Flying Enterprise Case Shows Lack of Tolerance

15th Sep 2016

When Barrack Obama stood on a stage in Dublin city centre and used the Irish language version of his ‘Yes We Can’ election slogan it got the biggest cheer of the day from the 25,000 people that packed into College Green.

A few weeks earlier Queen Elizabeth made a historic visit to Ireland amid some controversy but the opening words of her speech “A Uachtaráin agus a chairde” [Dear president and friends] did far more than any other gesture to soften us up.

The significance of using the very language her royal predecessors had sought to wipe out was not lost on the nation. It was widely received as the genuine attempt it was to mend relations and, Brexit notwithstanding, relations between the two countries have never been better since.

Funny then that a young fella from the Gaeltacht could generate such a furore for speaking Irish to other Irish speakers. Cormac Ó Bruic left his job at the Flying Enterprise bar in Cork because he says he was asked by his boss not to speak to fellow Irish speaking staff in Irish.
 

Cormac Ó Bruic, a native Irish speaker, who walked out of his job after being told by a manager that he wasn't to speak Irish to other Irish speaking staff.

A ban on staff speaking to each other in any language, not to mention, the official language of the state, is draconian. In Galway, businesses are climbing over each other to be seen as authentically Irish with bilingual staff, menus and signage now almost ubiquitous.

Not only does Galway’s enthusiasm for bilingualism portray an image of a city comfortable with its own heritage and history but it also shows the city acknowledging its own diversity.

The anti-Irish language sentiment coming out of Cork last week is unrecognisable from the back slapping nationwide glee that followed the use of the cúpla focal by two heads of state just five years ago or when astronaut Chris Hadfield tweeted as Gaeilge from the International Space Station.

This entirely avoidable episode is embarrassing for Cork and has failed those of us who want the Rebel county to be seen as a bastion of tolerance.

That said is it better for the nation’s real honest opinion to be out in the open though rather than dressed up in fancy menus and bar signage?

We don’t shy away from giving our honest opinions here in Cork so perhaps the wave of fury on both sides of Enterprise-gate need to be explored to find out what lies at the bottom of it all because when it comes to the Irish language it often seems the national psyche needs a psychologist.  
 

Irish speakers demonstrate outside The Flying Enterprise last Saturday

Unfortunately for Irish speakers, they must accept that for many the language is inexorably tied to other historical traumas in the national psyche and identity for which there has been little or no collective counselling.

Many older people associate the language with republicanism (one elderly woman described an Irish language mural welcoming people to Blarney Street to us as “very I.R.A.”) because those pushing for a United Ireland by any means and those pushing for the return of An Ghaeilge were often the same people.

For many more it is associated with an unpleasant schooling. Or both. And the impact of it has been so great that they are unable to separate the language itself from unpleasant political memories or flashbacks to an unsympathetic or even violent education system. Add to that the bitterness and  frustration of seeing Irish and hearing Irish spoken and feel you were cheated out of being able to understand it.

In the last decade or two, coinciding with the peace process, those promoting the language have wisely avoided political extremists and nationalistic piety. The idea that being an Irish speaker, somehow makes you more Irish and without it you might as well go and change your surname to Windsor or Cromwell is as counter productive as shouting ‘it’s a dead language’ at Gaelgóirs. It’s stupid and it just entrenches views even more.

Those infuriated by the people who campaign for Irish language rights have to be more tolerant of diversity. Not everyone wants to live the same way and speak the same language all the time. A lack of diversity is bad for everyone. It makes countries, cities and towns bland and boring.  

Many well educated settled Irish people who wouldn’t dream of passing a racist comment towards someone of a different race or religion ask brashly, particularly on social media, why the hell travellers can’t just give up the nomadic lifestyle and live in houses like the rest of us or why Irish speakers don’t just speak English and get on with it. If that’s your view then you don’t understand what it actually means to be tolerant of diversity.

The insinuation is that the annoying little minority is just being difficult and they should just fit into the way of the majority. LGBT equality would never have been achieved if similarly intolerant rants were listened to – it is only 23 years since Ireland’s anti-homosexual law was abolished – a time when many asked why gay men couldn’t just marry women and stop being awkward.

We shouldn’t be complacent about our so called ‘City of Welcomes’ tag. We all need to constantly work on our understanding of each other and be welcoming of diversity.

And we really shouldn’t need laws so that Irish people can speak Irish to each other at work - here in Cork we should be sound enough to each other to be cool about whatever language two people wish to speak to each other.