Tuesday 13 July 2010

Public disorder - as Gaeilge.

I came across this one a few weeks back, but never got round to putting it up, between one thing and another.

A Leaving Cert student was found guilty of public order offences after a contested hearing carried out through Gaeilge with an interpreter present (Herald 25th June).

It seems the noble Gael was part of a group of shouting and roaring Celtic brats discovered by a passing squad car at 3.20 am in Lucan last December. The coppers got out only to be confronted by the student shouting “Ta se mo fucking ceart!! Ta se mo fucking ceart!!” (It is my fucking right!! It is my fucking right!!") and behaving in a threatening manner.

Whatever about the rights of Lucan residents to sleep in peace in the early hours, the cultured Gaeilgoir insisted on his constitutional right to be dealt with through Gaeilge and was arrested and interviewed in Lucan Garda Station by a suitably fluent officer.

Now, normally I’m all against police brutality, but…

See also:

Sweet theft accused draws out legal process through Irish

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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

A leaving cert student at 22 - clever fucking buachaill eh?

Klang

anna said...

It is interesting he is from Tallaght,:It seems that in the case you also alluded to( stolen sweet lorry or something-a fairly serious case, involving theft of goods of quite a few 1000's worth) defendant was also from Tallaght: 2 yrs ago I was on a short Government paid irish course, I'll call the middle aged teacher BRid:Brid knew someone, a nice sounding woman Kathleen Maud, from an island in the west, who wen to Tallaght, and was a well known singer in Irish and teacher of it. Kathleen decided to teach adults irish in Tallaght- and actually did develop a tiny mini Gaealatcht, in the 70's , but sadly Kathleen died young. Brid also alluded to a court case, possibly that 1, and mentioned that the defendant was from Tallaght, and Brid had been pleased when she heard about the Irish speaking aspect of it- she just Knew that the defendant Must have been from a family who were taught by Kathleen- a bit like the descendants of the Schindler Jews,you know people saved from extinction by a noble hero / heroine, who then went forth and multipled.
However it passed Brid by that Kathleen, a genuine cultured Gaelegoir and well rated singer would have bene appalled that her langauge teaching had been used to ill effect in that case- or in this one. What is smart or clever, about using a minority old langauge of your oountry to try to evade well deserved justice? Justice your English speaking fellow country men can't evade? Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. In Ireland scoundrels are often very fond of the Irish language as well.

Anonymous said...

The land of saints and scholars? Maybe not.

Dakota

The Gombeen Man said...

@ Klang. Yes, was thinking that myself as I read the report.

@ Anna. Thanks for the full text. The worst thing about this is that we had an Irish Gaelic requirement for the police up until recently, which meant that despite the growing numbers of people from non-Irish ethnic backgrounds in the country, these were not being represented in its police force. Now people who don't have Gaelic can be recruited, but they still have to learn it for occasions such as the above -- people who speak English mother tongue but are just acting the bollocks and invoking Gaeilge hoping to evade the law. We've seen it before with motoring offences, as well as with the sweet-theft case cited in the link.

@ Dakota. Yes... a wonderful illustration of same!

Anonymous said...

Doing his leaving cert aged 22, fucking idiot.

Nam

Bernd said...

Could I ask two questions after being very confused by this bit of news ...

1. Is there no word in Irish to convey the meaning of "f*cking" in the sense used here? And if there indeed isn't, shouldn't a commission deal with this omission?

2. Why did you put an archive picture of a Hitler Youth defending the Führerbunker in Berlin, c. 1945, up as an illustration?

Then again ...

DerPonyboy said...

Bernd - your second point re Fuhrerbunker......are you serious? You don't get the reference. Hitler youth/Gaeilgoir Oglaigh. Correct me if I'm wrong GM cos Bernd's a regular and i don't want to misrepresent. I really think you've excelled with this posting GM. Impressed Tasmania

The Gombeen Man said...

How's it going Ponyboy? Thanks - glad you liked it. No, believe it or not, the pic above is of our bould Gaelgoir, Mr O'Callaghan, himself. Bernd observed that it looks chillingly like something from the last defence of the bunker, which is quite true.

Bernd, I had to laugh at the use of the word "fucking". I think O'Cuiv should look into this, and invent a few ancient obscenities straight away.

Anonymous said...

Seems like you lot have a prejudice against Tallaght more than the facts, Just because someone is from a disadvantaged area doesn't mean they're automatically guilty. And as for the "Doing his leaving cert aged 22, fucking idiot." I also must say some folk dont have the option of doing it the first time round, its very common for people from the Tallaght area to go into full time employment at 16 while returning later in life to college to complete the LC

Anonymous said...

This guy was in my secondary school. He was a nutcase and bully at 14

Anonymous said...

Yes I went to school with this guy too, very strange individual, bit of a loner and definitely has a few screws loose. Probably only a matter of time before he's in trouble with the law again.