Welsh in the European Parliament

The Irish News carries a report today that the British government to allow the use of Welsh on a “limited” basis in the European parliament. The Welsh Assembly wants Welsh to be an official and working language for the EU with the Welsh Assembly paying the bills. Plaid Cymru speaker Jill Evans is mounting a campaign for official recognition. The British government, however, do not support that aim: “These proposals are still under discussion and no arrangements have yet been agreed.”

Having been in Cardiff very recently for the first time, I was very impressed – and not a little surprised – by how comprehensively the city was blanketed with bilingual road and commercial signs. It would have reminded you more of Dublin than many parts of the North. Today’s story highlights one of the difficulties that the DUP face in their attempts to deal with language issues. The UK is not simply an English-speaking region and speakers of indigenous languages Welsh and Scots Gaelic – which predate the formation of the UK – are, bit by bit, redrawing the cultural map of these islands.

The DUP have attempted – not unsuccessfully it must be said – to fetter the fortunes of Irish by linking it to their fictional version of ‘Ulster-Scots’. Any movement towards promoting Irish is countered by them with one to promote Ulster-Scots. That Irish suffers in the comparison is, of course, the whole point.

The DUP’s approach to Irish has been quite legalistic. They did – as was pointed out here before – appoint two members to Foras na Gaeilge, the Irish-language board of the cross-Border language body. They have done little else positive since – though I would not be surprised if they throw the language lobby a bone in the form of some badly needed funding for the Irish-language broadcasting fund in Belfast. Such money would be the least painful option for them of supporting the language and might help defuse some of the posturing that is on-going in Stormont at the moment.

Promoting Irish in the North is a challenge that is set to get even more difficult in the coming years. Many unionists may be hostile or indifferent to the language but, as time goes on, many nationalists will become as equally indifferent. “Nice to have but you don’t need it,” is not an uncommon refrain amongst some Northern nationalists. The challenge for Irish speakers is to provide leadership to non-Irish speakers of whatever denomination and to all the political parties on what the language really needs. There is no sense in Irish speakers aping the language policy of the Irish Free State circa 1923 just as there is no sense in the DUP aping the language policy of Stormont in that same year.