This is from todays Irish Independent..this would seem to be the type of article that generally emanates from this newspaper! A newspaper that never publishes anythign in Irish! What do forum members think?

Shouldn't Irish have a more important presence in mainstream Irish media?

what do you think of the attitude of the journalists towards our native tongue?

Anyway read on
Diarmuid


Second language translates into double financial trouble

TOWN and county councils are bracing themselves for thousands of euro extra spending for translation and printing services associated with the provisions of
the Official Languages Act.

Under the July 2003 Act, documents aimed at the public must be translated into Irish.

There is already concern about printing and translation costs.

Privately, officials in some local authorities in non-Gaeltacht areas, are scathing about the extra workload, delay and costs involved in translating documents
which, they say, will barely be read in English, let alone Irish.

County councils can expect to pay translation costs of €100 to €150 per thousand words.

Kerry County Manager Martin Nolan has already warned that the council's Irish office will be in need of funding to implement the Act in accordance with the
Department's requirement. Some €100,000 has been set aside - half the council's Arts budget - this year for the promotion of Irish in the county which has two
Gaeltacht areas.

Anne Lucey

It mIght encourage them to shorten their speeches.

Since Irish is the first official language of the Republic of Ireland, perhaps they should consider the costs of translating it into English!

Indeed, Celtoid!

Well it is the Irish Indo! They wouldnt know culture or national pride if it jumped up and bit them on the nose.
If they checked it out hey would see that over 20(and rising) local authorities have called on the Gov to seek official staus for Irish in the EU and ar 21 Eanáir:Ócáid stairiúil - i Seanad Éireann moladh agus glacadh d'aonghuth le rún a síníodh d'Fhianna Fáil,FG, an PD agus an Lucht Oibre, ag iarraidh ar an rialtas stádas oifigiúil oibre a Bhaint amach don Ghaeilge san Aontas Eorpach - in other words taht article was a piece of s###!!

Dia Dhuit;
100 - 150 euros per thousand words.
Sure words are getting dear these days!
Must be due to inflation.

Michíl

As a student in south Dublin I feel more Irish should be interlinked with every-day life and not just restricted to Clann Lír in the classroom. I am not particulary good at Irish but I still love it and hope more use will be made of it in the coming years. Certainly I will. I always say 'hello' and 'bye' in Irish. Maybe if people were given easy access to Irish literature, as you propose in newspapers, people like myself will become literate in our language.

Hi Daithí.

I don't know how fluent you are bit I believe in Dublin there are plays in Irish from time to time. You can meet Irish speakers there. That's how Gaelgeoirí meet up these days, from what I gather on various bulletin boards.

It all sounds a bit covert, like the gay scene. :-)

Same over here in England. I attend language events (residential weekends, occasional day classes etc) organised by a volunteer group called Coláiste na nGael (most recent event was in Derbyshire last month and we had over 50 people staying and attending classes over the weekend.) Press releases and photographs are regularly sent to the Irish Post newspaper(circulates among the Irish community in Britain)....Never a mention. Just a columnist who writes that Irish should be confined to the scrap heap.
Dáithí