RTE news report on the guy that got away with a speeding ticket because the authorities could not deal with the ticket as Gaeilge. This additional bit is kind of shocking:
His solicitor also sought a translation of the road traffic acts and the District Court rules in Irish and discovered these were unavailable.
Christ lads! Cop on.
Funny that! Legal practitioners with right of audience at the higher courts are expected to speak and write as gaeilge and are subject to an Irish examination as the language is first in the 1937 Constitution of Ireland or An Bunreacht na hEireann.
Seems we are setting further double standards.
I note Michael McDowell recently announced some reforms as gaeilge, a nice display of a Senior Counsels ability to work the system, I guess the problem is though that the system doesn’t work.
…unless your living in the Gaeltacht and drive erratically.
Quaere? Will the Garda reserve be all Gaelgors?
Something rotting down below.
I know a guy in Cork who has got away with minor offences due to this a number of times over the years. The fact that the man in the article is from the Gaeltacht and didn’t learn english till his teens is irrelevant, it is the constitutional right of any Irish speaker to represent himself as Gaeilge.
This has been an issue since the formation of the state, its hard to believe that they still haven’t got something as simple as District Court rules in Irish. You’d think in Donegal at least they’d be able to cope with this.
It doesn’t surprise me one bit that they couldn’t deal with him as Gaeilge.
Whenever I have to deal with the Gardai I use the Queen’s English to do my business.
Shameful. The ability to speak Gaelige doesn’t offer much protection when you are mown down by a speeding motorist. The defendent, his barrister and the judge should all be forced to visit the family of a crash victim. It’s not like we wouldn’t be able to produce one at short notice.
Its a bit of a joke in fairness… Constitutional rights about language or not, you’d think that this loophole would have been repaired over the years. God knows theres enough madheads on the roads, now we’ve got them speeding AND yelling in Irish because they can’t be stopped….
Come on. Surely our constitutional right to conduct our affairs in Irish is much more important than a few people’s simple lives. After all, when people are dead and gone there will always be future generations who are entitled to their linguistic heritage.
This man was diving in Irish; he was on Irish roads; he had the Irish attitude to speed; he was entitled to an Irish hearing.
If he killed anyone, I’m sure there would have been an Irish funeral.
The fact that there are more Polish speakers in Ireland now doesn’t change the fundamentals: Irish lives deserve Irish. At least now he can go back on the roads and drive his Irish car in his Irish manner. Speed on Mac Gaeilge.