The creeping prominence of the Irish language

It's not. That's just an excuse to sidestep the real reason which is "because English is".

Sounds like doing things in Irish is a hobby of yours. If I could fill out a form in Japanese I might just to see if I was capable of it. It'd be a bit strange to have the opportunity to fill out anyhing like that in Ireland though.

"It'd be a bit strange to have the opportunity to fill out anything like that in Ireland though"

Now we're getting somewhere.

Imagine if someone said something similar about Irish in Ireland instead of Japanese in Ireland.

"It'd be a bit strange to have the opportuntiy to fill out a form in Irish in Ireland?!" Just let that sink in.

And now let's look at your other quote:

"Let [Irish] be a minority language with hobbyists and enthusiasts keeping it going and take away the unnecessary government life support".

Government life support is very necessary unless we really want to kill off the language altogether.

Because if Irish isn't the language of Ireland, it's the language of NOWHERE! And that's not good enough in my opinion.

Endangered species are preserved because everyone accepts that this isn't the 19th century anymore and diversity matters.

So it is with endangered languages and to me preserving Irish is one of the things that our society is getting better at, one step at a time.

Good day for an Ghaeilge this morning with the news that it is now a full working language in the EU.

The full speech from Michael D is well worth reading where he talks about the importance of learning Irish as well as other EU languages and he encourages people to see past negative experiences in school.

2022 is the year if anyone is thinking of taking up an Ghaeilge again. Lots of great online options through zoom that make it much more fun and interesting than people realise.

https://tuairisc.ie/2022-an-bhliain-le-hiarracht-mhor-a-dheanamh-ar-son-na-teanga-raiteas-an-uachtarain-faoi-lanstadas-na-gaeilge-an-ae/?fbclid=IwAR0jgcOLEshJeDb2td2b6nnlYAUhDUlx-UGp3IusrHiwqBFgga8MW6n4DBo

I'm sure all the native-Irish speakers in the EU will be mightly relieved!

I'm not sure how prominent Irish has become as a result of this - an outcome that has been gradually worked towards over a long period of time, BTW.

One curious result of this is that Irish will now become much more (to use that word again) prominent in the workings of the EU than it is here in Ireland, where very little official documentation is available in Irish. Indeed, the Dáil even largely gave up translating laws into Irish around a decade ago despite a constitutional imperative and various law cases obliging them to do so.

Catherine Connolly and Aengus Ó Snodaigh occasionally drag the senior civil servants in charge of producing Irish translations into a committee room to explain themselves, who just throw up their hands up in the air and say "it's not our fault". A series of excuses just as credible as a kid telling his teacher that the dog ate her homework.

Another curious result is that all new technical vocabulary in Irish will henceforth be devised in Brussels/Luxembourg/Frankfurt for use in EU documents, and will have the force of law here in Ireland - because of course EU legislation trumps Irish legislation every time (although there are areas where the EU doesn't yet have power). This relegates Irish efforts to second place, a major result of official inactivity for the last fifty years or more!

Ah yes, the usual utter sh*te of trying to say someone is less Irish just because they have no time or interest in the Irish language.

His post is very clearly saying the anti Irish is not just about the language which is not true, it's about the language. There's nothing wrong with having the opinion that Irish should be treated as a hobby and that we shouldn't spend so much on it.

You said:

You seem to have missed this little bit in fvp4's post:

Would you care to reassess your comment now? Then again, maybe you consider the words 'hostility' and 'hostile' to bear no relationship to one another.

Fair point: he said hostility.

I think there are more 'hostile' (I'd say pushy though, not hostile) people on the pro side, which gives that impression. You know yourself, you get one or two over-enthusiasic zealots and then suddenly the entire movement is tarred with the same brush.

But what qualifies as 'anti-Irish'? I'm all for the promotion and publication of the language and for the tools for those who wish to learn to be made easily available and accessible, but ultimately for the individuals choice to decide what media they use to express themselves.

Would that class me as anti-irish?