Putting up swine flu signs as Gaeilge a joke
In the wake of the farcical and surreal Official Languages Act, we already have next to useless prominently Gaelicised tourist signs in Dublin, Gaelic-only emergency evacuation instructions in our trains (obviously useless in the event of an actual emergency) and Gaelic-only road safety signs which appear to be more about teaching Gaelic than contributing to road safety.
However, now I see that the Commissioner for Languages, Sean Curran, is castigating the HSE for not putting up swine flu information sheets at our airports in Gaelic.
Given that there is not a single human being on the entire planet that is monolingual in Gaelic, is there no end to this nonsense?
I suppose we shouldn't blame Mr Curran; after all, he is only doing his job. We do have to wonder, however, about the politicians that are responsible for the laughable farce that is the Official Languages Act.
Stephen Lane
Dunboyne, Co Meath
Irish Independent
