Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Lá Nua le druideadh roimhe Nollaig?
Slugger understands that Lá Nua is to close before Christmas. Belfast Media Group will not be entering the competition for a new weekly newspaper as Gaeilge and a staff meeting is being held tomorrow Thursday to discuss the details of what’s about to happen. Ironically the news came to light as Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams called for support for Lá Nua and said its departure would be a backward step. He was speaking at an event to launch Irish language leaflets produced by Translink in Belfast. Further information on igaeilge.
Mick Fealty @ 09:48 PM
Cé go bhfuilim brónach faoin nuacht sin, bhí sé chun tarlú. Ag labhairt do chainteoirí m’aois féin i mBÁC ní raibh fios ar bith acu go raibh nuachtán laethúil gaeilge ann go dtí gur chur mé a fíric in iúl dóibh. I mo thuairim chuir Lá is Lá nua ró-bhéim ar chúrsaí teanga in a altanna.
Posted by on Oct 22, 2008 @ 11:25 PMhip! hip! hooray!
Posted by on Oct 22, 2008 @ 11:51 PMI am sure the small minded will celebrate with glee
Posted by on Oct 23, 2008 @ 12:31 AMI wouldn’t celebrate but what I would say is that we have to be careful what we pump cash into with regards to the Irish language.
Yes, there is a need to ensure that it is preserved, however, spending heaps of money translating every official document into Irish is playing buggers.Posted by on Oct 23, 2008 @ 05:56 AMIs it too Machiavellian to hypothesise that Gerry Adams had wind of the closure of Lá Nua before he issued his press-statement in support of a daily Irish newspaper? Thus enabling him to claim full support but in full knowledge that he would not have to do anything about it?
Posted by on Oct 23, 2008 @ 06:00 AMI agree with The Future’s Bright, the Future’s Orange. Spending heaps of money translating every official document into Irish is ‘playing buggers’ [whatever that means, is it Ulster Scots?] or simply stupid. Lá Nua had sales of over 1,500 per day at its worst, 4,500 at its best. Even at its worst level of sales, more people were reading Irish in Lá Nua on a daily basis than any other book or periodical. The average Irish language book sells a few hundred copies to friends and relatives at best.
Believe you me, the State, whether it be north or south, would prefer to spend countless monies on documents that nobody would read, in either Irish or English, than invest, as per their obligation under the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages in a newspaper like Lá Nua which people actually did read, albeit a minority.
And for my tuppence worth, there are other ways to spend of heaps of money which are ‘playing buggers’ and they include policing parades of silly men in bowler hats parading in communities where they’ve not been invited to parade. Or silly people building huge bonefires and burning effigies of politicians and causing untold damage to the environment and to the areas in which these fires are erected, all of which has to be cleaned up out of the public purse. That must cost millions every year and does me no good….if I were selfish I would call for it to be stopped but then again that would be halting an expression of culture which those involved consider to have value. Each to his own, I say. But beware of throwing stones if you’re in a glasshouse…
Posted by on Oct 23, 2008 @ 06:38 AMWow Concubhar, you managed to turn a defence of the Irish language into an attack on unionist culture in one post. No wonder your cause is viewed with such suspicion.
Posted by on Oct 23, 2008 @ 06:42 AMCnocubhar is right when he says ...
“the State, whether it be north or south, would prefer to spend countless monies on documents that nobody would read, in either Irish or English, than invest, as per their obligation under the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages in a newspaper like Lá Nua which people actually did read, albeit a minority.”
People have to realise that much of the money spend on the Irish language was never requested by Irish speakers or the Irish language movement.
It is simply part of a long standing policy to try and buy us off at every point.
Some people are of course, as ever, up for sale.
We never asked for a translation culture, we aksed for a newspaper etc, but a radical daily newspaper is a bit too hot for Free State bureacrats to handle.
Get rid of Foras na Gaeilge now!!
Posted by on Oct 23, 2008 @ 07:01 AMP.s,
The demise of La has been predicted many times.
I predict that something will arise from the ashes, in fact, I guarantee it.
Posted by on Oct 23, 2008 @ 07:02 AMIt’s not an attack on ‘unionist culture’. It’s merely pointing out that culture costs money….even if I disagree with it, I still support it.
Posted by on Oct 23, 2008 @ 07:03 AMAn ancient language, with a tradition of great writing, poetry, song etc is culture.
Burning wood, tires, effigies and drinking buckfast out of blue plastic bags is hooliganism.
End of story.
Posted by on Oct 23, 2008 @ 07:04 AMAn Irish language publication ceasing to operate is not something to celebrate. On the under hand celebrating a Belfast Media outlet closing is perfectly legitimate. :-)
Posted by on Oct 23, 2008 @ 07:16 AM#
An ancient language, with a tradition of great writing, poetry, song etc is culture.
Burning wood, tires, effigies and drinking buckfast out of blue plastic bags is hooliganism.
End of story.
Posted by Globetrotter on Oct 23, 2008 @ 09:04 AM
welcome to the ireland of equals where if it isnt oirish it isnt culture
An ancient language, with a tradition of great writing, poetry, song etc is culture…(snigger)Posted by on Oct 23, 2008 @ 07:22 AMWhy not just include La Nua as a free sheet within An Phoblacht? Same readership.
Posted by on Oct 23, 2008 @ 07:23 AM“Why not just include La Nua as a free sheet within An Phoblacht? Same readership.”
Ignorance keeps us safe and warm doesnt it?
Your prejudice is not a source of strenght, someday you will realise that I am sure.
Posted by on Oct 23, 2008 @ 07:26 AMCan we try to stick to the serious end of the subject. La Nua began as an independent venture back in 83, I think.
It took a generation of passionate commitment and countless hours of voluntary work to get it going. It’s a crying shame it has gone under.
I just hope that what replaces it proves to be engaging and sustainable.
Posted by on Oct 23, 2008 @ 07:27 AM??
Why (snigger)?
I’ve nothing against “unionist culture”, I was brought up on the Newtownards Road. Bonfire night can’t be described as cultural, no matter how loosely you care to use the term.
I’ve equally nothing against the Irish language, its genuine activists don’t go out of there way to offend anyone.
Posted by on Oct 23, 2008 @ 07:31 AMggn
In what significant viewpoint would La Nua differ from An Phoblacht? The racing tips on the back pages?Posted by on Oct 23, 2008 @ 07:32 AMMick,
Let us not forget that La survived for years on very little money, they took the grant in 1999.
9 years later - Foras killed it off. But La gave Foras the rope, the loaded pistol.
People have to learn that the re-strengthing of a language is a revolutionary concept which Free State civil servants will naturally work against.
I have been saying it for years and have been dimissed as a crank, It is a trap! AHave I not been proved right?
If you take the grants, you will get addicted to them, when you are addicted to them they will close you down - Learn from this people!
The Irish governement will tolerate the Irish language movement and fund it in order to shape its direction, but only in so far as it will fail. Notice all success stories are vigorously resisted, witness the treatment of IME in the South.
As I said, something will rise from the ashes, the question is will it resist the temptation to take the grant, or will it simply repeat the same mistake?
For the love of good read a bit of O Cadhain befor it is too late!
Posted by on Oct 23, 2008 @ 07:38 AMIgnorance is strength….Driftwood….
It’s not as if there are racing tips either on An Phoblacht’s back page or Lá Nua’s back page…. there used to be on Lá Nua….
However you won’t read in An Phoblacht trenchant attacks on Sinn Féin’s failure to stand by the Irish language as were published last February when the newspaper printed the pictures of the SF and SDLP minister on the front page with a question as to their silence when then Culture Minister Edwin Poots first axed the Irish Language Broadcast Fund and then the Irish Language Act…..serious questions were being asked by Lá Nua of Sinn Féin’s avowed support for the Irish language.
It might also be worth noting that the four SF members of Foras na Gaeilge all voted FOR the non renewal of Lá Nua’s contract for a daily paper…. Would they do vote against An Phoblacht?If you still think Lá Nua is a SF apologist, provide the evidence….
Posted by on Oct 23, 2008 @ 07:39 AM“In what significant viewpoint would La Nua differ from An Phoblacht? The racing tips on the back pages?”
La does not take a party political viewpoint so I would say that is a pretty bit difference?
Posted by on Oct 23, 2008 @ 07:39 AMSo La Nua covers local politics from a wide variety of viewpoints, including Unionist? I remain sceptical. But the question remains, if it is not a commercially viable enterprise, should the British Government subsidise such a venture? I seem to remember the Daily Ireland didn’t last the course.
Posted by on Oct 23, 2008 @ 07:47 AMDriftwood,
Yes, there is a unionist column on a weekly business.
However, La Nua is and was alway pro-Irish language, all unionist parties are anti-Irish language, there is a clear conflict of interest of course.
“But the question remains, if it is not a commercially viable enterprise, should the British Government subsidise such a venture?”
It is a good question, I trust you apply same to all cultural enterprises, events etc.
Posted by on Oct 23, 2008 @ 07:52 AMDrift,
If you think banning people is for bad language or being rude, think again. Refusing to engage in conversation, is a yellow, possibly red card offence.
Go in hard by all means, but do us the favour of putting some leg work into your contributions, or butt out!
Posted by on Oct 23, 2008 @ 07:55 AMLá Nua, until recently, had a unionist columnist, Ian Malcolm. I have no doubt that the only reason he departed is there wasn’t money to pay him. Other columnists also were let go, including myself, earlier, for the same reason.
The British Government signed up to Part 3 of the European Charter for Minority and Regional Languages and, therein, it chose from a multitude of options in the media section to sign up to the part which obliges it to support the provision of a daily newspaper in Irish. That it has, through Foras na Gaeilge, singularily failed to do to ensure that newspaper’s future. Thus the British Government is in breach of its obligations under the Charter, as is Foras na Gaeilge.
Daily Ireland was an entirely separate venture, a commercial proposition, entitled to no protection from the European Charter.
Posted by on Oct 23, 2008 @ 07:55 AM
