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THIS WEEKEND MARKS ten years since Irish was granted the status of official and working language of the European Union. It came into effect in 2007.
The status puts Irish on par with 23 other EU working languages and should mean that all EU legislation has to be translated into Irish.
It’s not yet though because of a government derogation that allows for certain legal documents not to be translated into Irish. That derogation has been extended up until the end of 2016.
Full implementation was delayed due to ‘difficulties in recruiting sufficient numbers of Irish language translators’
Despite this, Irish’s status as as an official language still provides significant job opportunities for Irish speakers, both directly and indirectly.
Directly, through translators and interpretors that are employed by European Institutions to translate documents and speeches into Irish.
An indirectly because a huge proportion of EU jobs require applicants to have at least two working languages of the EU.
EC Rep Ireland / TwitterCheck out these great opportunities for paid traineeships at the @EMA_News. Deadline: 15 Jun: http://t.co/vVKctB58WC pic.twitter.com/XcisPey5Lj
— EU Commission in Ireland (@eurireland) June 10, 2015
For example, 150 graduates were recently being sought by EU institutions for the role of a general administrator.
These positions are worth over €52,000 per and require nothing more specific than EU citizenship and a three-year university diploma.
Crucially though, all of these jobs require applicants to have at least a “thorough knowledge” of an official EU language and “satisfactory knowledge” of either English, French or German.
Satisfactory knowledge of English, French or German is a requirement that is common prerequisite and means applicants with Irish and English have a leg up in many EU positions.
EPSO / TwitterNew temporary vacancies available on our website. Have a look: http://t.co/fRPV574GUy! #workfortheEU pic.twitter.com/i2Ec5HdqwE
— EPSO (@EU_Careers) June 10, 2015
Dáithi Mac Cárthaigh is co-ordinator of Law & Irish at King’s Inn. The law school offers a number of Irish language courses that are designed to help graduates secure lucrative translation jobs in Europe.
The courses are supported by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and one of the courses does not require a law degree.
Mac Cárthaigh says that the EPSO system for applying for EU jobs is “designed to turn people away” but that Irish speakers have a distinct advantage if they push through.
“If you have a good knowledge of Irish and you can put Irish as a first language, you’ll then have to do a huge amount of assessment in your second language which would be English,” he says.
Mac Cárthaigh says he believes ending the derogation on the language would immediately lead to 183 extra jobs for Irish speakers in Brussels, adding that they’ve been working for 10 years to qualify people to do the jobs required.
“The structures have been put in place to put and I’m of the opinion that we have enough people to do it,” he argues.
“The norm is that, when legislation is published, it’s published in all of the 24 languages of the European Union. It costs about €2 per European citizen per year. “
He also argues that any cynicism about promoting the Irish language in Europe is misplaced because of the advantages of having Irish people in key positions in the EU.
“You’ll see that the lawyer linguists are involved in drafting all the legislation that happens in the institutions, whether it be in the early hours or whenever. It’s good to have Irish people in there, it doesn’t matter how they get in there.”
“To use that awful phrase, it’s good for Ireland Inc….They needn’t remain as lawyer-linguist but the more more Irish people we have to pick up the phone to the better.”
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And you have that ultimate job satisfaction that your life’s work will be read by around eight people. A case study in waste and futility.
Yep, it’s pretty futile hoping that the craven Irish will ever preserve their own unique culture – it’s Irelandshire all the way for Mr. Alien8 and his ilk.
It’s time to scrap the Irish language. It’s a dead language and the only thing keeping it on life support is the state. Learning German, Chinese or French would be a lot more beneficial to Irish students.
Irish has been a language on this island for thousands of years. It’s only in relatively recent history(last 150 years or a few generations ago) did it decline . (Mainly due to laws forbidding it being spoken ..With the amount gael scoil and colaiste popping up every year and the new way it is being thought it will be make a come back .
Ah those cunning linguists
Some people on here want the death of the Irish language but on other articles they’re whining over the sale of a few planes with a shamrock on its arse.
Really it speaks volumes when they can’t recruit enough translators.
Some disgraceful comments here. Linguism is alive and well. What happened equality? #translational
Malta joins the EU. Tiny country. Everyone speaks English. They insist on their own language as a working language. Why have they not got a complex about Maltese being small, difficult or useless?
In all reality, why is Irish an official language? Why can’t it just be left die?
Same reason round towers, Georgian houses and ancient manuscripts are preserved, certain people are always going to go to great lengths to preserve distinctive elements of history and culture.
Yeah why do we have to have any differences at all, anywhere – it’s so inconvenient. If we were all the same(as long as it’s Anglo-American consumers) it would be so much less hassle. If every city and town the world over had the same shops, the same brands, the same fashions, the same money, the same facile distractions etc etc wouldn’t it be a great help altogether – so much easier to run things, with far fewer hindrances. What could we call this erosion of a Multitude of Cultures – any ideas?
progress?
I would call it a one world order led by corporations … Shame that Ireland will never recover its culture after independence. Language is integral to culture and unique world view; this Island was never given a chance to recover from English domination, Roman Catholic domination, now an invasion from the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The sad part is so many do not realize or appreciate the unique contribution to humanity and sense of identity that is lost.
Irish Gaelic is a fantastic language. It is pointless trying to blame others on the decline of the language. The language declined at a faster rate after independence. It is also pointless to say that French, German or Chinese would be more beneficial. Why not learn Irish and one or more other languages? It is also pointless blaming the school system on one’s present ability to speak Irish. Laziness is the only obstacle in the way of learning Irish or any other language. One comment referred to the famine as a reason why the use of Irish is not as widespread as it could be – this inclines me to think that stupidity is also a factor, along with laziness, in the present position of Irish usage.
Thats 8 years if it came into effect in 2007.
Sorry bottom line 52k does’nt get you a house in todays ireland. Maybe anywhere else in the world but not here so not interested.
Would get a house anywhere in Ireland. It’s a public service job. A pensionable EU job. Banks would crawl to give you a mortgage. But you won’t have to worry about a job in the EU, as your standard of English is atrocious.
Absolutely shameless Propaganda. Irish is of no extra benefit here. You are getting mixed up with the most powerful leg up that is rampant in Ireland. Its called Cronyism.
Got irish rammed down my throat as a school going child and crap beat out of me ..couldn’t put a word of it to use since…what a waste
so are they saying that it isn’t the language per se, but getting Irish people into positions of influence? That would be overt cute hoorishness.
This is the reason some countries want to leave the EU – total waste of money
This little campaign is one of the most absurd things I have ever heard of on planet earth. I worked on the campaign in 2004 to have Irish made an official language of the EU. If I had have known it was the plan of Conradh na Gaeilge who were coordinating the campaign for there to be 200+ Irish language translators in the EU I would have been against the campaign and not working for it. These people want everything in the EU translated into Irish even though there are only 23,000 daily Irish speakers in the Gaeltacht and not many daily Irish speakers in the rest of the world. These people live in a fantasy world. In the last general election in the depth of a huge recession these people were banging on about Irish no longer being a compulsory subject for the Leaving Cert. It was the number 1 issue of the doors politicians (at least in Fine Gael) found for a signficant number of people. Did they not have any chief economic problems in a huge recession or were they insulated from the recession? Policy wise Conradh na Gaeilge are actually counterproductive I find when it comes to the Irish language. Sure they get a few things right but overall I think that they are counterproductive policy wise.
Nothing would excite me more than sitting there day in day out, repeating what someone with a life has to say. I’m applying tomorrow!!! Yawn!!!
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