Transceltic are honoured to have had the opportunity to interview Seán Ó Cuirreáin, Ireland's First Language Commissioner. Mr Ó Cuirreáin announced his resignation in December 2013 in dramatic testimony before the Irish Parliament's Joint Committee on Public Oversight and Petitions. During his final appearance before Parliament earlier this month, the Commissioner stated his decision to resign was promoted by the failure of the current government to support the Irish tongue:
For those who believe in language rights for Gaeltacht communities (Irish Language Area) and for Irish speakers in general, this is a time of great uncertainty. We have two simple choices – to look back at Irish as our lost language or forward with it as a core part of our heritage and sovereignty.
Seán Ó Cuirreáin was appointed Ireland’s first language commissioner by the President of Ireland in February 2004 on the advice of Government following resolutions approving the appointment in both houses of parliament. He was reappointed in a similar manner for a further 6-year term of office in 2010 but announced in late 2013 that he would stand-down from his position on 23 February 2014 when he would have completed 10 years as commissioner. He is a native speaker of Irish, born in the Donegal Gaeltacht in the North West of Ireland. A graduate of University College, Galway before his appointment as commissioner, he had previously worked in journalism and broadcasting, primarily in news and public affairs. The commissioner’s office functions as a compliance agency and ombudsman service in relation to Irish language issues under the Official Languages Act 2003. The Irish language, spoken in Ireland for nearly 2,000 years, is one of the oldest written languages in Europe which still survives as a living community language. As well as having official status in the Irish constitution, the Irish language is also recognised as an official language of the European Union.
The Tuatha Dé Danann forms a significant feature in Irish, Scottish and Manx mythology. They are Celtic pre-Christian gods with supernatural ability and were of great importance to Gaelic people. They belong to the Otherworld (Aos Si) community whose world was reached through mists, hills, lakes, ponds, wetland areas, caves, ancient burial sites, cairns and mounds. Their association with ancient Neolithic and Bronze Age burial mounds is probably linked to the importance these sites had for the people of pre-history. They were places of communal interment for what many believe to be the ancestors of the Celts of northwest Europe. Their story was passed on for many centuries in oral tradition. Many of these legends were recorded in a collection of poems and texts, some dating from the third century AD, and compiled in the eleventh century by Christian scholars in such works as the Leabhar Gabhála Éireann known in English as The Book of Invasions.
