Gardaí - What would you do if spoken to in Irish?

An Coilean

Johnny Electricity wrote: »

If it's such a problem waiting then speak english. Times change, Gaelige is not widely spoken as once was, so if someone is going to deliberately awkward/stubborn then let them be detained.

There should be no obligation on Irish citizens to speak English when dealing with the state, this is Ireland after all.
Times change and it is no longer acceptable for peoples rights to be infringed for choosing to speak Irish in their own country.

bravestar

An Coilean wrote: »

There should be no obligation on Irish citizens to speak English when dealing with the state, this is Ireland after all.
Times change and it is no longer acceptable for peoples rights to be infringed for choosing to speak Irish in their own country.

There is no obligation, they can wait for a translator or speak English.

kub

Sounds like a case for The Garda Ombudsman, i wonder what that is in Irish.

WilcoOut

Johnny Electricity wrote: »

If it's such a problem waiting then speak english. Times change, Gaelige is not widely spoken as once was, so if someone is going to deliberately awkward/stubborn then let them be detained.

thats a good point

if you had urgent business with the Gardai, speaking Irish to a non speaker would just hamper yourself

indioblack

An Coilean wrote: »

I am interested to know how members of the Gardaí would react if a member of the public insisted on using Irish.

There was a case a while back of a Garda arresting someone for doing this and I am curious to know how other members of the Gardaí would react in a similar circumstance.

If such an incident happened as you describe, I would think the guard might have regarded the behaviour of this member of the public as wasting police time - which it would be.
Presumably your police think they have better things to do on duty than trying to accommodate someone attempting to make a political point in a rather childish fashion.
There should be more productive ways of doing this.

The Black Oil

This probably goes back to the wider problem of Irish is taught and how the curriculum was designed. Yes, in an ideal world, I'm sure more members of the force would speak it, but it's not their working language. It may be a right to deal with an apparatus of the state, but a very small minority of native speakers, imo, (not necessarily those who might need to interact with AGS) hold on to it in a way that would be perceived as trolling. A balance needs to be struck in facilitating a right and what is reasonable and practical.

Frankly, I'd prefer (excuse me I'm speaking out of turn here) if more resources were providing for training around mental health, disability...probably more valuable for a member to be able to sign for the Deaf community, for example.

IRLConor

An Coilean wrote: »

There should be no obligation on Irish citizens to speak English when dealing with the state, this is Ireland after all.
Times change and it is no longer acceptable for peoples rights to be infringed for choosing to speak Irish in their own country.

I think the whole "Irish is the first language of the state, English is the second" issue is the best example of the difference between de jure and de facto. No amount of wishing, praying, teaching or Official Languages Acts will change the fact that for the vast majority of people in this country Irish is a distant second language and English is their first.

When I want the cooperation of Gardai I jump through stupid hoops, fill in stupid forms, give them personal details that are none of their business and do any number of things that are irritating, time wasting or otherwise distasteful to me because not doing so means I don't get what I want. I don't see why it's so hard for Irish speakers to do likewise.

Pat Mustard

Ah, the old "gabh mo leithscéal" defence. There's always some muppet who thinks it'll help get him off drink driving or something.

Clowns.

bravestar

The Mustard wrote: »

Ah, the old "gabh mo leithscéal" defence. There's always some muppet who thinks it'll help get him off drink driving or something.

Clowns.

And here is the whole thread in a nutshell