Senator Eileen Flynn calls for TG4 to hold presidential debate as Gaeilge

by CrayonComrade

26 comments
  1. Heather can finally put her Irish she didn’t learn as Minister for the Gaeltacht to use

  2. An bhfuil Gaeilge ag Jim Gavin? Because if not then it’s not much of a debate when only one of them can speak.

  3. My Irish is terrible, but I think anyone running for President, or Taoiseach, should be able to speak the native language well enough to participate in a debate.

  4. Debate immediately devolves into “an bhfuil cead agam dul go dtí an leithreas?” requests.

  5. > Independent senator Eileen Flynn said many native Irish speakers are “locked out” of the discussion around the presidency

    Locked out is an odd take. This makes it seem there are loads of people who cannot speak English and can only speak Irish.

    People might feel excluded due to this but I would not say there are any people, let alone many, literally locked out as a result.

  6. in 2011 candidates were allowed answer in english or irish which seems like a fair enough compromise. surely the non gaeilgeoirs could put together a couple of stock answers in irish so they’re not totally embarrassed

  7. Heather would lose her Orange Order base if she participated.

  8. The Irish-speaking lobby just cannot help alienating the majority of the country.

  9. If she thinks Gaeilgeoirs can’t speak English and are thus locked out of debates she doesn’t respect them much.

  10. It’s just performative I’d imagine.. because if it was serious its very risky and could end up forcing us to have that very awkward conversation about what exactly is the purpose of Irish in modern Ireland and just how relevant is it to the vast majority of the population (including citizens who weren’t born or educated here).. and I don’t think that would end well 

  11. I find the whole President should speak Irish argument really flawed. 

    If you follow that logic, 90% of Irish people should be excluded from running for Presidency. 

    Last census shows only 10% can speak Irish very well,  I.e capable of engaging in debate. 

    You end up in situation where you exclude people from running based on their background, where they grew up etc as this all influences greatly on whether you can speak Irish. 

    I wouldn’t think differently of Higgins if he couldn’t speak Irish. 

  12. It will be a debate between the presenter and Catherine Connolly.
    All you will hear from the other two is
    “An bhfuil cead agam dul amach, mas e do thoill e?” and they will spend the rest of the debate hiding in the jacks.

  13. The vast majority of people in Ireland are English in all but name, they would be very upset by this kind of thing

  14. while i understand what the sentor is saying 99% of people dont speak irish on a daily bases hell we have more polish speakers than irish

    theirs really no point to have an irish only debate

  15. do we have a venn diagram of who exactly is “locked out” of the debates? the population who do not have any english, don’t have access to tv (for irish subtitles) and have an interest in the election must be at least one hand, if not two.

    even Connolly, whose family built hooker boats for the aran islanders, would be challenged to find this person.

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