THAT LEPRECHAUN LANGUAGE
Friday, November 6, 2009 at 12:53PM 
I see that the Traditional Unionist Voice has apologised for its "childishness" after issuing a statement describing Irish as a "leprechaun language".
The statement was issued under the name of TUV vice-chairman Keith Harbinson and condemned the Department of Education for "wasting" money on Irish. However after being distributed to the media, the press release on the party's website was changed to remove the term.
Good call by Jim Alister and Keith to alter this. There is no need to call the Irish language a "Leprechaun" language and this was a silly error. However there are worse things one could do - such as share power with terrorists. A young party like the TUV need to realise that press releases are a two edged sword and ensure that all such releases are authorised by someone with an eye for such obvious howlers.
I plan to be at the TUV annual conference tomorrow and will report back. My old pal Bob McCartney is a speaker and it will be nice to hear him after all these years.
I saw Jim Allister being interviewed on H&M last night and thought he did well in what was a tough interview by Noel Thompson.
TUV 
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Reader Comments (30)
A young party like the TUV need to realise that press releases are a two edged sword and ensure that all such releases are authorised by someone with an eye for such obvious howlers
ummm hmmmm I wonder where we could find such a person.....
I plan to be at the TUV annual conference tomorrow and will report back.
Ah....lol
G,
NOT me! LOL.
I have been invited and being a polite person accept such invites ;-)
So no chance of you re-entering the political arena as a prospective MP?
The biggest diss by far of the Irish language is done by the many " nationalists " who bullshit about it a great deal but who have not bothered to learn it and who do not use the ten words that they do know.
Pog ma thon to all who fit in that category!
Compared to them, Mr. Harbinson is a ferocious champion of Irish and all the other on the ropes languages on this earth.
Phantom, you can support a language without actually speaking it. Nelson McCausland is a 'champion' of the Ulster-Scots language, yet professes to speak not a word of it. Whether you speak no words, or ten, or are fluent, you can still support the development of Irish.
Also, it is not only 'nationalists' who support the Irish language.
The people who do the language the most damage are those who politicise it - ie. Politicians, and political commentators. And in that respect, SF are as bad as the TUV, DUP and so on. A language is a language, not a football, to be kicked around by political sides just to score petty points.
By the way, when you talk about 'on the ropes' languages, do these include languages which are growing and developing all the time? If not, I don't think you should include Irish in that category...
By the way, David, I thought I was cleared to post instantly ages ago. Apparently I am not?
The ability to issue a genuine apology for a mistake is a good sign of any person or organisation. Case closed.
The ability to spot a stupid and childish title on a press release which will be posted on your party's website BEFORE it is posted is surely a better sign of a person and/or organisation, no?
Seimi
Not necessarily. Durting my years doing zillions of Press Releases for the UKUP, things happened very fast and mistakes did happen!!!!
PS - got your message re commenting, will fix that for you.
Seimi
Not making mistakes is, of course, better than making them but character is revealed in how we react when we do.
As the old saying goes, the man who never made a mistake never made anything.
David, I understand that mistakes DO get made. However, this wasn't just a typo. If it wasn't Keith Harbinson who okayed the title, and if it wasn't the title he put on the press release, then who did it? Will they be reprimanded in any way for making him, and ultimately the TUV, look very foolish here?
Henry94 - Ok, the TUV did apologise for the title, but they still haven't retracted the 'dead language' part, nor the part where they appear to ignore the needs of 4000+ students in irish medium education. Maybe you are right - maybe their, or his, character IS revealed in this...
David, thanks for fixing commenting.
Heard Keith Harbinson on the radio this morning and he explained that the press release was worded that way for internal consumption and was put out before being ammended.
I'd say that if this is how the language is sneeringly derided in private and they have'nt got the spools to say what they really think in public then that's more indicitive of character revelation than anything else Henry.
fáilte romhat ar ais a Sheimi - Welcome back Seimi
Thanks Paul - good to 'see' you :)
Have to agree with you re Keith Harbinson.
Seimi
I hope that you're right. But man oh man - it is not that hard to learn something of a language, esp in these days of Rosetta Stone and other great software. I would think that those who claim to be advocates of the language would make some kind of effort of some kind to learn the tiniest bit of the language.
I've been to Ireland lots of times, and only once have I heard it in a normal conversation. I know that there are genuine speakers in the West, but I see them as a small and dedicated island in a vast English speaking sea.
Those who politicize I agree are ridiculous. They tend to make their protest in English, and to spend far more of their time studying Manchester United's latest soccer match than they ever do the future tense of verbs in Irish.
Troll / Monica
Click on Yankees web site and then on " Everyone loves a parade " to see the victory celebration live
Just tryin' to help
"There is no need to call the Irish language a "Leprechaun" language and this was a silly error."
Agreed. It is also inaccurate as leprechauns (before the English hunted them to extinction) spoke a primitive form of Ulster Scots.
So what language do leprachauns speak?
it's difficult to tell Ross because they speak very little ;)
Phantom, I know many people who don't speak a word of Irish, but fully support its growth and development.
Where in Ireland were you when you heard Irish being spoken? North or South? You should come to Belfast. I could bring you to many places here where you would hear Irish being spoken as an everyday language.
I have just watched Jim Alister on last night's Hearts and Minds, thanks to the brilliant BBC Iplayer.
Jim did very well (in a fair interview), but he needs support to make his party fly. Maybe David Vance and Jim Alister will discuss this at the TUV conference tomorrow?
Thanks for sortin' that David. What was on at Stormont?
Just a private function - no politics! (Well, sort of)
Preparation for tomorrow's conference? :-) Make sure to tell JA not to mention Leprechaun's!
'...as leprechauns (before the English hunted them to extinction) spoke a primitive form of Ulster Scots.'
Now now, don't call Ulster-Scots primitive....
More like the leper language.
The TUV manage to say sorry for the use of a relatively innocuous description of the Irish language, yet Sinn Fein have never apologised for their armed wing killing almost 2,000 people.
I think that puts the entire matter into perspective.
Seimi
Believe it or not it was in Dublin, in a small hotel. My cronies and I had brought back some deliciously pungent fish and chips from Leo Burdocks to munch on in a common space, and two middle aged women were enviously commenting on them in Irish. The only English word I heard 'em say was " chips "!
Likewise with Seimi Phantom.
Come to Belfast and I'll show you many places where Irish is spoken as an everyday language.
There ye go Phantom - 2 invites to come to Belfast to hear the Irish language being spoken. Though I have to warn you, Paul might be a bit out of practice regarding Guinness, and was a bit of a lightweight to start with, so it may end up with the two of us carrying him. But don't worry, he isn't a big fella :-)
David, surely your not implying that Sammy Morrison is not capable of being the party's press officer? :)
Paul, have you ever heard any political party speak their mind?? Do you think Martin and Peter publicly tell it as it is over P+J?? An internal reference between two individuals, which I hasten to add was reportedly not approved, goes to prove little of the character of the person who supposedly didnt say it, or their party. I heard an interview too, where Keith Harbinson explained that it was one of a number of titles put forward, but not the one approved....for obvious reasons. As Henry said, mistakes happen, its how we react to them that reveals most about an individual.