Forward Step For Irish – Major Retailer Raises Profile of Gaelic in Daily Operations

The Irish Times are reporting that the ubiquitous UK food retailer Tesco have announced that “consideration” has been undertaken on  the introduction of bi-lingual self-service check out in its stores throughout Ireland. According to the Times article Tesco have 146 stores in Ireland and separate published reports in 2013 have the retailer enjoying a market share of approximately 25%.

The Times report highlights that the company have previously succeeded in its Galway store with the introduction of Irish in its day to day operations:  “Customers at one of the largest Tesco shops in the West can already pay for their shopping in Irish following the recent introduction of Irish language services…..The company has extended the use of bilingual signage to staff areas, delivery vans and to the canteen where the menu has also been translated. Classes have been held for staff and have been well received by staff.”  This success in Galway is a function of the city’s population of around 16,000 Irish speakers who according to the Gaeltacht Authority (Udaras na Gaeltachta) reside within the expanding suburbs of Galway City".  Now the supermarket chain may be planning to expand the same model throughout its Irish operations.

Tesco’s Galway Branch Manager Denis McCarthy said the reaction has been very positive:  “Not only has the introduction of Irish as a working language appealed to native Irish speakers - others have taken the opportunity to either brush up on the Irish they learned at school as have some who are new to it altogether.”

The benefits to Irish are subtle but significant.  At first glance it would appear that self-service check out in Irish will have little impact on the struggle for the tongue. But just for a moment picture the harried young father rushing into Tesco on his way home at the direction of his wife to get a few things for dinner.  He is young, energetic and is able to fit in an Irish lesson as he quickens the pace to get home.  And these few words stick in his mind, and he begins to use them with his children, they gain comfort with the sound of it, it hooks the mind and offers a foundation for more words. This is why Linguists in their academic models for the revitalization of a language stress the importance of the tongue being present in day to day commercial transactions. This is why Tesco’s decision, if it comes, to expand the presence of Irish to the daily operation in all of it's stores in Ireland may be so significant.

The excellent blogger, Seamus O’ Sionnaigh, cites the move by Tesco on his web site "An Sionnach Fionn" and the success in Wales by language activists in promoting the use of the Celtic tongue in daily commerce and calls for the Irish to do the same: “The success of the campaign by civil rights activists in Wales to have bilingual services provided by Tesco and other retail stores operating in their country has been little short of astonishing. A long and hard fought struggle with a mix of passive and very much in-your-face lobbying has yielded huge benefits. So what are Ireland’s nation-wide language groups doing to effect change here? The people in Galway have shown what is possible but that cannot remain an isolated success. Lots of tried and tested campaigning ideas suggest themselves. Email blitzes on head-offices, marches or pickets outside monolingual-only supermarkets and shops, lobbying local politicians and journalists, etc.    So who is going to start the ball rolling? ” (Seamus O’ Sionnaigh – An Sionnaigh Fionn)

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