Letter: The vast majority of Irish speakers do not use Gaelic for cynical ends

Can I express my dismay at your editorial on Thursday (‘Sectarian use of Irish makes unionists wary,’ February 2, see link below).

In it you sympathise strongly with the sentiment expressed (if not the methods employed) by those individuals who saw fit to erect an anonymous sign opposing the Irish language outside a school in Clough, Co Down.

While it is indisputable that Sinn Fein and other hardliners have sought to commandeer Irish in pursuit of their own cynical ends, this surely must be tempered against the fact that the vast majority of Irish speakers have no such motivation and promote the language simply because they love it and wish to see it flourish.

A degree of unionist wariness may well be justified for the reasons you elucidate upon, and any Irish language supporter engaging in good faith should recognise Sinn Fein's caustic influence on this important part of our shared cultural heritage.

Equally, however, it appears to me that cynical individuals will at times invoke Sinn Fein as a lazy means of justifying their distaste for anything perceived to emanate from outside of their community, Gaelic included.

Rather than deriding Irish language speakers as hypocrites or interlopers, would unionism not be better served if they were instead treated as potential converts to the cause?

Simon Kelly, Dublin

It is the sectarian use of Irish that makes unionists so wary of the language