at a professional level with the Irish language in areas as diverse as teaching, community work, translation, journalism, broadcasting, an Irish-language cafe, IT, retail, universities, drama, street theatre and puppetry.
It is also worth noting that a number of our group were highly fluent or at least had some fluency in Irish prior to ever settling in Ireland.
Lest our efforts be tiresomely and patronisingly dismissed as "trying to be more Irish than the Irish", iMeasc was formed directly out of deep concerns as to where repeated attempts in the national media to use immigrants as a weapon against the Irish language, and on a lesser level, native Irish culture, could lead.
The immigrants in our group are all working extremely hard in their diverse contributions to Irish-language life and culture in Ireland and deserve not to be dismissed as bizarre and slightly amusing, but on the whole irrelevant, aberrations, but taken seriously as a growing reality within modern Ireland. - Is muide le meas,
ARIEL KILLICK (Cathaoirleach), ALEX HIJMANS, HENRY LEPERLIER, ANDREAS VOGEL, TONY PRATSCHKE, CHANTAL KOBEL, CÓILÍN Ó FLOINN, DEIRDRE D'AURIA, GEARÓID Ó MAELEARCAIDH, South Circular Road, Kilmainham, Dublin 8.
Madam, - In his letter (June 22nd) Seosamh Mac Donncha of Foras na Gaeilge is critical of your newspaper's portrayal of the implications of the Official Languages Act 2003 across "what is one of the most important national newspapers in the country".
As a daily reader of The Irish Times I don't believe there is any other national newspaper that is as sympathetic to the well-being and indeed the promotion of the Irish language anywhere in this State.
As for the editorial, I was struck by its clarity and fairness on an issue that seems to raise the hackles of Irish speakers and organisations whenever anything remotely critical is discussed or written in the context of how the language is taught in schools or promoted by officialdom.
With regard to the Gaelscoil phenomenon, I honestly believe that small class sizes coupled with excellent supervision and the quiet dedication of motivated teachers has more to do with its relative success than learning a language.
As for the negative coverage of the Irish Times editorial team, Mr Mac Donncha might take note of the three pro-Irish letters in today's Irish Times, one of which is his. - Yours, etc,
NIALL GINTY, The Demesne, Killester, Dublin.