Gaelic League Campaign - Equal Status For Irish

News from the Gaelic League - Dual Language Road Signs

The Gaelic League (Conradh na Gaelige) are the main voluntary community organisation that promotes the Irish language in Ireland and abroad, The Gaelic League’s main aim is to reinstate the Irish language as the common tongue of Ireland.  Since its founding in 1893, members have been actively promoting Irish in every aspect of life in Ireland, from legal and educational affairs to the development of media and services through Irish.  Members of the Gaelic League are in the forefront of campaigns to strengthen the rights of the Irish speaking community.

The following is from the League's website (linked below):

Despite the fact that Irish is the first official language of the Republic according the Constitution of Ireland, and despite the fact that special care is taken to ensure Irish is principally prominent in signs under the Official Languages Act 2003, (Section 9) Regulations 2008, the same regulations specifically exclude road traffic signs.

This means that the text in Irish on the majority of road signs in Ireland is smaller, in italics, less visible and / or less legible than the English; this inequality suggests that the first official language of the State has a lower status than English. Conradh na Gaeilge commissioned an independent study on dual-language road signs to investigate the issue and Garrett Reil from the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) published October 2008.

Conradh na Gaeilge has been campaigning for equal status for the Irish language on road signs since then, and a delegation recently met with the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport in the south, Leo Varadkar TD, to discuss dual-language signs.  As a result of this meeting, it looks as though Minister Varadkar will implement Conradh na Gaeilge's recommendations regarding road signs - where the text in Irish would be as large and as prominent as the English - on a trial basis. These signs would be cost neutral as they would only be erected as and when old signs need to be replaced.  Show your support for road signs that give equal status to Irish by sending a message to Minister Varadkar commending the new signage and his own efforts to give the first official language of the State its due. Ní neart go cur le chéile!

https://cnag.ie/en/info.html