Once in an Irish speakers' club. Yet, on my hillwalking trips across the Irish Sea, I noticed how ordinary people proudly embraced Welsh as an expression of national identity. Compulsory IrishUndoubtedly, one reason why any sentimental attachment to the language by Irish people was immediately defenestrated after independence, was the rash over-enthusiasm of successive governments. Compulsory Irish was all wrong for our national psyche, and it is only recently that the language has begun to recover from this dissolute policy. Given the peculiarities of our national psyche, this should ensure that within a short time we would be proudly embracing ár dteanga féin once again.

Source: Irish Examiner March 04, 2021 17:30 UTC