Colm Bradley has outlined some ways he thinks the GAA can remove the barriers to Unionists joining. Just over a year ago I outlined that the GAA has a de facto ban in Unionists joining. Unfortunately Google hasn't cached it, so some of the substantive points are below the fold. The main contention I have though, is that the GAA is explicitly a political organisation, and should not be treated as a sporting organisation unless and until it sheds the vestiges of a political pressure group.

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Following recent, rather hypocritical, criticism of culture minister Edwin Poots after he stated in a written answer (AQW 4045/08) he hadn't attended any Irish language events during his first 9 months in the job, Edwin Poots will today attend an Irish Gaelic language event in Belfast. Isn't that a turn-up?

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It's past time the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission was abolished. It was a waste of time and money when it was set up and it's a waste of time and money now.

The Human Rights Commissioner Monica McWilliams helpfully demonstrated this point for me when she asked the Northern Ireland Office of the government to go over the heads of our oh so wonderful democratically [sic] elected executive and assembly at Stormont and implement legislation on the Irish [sic] language on the spurious basis of a little-known piece of decidedly dodgy European Union bureaucracy called the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.

Assuming we accept that Irish constitutes a "national minority" in Northern Ireland (or, more likely, the United Kingdom) they (we) are not disadvantaged by not having our car tax forms available in Gaelic which none of us speak as a first language anyway. We are not denied access to public services because we all speak and understand English as a first language (despite the efforts of some to create language barriers). We would all, I am certain, be much better at defending ourselves against police charges in court using English than broken Gaelic.

Ms McWilliams is not doing Gaelic any favours by trying to have it imposed on the people of Northern Ireland. She was a supporter of the Good Friday Agreement and that means supporting whatever form of "democracy" it is that we have because of it, not running to central government every time they do something she doesn't like. By couhcing support for the language in terms of "rights" she's making the same mistake* of Sinn Fein and some other language "enthusiasts" in Northern Ireland.

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Almost as if they heard me talking about it yesterday, the other EU's Council of Ministers, in a blatant act of self-indulgant waste, yesterday endorsed Irish calls for Gaelige to be made an official language of the union. What this means is that legislation passed by both the Parliament and Council of Ministers will be translated into the Irish language at a cost of some €3.5 million per year.

Irish is the first language to become an official language of the EU that is not the main everyday language of any of the member states. Estimates of fluent speakers in Ireland are 20,000 or less. To quote wikipedia, "the status of Irish as an official language in the Irish Republic seems inappropiate let alone as an official language of the EU."

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The Times reports yesterday that the "first official language" of the Irish Republic is disappearing, even from the gaeltacht (the area of the Republic where supposedly Irish is the majority language).

Gaeltacht teachers get an annual bonus of €1,450 and yet apparently fewer and fewer are conducting all their lessons in Gaelic. Some "gaelscoileanna" are not even teaching in Irish at all, even though they get 20% higher funding than English language schools to do just that.

Around a quarter of pupils leaving gaeleacht schools apparently have either little or no ability in Gaelige (Irish Gaelic) or are only "reasonable" speakers of the language (although I sometimes think the standard of English from some of our own school leavers leaves a lot to be desired).

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