Irish language gets full EU status today

You been adamant on several threads that I am Irish. I guess you are not including me in your brotherhood in that post?

Yeah. You are right. I initially ignored francies snipes and provocative language, but he drew me in again.

There are a few posters seem to follow me around, and I see steady eddy has just joined. Anyhow I get enough PMs from people how disagree with me but support my being here so I guess I will continue.

I will try to avoid the spat. Good call from you.

yeah, one of my links was 15 years old by mistake but that was discussed and clarified 7 pages ago, so we both need to keep up

That is another great example of phonetically spelt Irish which some nationalists want a second form of Irish put beside and called dual language and equality.

Clarity would be placing “Old Wood Road” on the sign, Equality would be all four forms ie those two plus the properly spelt Irish and ulster-Scots - and that would still miss many minorities who could claim inequality

Tbh I think minorities who do not speak English should be the priority for translation services and signage. It seems ridiculous to prioritise majorities who can speak English. Irish and ulster-Scots should come behind eg polish

The Posts have been interesting and challenged my thinking.

the few who come on and attack me or basically say that unionists need to suck it up and embrace the language like it or not, certainly bring out the worst in me and encourage me to resist and campaign against the promotion of Irish signage. These are comfortable emotions

the posters who appear to love the language and want to develop it in as non threatening manner as possible, challenge me greatly and leave me thinking I need to sort myself out and realise this is a very important aspect of my neighbours culture and identity. It challenges me to be more positive towards signs being erected. These are not so comfortable emotions

the huge challenge for people like me is to see past the nastier republicans who are on gerrys Trojan horse tactics. It is a huge risk to try and articulate in my community the positives of the language, just for the shinners to be in the paper the next week photographed beside the next sign, stating how they are greening Ireland and working towards unification.

it’s complex, but I do really respect real Irish language lovers. To be really honest, I am not ready to promote or even stop working against yhe erection of the signs just yet.

on wider issues in the original post, I am supportive of funding going into development of the language and agree with several posters on here who suggest it should go into the quiet but important support of individuals to engage and not the mass translations or controversial signage.

Don’t try to poison and misrepresent my posts. I am at a loss as to know what was atrocious about the references to my dad’s knowledge of Irish. Maybe you could enlighten me?

you seem to require a reverence around Irish that is not afforded to any other language. You need to lighten up.

what is verging on atrocious is you trying to hitch your experiences in Ireland to that of aboriginals. You need to get a touch of reality to your thinking.

Francie, you raise this agreement continually but you refuse to tell us how it will impact signage. I am sure everyone smells a rat.

I say again, you tell us something was agreed and it will be implemented sometime. Have some respect for yourself and either tell us how it will impact signage or tell us you have no idea or even have a guess.

if I was you I would have gone away and hid by now rather than keep repeating it

Francie every poster can see what you said no matter how much selective rehearsing you do.

you were very clear that consensus had been reached.

will you tell us all crystal clear then that nothing has been agreed on signage and that it is not a settled matter? That would put this to bed and we could discuss the issue more constructively

…or alternatively tell us all what has been agreed on signage?

Thanks for that. Very informative. I had not read it before.

I do think 90% of it is meaningless waffle and fudge, and not a mention of signage anywhere in it, which should tell us all we need to know about just how controversial that hot potato is.

I am no expert in NDNA, but you omit to say that this is a very tiny bit of it and unionists are asking for implementation in full. I realise that it’s all in the interpretation, but it would seem impossible to implement in full while goods are unable to travel from one part of our country to the other which seriously hampers east/west connections. So it would seem even that language fudge will be held up until the protocol is sorted

Seems like I was right. If you go back to early in this thread you were leading everyone to believe that the Irish language was sorted by consensus. It took 7 pages before we discover that what you mean is you don’t have the first clue what impact this fudge would have on Irish signage, whenever, if ever, it is implemented.

so we are agreed that the is no consensus on whether Irish language signage will be going up. phew!

Firstly Donald, I am not a big fan of funding be pumped into Ulster Scots language. Our communities are not symmetrical. I would suggest other aspects of Ulster Scots culture are much more important to our community like marching bands, bagpipes, drumming, Scottish dancing (and indeed to a smaller degree Irish dancing), our friendships with Scottish people, etc.

just on a side note, you will be hearing much more reference to ulster-British culture.

I would suggest that Ulster-Scots language is in use everyday by almost every person living here. Our English spake here is peppered with it, much more than I am aware of Irish words being used (except in the likes of place names).

the support I would like to see for ulster/Scots culture to compare with Irish language would be very practical ie support for music lessons, band uniforms and instruments and running costs, Hogmanay events and Burns nights, and indeed subsidy for ferry travel between ni and Scotland to ease travel costs. They are just some of the top of my head. Do that and I am sure most of my community would welcome similar support for Irish. As Francie says, no one should fear equality - and in this case equality will cost serious bucks for the Ulster Scots community to catch up on funding levels, not to mention the ulster British aspect developing. Maybe Europe would help 😳