OPINION: Why the Irish language will always be with us - even if most of us are indifferent

Maybe it’s part of the responsibilities of the Kildare County Council chief executive to provide a little cover for the county's citizens every now and then.

A few of us found ourselves hiding behind the KCC boss, metaphorically speaking that is.

Anyway, when Sonya Kavanagh said she - honours Irish Leaving Cert student and all - would have reservations about how the proceedings of a full KCC meeting would be fully understood, then so did a good few more of us.

Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh was elected to Kildare County Council for the first time on June 7. One of her first actions was to put down a request to have a full KCC meeting conducted in the native tongue. (She has since been elected to the Dáil with a barnstorming general election performance in Kildare South.)

And when it came up for discussion, the debate dragged on a bit. But as councillor after councillor gave their views it was tempting to think that many of the county’s other problems like a lack of creches, faulty public lights on busy roads that had not worked for months, more frequent interruptions to the public water supply and a lack of amenities to match the rapid rate of residential development, were being tackled.

Nevertheless, these are all separate issues and the health of our language should not be overlooked because there are  pressing issues. 

Cllr Ní Raghallaigh, like some of her councillor colleagues, is a fluent Irish speaker. And her efforts and those of others to promote the language and our culture have to be praised - especially so in an age of increasing globalisation which doesn't always respect borders or different nationalities.

When we think of Wales, for example, we think of its unique language - maybe all the more so since they are no longer a force in international rugby !

The obvious difference in Ireland is that Irish is not spoken widely.

If nothing else, Cllr O Raghallaigh’s motion highlighted the importance of the language and how past administrations failed to come up with systems and methods of education which would ensure it was loved more in school.

Generations left second level education with a lukewarm view of the language at best and more's the pity. Many departed with a pretty unimpressive view of Peig, the autobiography which told of a hard life and which we, in a sense, unfairly transferred on to the language. It is interesting and reassuring to see that Peig has been reinvented - because it deserves to be recognised as a contemporaneous account of the life of an islander in what is, after all, an island nation. (This writer's father was fluent in the language and used it whenever he could.)

For a time Irish words were anglicised in a well meaning but questionable effort to make the language easier to learn. Gluaisteán became carr, for example.

We use bus in Irish and English and tacsaí is Irish for taxi but the suspicion is that this is so only because it is phonetically convenient as is feithicil for vehicle.

Great strides have been made to encourage the use of the language. The growth in Irish schools has also been positive, even if there's a suspicion that some consider sending their children there for reasons unrelated to the language.

The language will never die; there are too many interested in its welfare (it’s estimated 70,000 people can speak it) and they work hard to eusure it survives.  And even though most are not fluent it’s good to know that it’s there, even in the background because it positively underscores our sense of identity. But that’s where it is for most of us - omnipresent but in the background.