Letter: Irish is undeniably foreign in the political, cultural, and lived sense
A letter from Mark McCullagh:
Your recent correspondent took exception to a TUV representative describing Irish as a “foreign language” in the United Kingdom. But before we leap to accusations of cultural insult, it’s worth pausing on what foreign means.
‘Foreign’ can mean external to a political jurisdiction — and Irish is, officially, the first language of another sovereign state: the Republic of Ireland.
‘Foreign’ can mean unfamiliar — and to most people in Northern Ireland, regardless of tradition, Irish is not a language they speak, read, or hear daily. It can also mean alien to one’s values or way of life — and here, perhaps, is the crux of the discomfort.
It is not the language itself that unionists object to. It is how the language has been politically deployed: not as a bridge, but as a banner — sometimes literally — in a culture war.
Irish, in parts of Northern Ireland, has been used not to unite, but to demarcate. Street signs, council motions, and branding exercises are often less about inclusion and more about assertion.
Yes, Her late Majesty the Queen spoke Irish in Dublin — a gesture of grace and reconciliation. Yes, Irish features in the heraldry of certain British regiments. But these are examples of respectful, voluntary recognition — not coercive imposition.
When Irish is elevated in public institutions while British identity is routinely marginalised or dismissed in parts of Ireland, it creates not harmony, but imbalance.
To many of us, Irish is not ‘foreign’ in a pejorative sense — but it is, undeniably, foreign in the political, cultural, and lived sense. And when it is politicised — when it becomes a compulsory element, a battleground, or a litmus test of “progress” — it ceases to be heritage and becomes ideology.
We can honour all cultural languages, including Norman French, Latin, Irish and Ulster Scots without imposition on signage. Let us also be honest about how words, like languages, carry many meanings — and many uses.
Mark McCullagh. chairman of Belfast TUV