Direct Action?

Aimsigh

Hi, I was wondering what people here think of the idea of using Direct Action to promote the Irish Language?
Things like refusing to pay bills/traffic fines etc if they arrive in English only, sit in protests in government offices where Irish is not available, using court cases and penalties imposed as a means of publicizing the lack of availability of the Language.

Direct Action campaigns have been a success in promoting the Welsh Language, do you think there might be room for an Irish version of the Welsh Language Society? How would you view such campaigns?

snubbleste

Why?
Article 8 of an Bunreacht states: The Irish language as the national language is the first official language.

Aimsigh

snubbleste wrote: »

Why?
Article 8 of an Bunreacht states: The Irish language as the national language is the first official language.

Indeed it does, Irish has De Jure status in the state, but do you really think that is reflected in practice?

Have you ever actually tried to deal with the state through Irish? I did and I was laughed at.
The reality is that Irish is by far the second class language in the state, the vast majority of the public service is unable to provide services in Irish.

The Constitution was enacted in 1937, but it took until 2003 for any legislation to be put in place to actually give Irish any kind of legal status, and the legislation that did this is routinely ignored by the majority of the civil service.

Hypothetical scenario: I go into My local County Council Office to pay a Parking fine.
The parking fine was issued in English Only. I try to conduct my business through Irish but get nothing but a blank stare, I ask if anyone in the office can speak Irish, and no one can. This leaves me a bit stuck if I want to use Irish. I could tell them that Irish is the first national Language under the Constitution, but I doubt that will do much good.
I could ask to see the councils Irish Language Scheme that every public body is supposed to have agreed with the Language commissioner, but it turns out that like the vast majority of the public service, the Council has no language scheme in Place.
So what do I do then?
I could go through the hassle of making a complaint to the Language commissioner, and the Language Commissioner can get in touch with the council on my behalf and request that the council change its ways, but unless they decide to take the council to the high court over the issue, there is really very little the language commissioner can do to make the council change anything.
So at the end of it all, I get slapped with further charges for not paying the Fine in time and the Council still does not provide a service in Irish, so my choice is to take the council to court my self or use English.

In reality the vast majority of the public service is quite happy to ignore the Language Commissioner and the Official Languages act because they know they can get away with it, and in the vast majority of cases the public will use English even if they would prefer to use Irish just to avoid all the hassle.

That is where a direct action campaign could come in, a small group of people could actively go out and seek to take on the public service over their failure to provide services in Irish, where they win, the hassle is removed for everyone else.

And of course that is only for where the Official Languages Act is actually applicable, there are many areas where it isn't and of course there is no legal protection for Irish in the Private Sector.