12 November 1998 Edition
Editor's desk
A very strange little interview took place on Radio Ulster's Talkback proramme on Tuesday. It concerned the growing controversy over whether Ulster Scots is a language or a dialect.
The representative of the Ulster Scots society was not what you would expect from an Ulsterman raised in the tradition of straight talking.
He started well enough. He was asked why, throughout 60 years of Unionist rule at Stormont, the issue of Ulster Scots was never raised, no-one spoke it in the chamber and no-one sought grants to promote it or use it. ``I don't know,'' he said.
The language/dialect has no textbooks and is not taught in any schools. OK, what if two speakers came on the programme and conversed, would he translate?
``Er, no, it's not a language for formal debate''.
They wouldn't have to debate, just converse.
That was when we heard of the Catalan Cringe factor. You see, when speakers of lesser known languages come within ten yards of a microphone they come over all shy and tongue-tied.
All this wouldn't really matter - dialects are as deserving of preservation as languages - but this nonsense is being used to slow the growth in support for the Irish language.
#160;
It's fair to say that Observer journalist Henry McDonald doesn't like republicans. Like many another journalist Henry has spent his career fighting the intellectual war against Sinn Féiners and other such horrible creatures.
On Sunday he attacked Irish Times columnist Vincent Browne for suggesting that David Trimble didn't deserve his Nobel Peace Prize.
Browne had written that ``at no stage did he [Trimble] courageously go to his constituency as Adams and McGuinness and John Hume did, and attempt to convince them substantial compromises had to be made to achieve peace and reconciliation''.
Henry disagreed. ``The UUP, in contrast to the Bolshevik-style discipline of Sinn Féin, is a shambolic, semi-anarchistic party... Sinn Féin's centralism and the IRA's militarism makes it easier to lay down the party line in the republican movement.''
So those six weeks of debate and discussion in Sinn Féin, often long into the night, was laying down the party line. I'm glad Henry is around to tell us that.
What I can say is that the difference between Sinn Féin and the UUP is that Sinn Féin first read the document and knew what had been negotiated. Maybe that's where the semi-anarchistic UUP could start there.
#160;
By the way, what does Henry know about ``Bolshevik-style discipline'' and political ``centralism''? I think we should be told.
#160;
Congratulations to TnaG and everyone involved with their documentary about the hunger strikes, I gCillín an Bháis, particularly director/producer Sonia Nic Giolla Easbuig. It has been selected along with 15 other documentaries worldwide for the International Film Festival of Human Rights in Belgium to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights. It was the only Irish film selected for the festival and will be screened in a prime slot, next Thursday at 9.00pm, the first night of screenings.
The representative of the Ulster Scots society was not what you would expect from an Ulsterman raised in the tradition of straight talking.
He started well enough. He was asked why, throughout 60 years of Unionist rule at Stormont, the issue of Ulster Scots was never raised, no-one spoke it in the chamber and no-one sought grants to promote it or use it. ``I don't know,'' he said.
The language/dialect has no textbooks and is not taught in any schools. OK, what if two speakers came on the programme and conversed, would he translate?
``Er, no, it's not a language for formal debate''.
They wouldn't have to debate, just converse.
That was when we heard of the Catalan Cringe factor. You see, when speakers of lesser known languages come within ten yards of a microphone they come over all shy and tongue-tied.
All this wouldn't really matter - dialects are as deserving of preservation as languages - but this nonsense is being used to slow the growth in support for the Irish language.
#160;
It's fair to say that Observer journalist Henry McDonald doesn't like republicans. Like many another journalist Henry has spent his career fighting the intellectual war against Sinn Féiners and other such horrible creatures.
On Sunday he attacked Irish Times columnist Vincent Browne for suggesting that David Trimble didn't deserve his Nobel Peace Prize.
Browne had written that ``at no stage did he [Trimble] courageously go to his constituency as Adams and McGuinness and John Hume did, and attempt to convince them substantial compromises had to be made to achieve peace and reconciliation''.
Henry disagreed. ``The UUP, in contrast to the Bolshevik-style discipline of Sinn Féin, is a shambolic, semi-anarchistic party... Sinn Féin's centralism and the IRA's militarism makes it easier to lay down the party line in the republican movement.''
So those six weeks of debate and discussion in Sinn Féin, often long into the night, was laying down the party line. I'm glad Henry is around to tell us that.
What I can say is that the difference between Sinn Féin and the UUP is that Sinn Féin first read the document and knew what had been negotiated. Maybe that's where the semi-anarchistic UUP could start there.
#160;
By the way, what does Henry know about ``Bolshevik-style discipline'' and political ``centralism''? I think we should be told.
#160;
Congratulations to TnaG and everyone involved with their documentary about the hunger strikes, I gCillín an Bháis, particularly director/producer Sonia Nic Giolla Easbuig. It has been selected along with 15 other documentaries worldwide for the International Film Festival of Human Rights in Belgium to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights. It was the only Irish film selected for the festival and will be screened in a prime slot, next Thursday at 9.00pm, the first night of screenings.