Attitudes to Irish language revealed

Ryan, your bizarre opinions are pathetic as your spelling. Seriously, someone who has such poor English should think twice before criticising people for speaking or learning other languages. Your first sentence, from what I can make of it, implies that republican 'terrorists' used Irish as a weapon? Well, I don't know who those terrorists were, but I only wish Al Qaeda would limit its attacks to speaking Arabic at people. Your second sentence claims that Irish has no place in a modern society. Well, it may come as a surprise to you but some people do speak it as a first language. I spent 18 months living in a Gaeltacht when I was in my late teens/early twenties. I even came across at least one woman down there who actually couldn't speak English (not long over 10 years ago, although I do concede that she was old at the time). Did you mean to imply that such people do not live in modern society, or that they should forced to give up their backwater terrorist language in order to please yourself and a handful of other sub-educated bigoted dimwit delinquents who wouldn't thank or think any more of their fellow Irishmen as a result of them surrendering an integral part of their culture anyway? What was that you were saying about republicans being divisive? Anyway, now let's consider some historical aspects of the language. We'll ignore the fact that it was (and still is) spoken in Scotland and that many unionists feel a cultural link to that country. Just considering 'Ulster' - it was the language spoken ubiquitously throughout the province at a time when Ulstermen effectively ruled the whole island (for quite some time prior to, and again after, Munsterman Brian Boru's high-kingship around 1000AD). Many of the surviving epics of Irish literature surround the legendary king of Ulster, Conchúr mac Neasa, his druid Cathbhadh, his prize warrior Cú Chulainn, his red branch knights, etc. Stories such as the Táin speak of a time when Ulster was under siege and fought against the rest of Ireland. They also speak of Ulster-Scotland links. Cú Chulainn, for example, went to Scotland and had a child with a great Scottish warrior, Aoife, who was so skilled that he had to cheat to defeat her. The story of the arrival of the Gaels in Ireland speaks of two brothers, Eibhear and Eireamhón dividing Ireland between them into north and south, with Eireamhón later becoming the first ruler of Ulster to rule all Ireland on Eibhear's death. Indeed, some in the loyalist community are inspired by such mixture of myth and history; I have seen murals in Irish on the Shankill. You say you don't want Irish shoved down your throat? Fine - take it up with the loyalist paramilitaries who commissioned that mural. It has to be said that the English were once fighting each other too and that the historical divisions in Ireland, whilst interesting in abstract, are nevertheless somewhat passé (being over 1000 years out of date). I was hopeless at Greek at school, although I was well into classics and always wanted to read Greek drama in the original Greek to get a better feel for it. I guess I'll never be able to do that now, but I'm truly glad I can read Irish stories in Irish. Against your bigoted judgement, Irish is not a weapon and can neither hurt anyone nor threaten the constitutional status of anywhere. It's just a language. Saying that, it is a language that is part of YOUR heritage, whether you consider yourself Irish, Scottish, or some combination of the two. Furthermore, I would contend that it will be part of our shared future based on reports of new learners taking courses based in traditional loyalist heartlands.

@Laura, so they say, I've yet to hear anyone speak a word of Irish round here though, but Polish and Chinese I hear practically every day. So what's your point? When there's a united Ireland we'll all need to speak it so we can make a fresh claim?

"Why limit it to Irish? What about Polish? Or Chinese? Or Japanese?" EH, BECAUSE THIS IS IRELAND PERHAPS?

Irish is a divisive sectarian language used by republician terorists to divide during the yeras of violence and murder. The Irish langauge has NO place in a modern society where French, Spanish, Chinese... etc will be of more use to our young looking for careers, employment, prosperity. This whole issie of the Irish language is all a little back-water fight on sectarian lines. If you want to learn Irish as a "hobby" fine - BUT DO NOT SHOVE IT DOWN THE REST OF OUR THROATS!

You people at UTV have a cheek to talk about the Vatican censoring Fr D'Arcy. This website is a prison for free speech! I'll try again I suppose. Tim in Belfast, maybe it would be a good idea to learn the English language before you criticise anyone for wanting to learn their own language. I agree with Joe in Armagh. Language is an important part of our identity and it should be preserved. So much of who we are is being erroded by globalisation. Our past must be conserved for posterity. Not everything which is new can be considered positive. So many teachings of past generations have been lost already and society is not any better for it.