British passport ‘now in Irish’ blooper…
SOME of Willie Frazer‘s mates are so distressed that they received their shiny new UK passports “written in Irish” that FAIR is launching a campaign against them, involving lobbying MPs and taking it up with the Foreign Office. “This is clearly a dilution of our Britishness and for ever denotes UK citizens resident in Northern Ireland as different and lesser than their counterparts in England Scotland and Wales,” the FAIR website fulminates. “This is not the case in the rest of the UK and we are sickened that those in our country who fought and sacrificed most to remain British are dealt such an insult.” Just one problem… the ‘Irish’ is actually Scots-Gaelic. Oops!
DK,
I have a Irish passport so it is none of my business what is on a British one.
Having said that the Scottish version is perfectly clear and I am glad it is there.
Dk
“A question for the Irish speakers – would you prefer the Irish language to be on the British passport as well, or would the Scottish gaelic be OK”
In reality it’s all Gaelic – note there is no distinction in the Gaelic language itself, it’s known as “Gaelic” no matter which dialect is spoken.
On the passport issue, you could possibly have your choice of these:
Gaelg (Mann)
Gaeilge (Connaught)
Gaedhilg (Ulster)
Gàidhlig (Scotland)
Gaoluinn (Munster)
Yes Willow.
Yes, the Irish passport is issued by the Irish State but it covers all the people of Ireland (the island).
I think there are even Irish passport centres across the North (correct me if I’m wrong). So the Irish passport and by that extension, the Irish Government, doesn’t treat a possessor from North or South as anyway different when they’re abroad. It sees the people on the island as one unit. Anyway the symbol of the harp on the front was also a symbol of the old RUC, so we even have common ground on symbols.
Be well.
They are not Southern Passports, they are also Western and Eastern.
“A question for the Irish speakers – would you prefer the Irish language to be on the British passport as well, or would the Scottish gaelic be OK?”
If it is a UK passport I believe that all the minority languages of the UK should appear on it, including Irish Gaelic (Ulster dialect), seeing as Northern Ireland is part of the UK. There should also be Cornish, Scots and Ulster Scots. Why just English, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh? If the UK is a union, the diversity of the union should be respected.
Just because Scottish Gaelic is related to Irish Gaelic it does not mean they are not seperate languages and so as seperate languages recognised under the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages they BOTH should appear.
Does anyone know if the people of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands have British passports too? If so, that would add Manx and Norman French too.