Stádas march a success

A colourful message from the march

A march organised by Stádas, calling for the Irish language to be recognised as an official language of the EU, went off very successfully last Saturday. Some 5,000 people attended the event in Dublin city centre and organisers were particularly struck by the amount of young people present. A carnival atmosphere prevailed, and the strong Sinn Féin contingent was also noted.

The party's EU candidate for the Northwest, Pearse Doherty, spoke at the march. He reminded people, that over 30 years ago the Irish Government of the day refused to take up the offer of making Irish an official language of the EEC.

"That was a disgraceful decision which stands as a mark of shame against that government," he said.

"In a few days time the accession of the new states into the EU will see the current 11 official languages increase to 20. Maltese, which enjoys 380,000 speakers, is already recognised as an official language of the EU. There are at least that many Irish speakers on this island and many more who have a knowledge of the language. There is huge support for this campaign with motions passed in local authorities across the country and in the Dáil.

"Comments from a government spokesperson today that ' it is making good progress on enhancing the status of the Irish language within the EU' are not good enough. The Irish language has to be afforded the same status as other languages within the EU — nothing more, nothing less."

Doherty added that the government still has time, while they hold the Presidency of the EU, to move on this matter, and that the Irish language must not be allowed to continue as a second-class language within the EU.