Sir -- I have to commend Eilis O'Hanlon (Sunday Independent, February 13, 2011). Eilis is courageous in her allegations. Being interested in this subject and a reader with 60 years' experience, very few journalists have tackled this subject.
It is a dangerous game, a bit like kicking a sacred cow in India. The "As Gaeilge" people are bigger dictators than the British who ruled before them. In fact, I would say De Valera's switch to Irish in 1932 was the most effective ethnic cleanser that was ever invented.
De Valera's "Big Switch" to Gaeilge had little to do with his love of Irish. He was a brainy man and also very observant. In the years 1922-1932 De Valera was not in power. He observed that the pro-treaty government had very little power, as all the business was done by the pro-British Civil Service which the State had inherited after the Treaty.
Dev realised that these people had to be shafted, and the only way to do it was with compulsory Irish. This broke the tradition of civil service jobs being handed down father to son.
Nobody realised that the cure here was as bad as the disease. It opened the door to a new breed of people to become our controllers. These people from the western seaboard, country peasants a lot of them, didn't know English, a handicap they had suffered from a time when they had to emigrate.
However, in 1932 this all changed. Dev put them on a pedestal, and boy did they glory in it. This ethnic move ruled out any competition for jobs in the civil service from the non-Gaelic-speaking part of the country.
This was a disaster as it barred people from parts of Ireland where people lived in a business background, farmers' families, the business people's families, people who paid rent and rates to keep the country going.
The "As Gaeilge" people had no background in the real world. These were people who were bred from people who never paid rent or rates -- ie poor land, small farms, fishermen; emigration was the only way out.
The sooner the better we get rid of this "sacred cow" and give equal chance to the best brains in the whole country rather than confining entry to the corridors of power to people from the western seaboard.
Keep at it Eilis, there are a lot of worms in this can.
Willie Spring,
Castlemaine, Co Kerry
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10 comments:
Revolting Inarticulate Dialect
Many years ago in 1964 I was called to an Accident and Emergency Dept to act as in interpreter (by mistake). An Irishman from Connemara had been admitted after have been involved in a fight, that he got the worst of.
He had only been in the country for one week and had found lodgings. His bedroom room was on the top floor, and the bathroom was on the middle floor. Instead of him using the bathroom, he urinated out the window, and defecated in newspaper and threw it in the garden next door. Upon discovery, an altercation ensued and the police were called, and the Irishman did not fare too well.
People thought because I was Irish that I would understand him, I could not understand one word he said. The letter by Eilis O'Hanlon sums up exactly what enormous harm these “The Playboy of the Western World” types have done to Ireland, with their continued pig ignorance, belligerence to England and senseless outdated Irish ideology for a United Ireland.
These people have been obstructive of reason and logic and have brought Ireland to it’s knees, they have made Ireland the laughing stock of the world. The people in Europe are not amused and are not laughing, they are very angry and hostile to Ireland.
These people done enormous harm to the reputation of Ireland overseas, in terms of bad manners and atrocious use of the English language, like a pig in a silk hat, as though contempt for linguists was a gift from God. They still want to continue with this banality.
No one expects people these days to speak with “BBC received pronunciation”, but when an Irish politician speaks as though a wasp has flown into their mouth or something is stuck in their teeth is a great national embarrassment. Their diction and syntax are appalling, as was demonstrated during the election broadcasts. Sometimes, I have wanted the ground to open up and swallow me when I heard their reasoning and logic.
American actor, Victor McLagan, who was actually British upper class and a was Lieutenant Colonel in the British army based his Irish character on “The Playboy of the Western World” and some Irish people still speak in that revolting inarticulate dialect.
DBMG
In the UK it used to be common to hear ‘don’t trust the Irish’. It was meant that they are prone to be emotionally shallow, to be erratic and changeable in temperament and attitude although, not necessarily wicked.
But now, the emphasis is different, thanks to the people that Eilis O'Hanlon mentions. The Irish reputation has become sinister in that it means the Irish are devious, unscrupulous thieves who would rob you blind, and they do.
The “Old Ireland” that I knew was generally honest, except for the Roman Catholic Church, who were voracious thieves and 'Irish Speaking' scoundrels then. Now the Irish Government and the Catholic Church in tandem are even worse scoundrels, in any language.
Hi GM, I have a day off today and am listening to SHAM 69 whilst reading your blog. Do you know I don't think DEV would have liked them.
Poor Old Dev, tried to be a "Merry Machiavelli" , but he wasn’t clever enough, devious enough or cruel enough, that’s why it has backfired.
He delegated his authority to John Charles McQuaid and a small group ignorant simpletons (who thought they were clever). We have just seen an example of ignorant simpletons this during the election.
Now ,Charles Haughey understood the machinery of Machiavelli, and ironically, were he alive today, would be the only one to get Ireland out of this mess because he was totally unscrupulous as the Machiavellian politic demands.
No one has the guts or balls to sort this out. Perhaps the petite Lucinda Creighton is the only sharp brain in the government, but they will keep her far away from real power. I am a great admirer of political brilliance like Charles Haughey (sadly he got greedy). Someone needs to kick ASS.
That letter is excellent. As you say GM, Eilis O'Hanlon should be commended for her courage.
The imposition of the Gealic language as the ruling tongue of the elite in the 26 counties, was possibly the most malicious move Mr DeValera foisted on the Irish population. In effect it formed part of the real coup d'etat. Nevermind the political manouverings before, this (and such policies) was the death neal for an open, inclusive rational society. A thoroughly ludicrous notion at the very heart of a nation which should have known better.
As Ms. O'Hanlon says such mad policies prompted the exclusion of fairness and experience. In effect taking away any chance Ireland had of creating a business lead environment. We are still living with its aftermath.
The real problem with regards to this issue now is, even if such backward policies are reversed and the emphasis is shifted away from the western seaboard, would the mindset change for the better? In my opinion it would be a gargantuan undertaking (can't see it happening here, and anyway, it would be akin to unscrambling an egg) and one there is and was absolutely no appetite for. The ruling elite are in place now and that is that. Mr DeValera established a system based on who you know and not what you know. Where you live and not how you live. That's the way it is. That won't change.
MR GM i must protest as it seems you are implying that the good people of kerry would engage in such squalid selfish behaviour, i invite you to visit my birthplace where foremost cultural event in irl takes place each summer that brings discerning goat breeders from around the world and much needed FX, you will also find the natives are most charming and fragant and not at all pretentious unlike the people you meet at puncherstown ,perhaps you will learn a new language kerryeese is easy to learn if you stay long enough,warning it is expensive and select but you get what you pay for we have never encoureged low budget visitors CHEERIO BH
oooh btw UP DEV
In James Joyce's "The Dead" The very point concept Eilis O'Hanlon refers to is clearly illustrated in the interaction between Molly Ivors and Gabriel Conroy insofar that Miss Ivors is a self righteous, small minded prig, intemperate, opinionated, Irish speaking bigot.
These Irish speaking, "Hill-Billy" ignoramus’s with closed minds to religious and political thought other than their own have caused, and are still causing so much harm to Ireland.
I was talking to a friend recently in Dublin. I inadvertently made a mistake and hurt her feelings when I asserted that poverty in Ireland is only relative in comparison to what it used to be. She went very quiet, and I realised that I had made a faux pas. We took a fifteen minute walk from Westmoreland Street to where her daughter lived.
Her daughter used to live in a detached house in a salubrious part of Dublin and everything looked good. Now she has lost everything. Her feckless husband who over mortgaged the property, has absconded and left debts, that are so great that it can never be paid back in her lifetime.
The poverty they live in is similar to that of the Liberties as described by Christina Noble in “Bridge Across My Sorrows”. ISBN: 978-0-552-14288-5 Corgi Books. I felt ashamed of myself.
Paradoxically, the benefits, pensions and awards being given to retiring TD’s and Senators whilst innocent people starve and are being humiliated by profligate fools. The conditions in Ireland are similar to those, that lead up to The French Revolution. I do not exaggerate this point.
I do not advocate insurrection, revolution or any hostile action by the people, but when the penny drops, (which it has not yet done), as to the reality of the what these “Hill-Billy” ignoramus “Playboy of the Western World” types of people have done to the Land and People of Ireland, The Irish people will have something to say: OUT LOUD
DBMG
Gaelic Sligheach
There is nothing wrong with people from Co.Kerry or any other county in Ireland for that matter and it would be wrong to stigmatise anyone. No! The enemies of Ireland are the family dynastic “Irish Speaking” politicians who have kept Ireland’s money in “their pockets” for so long.
Only recently, The Speaker of the House (a solicitor) showed himself to be an inarticulate ass. Imagine a trained solicitor behaving like that. What would he be like in a court of law.
The Deputy Prime Minister recently appeared on ‘Hard Talk’ with Stephen Sackur, and looked like and sounded like a complete fool without any notes, and talked the most facile nonsense.
NOT GOOD ENOUGH
Thanks all for your comments.
I'm in a bit of a rush now, and can't respond to them all - but just let me say to Mr BH that it's a fellow Kerryman who wrote that letter to the Indo!
Kudos! :-)
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