So in the space of three years we’ve gone from Irish-speaking citizens being arrested by the Gardaí for conversing in Irish to Irish-speaking citizens being forced from a job for conversing in Irish. The news and current affairs website, Tuairisc, reports that a young man from Corca Dhuibhne in County Kerry, a Gaeltacht or hibernophone region on the west coast, was allegedly forced from his job as a barman because he and other members of staff were occasionally communicating with each other in the Irish language.

According to Tuairisc, Cormac Ó Bruic was warned on the 5th of August by the owner of the Flying Enterprise Complex, a bar and restaurant in Cork city-centre, that the establishment was “English-speaking” only and that the use of his native Irish during work hours was forbidden. In support of the reprimand the proprietor, Finbarr O’Shea, claimed that that there had been complaints from customers who felt “uncomfortable” with Irish being spoken in their presence, even to other guests. Understandably the Gaeltacht man refused to work under the discriminatory conditions placed upon him and other employees at the company and left the premises. Consequently on the 11th of August he was notified by post that he had been given his P45, effectively confirming that his contract of employment had been terminated.

The owner of the Flying Enterprise Bar & Restaurant has since stated that his firm employs a multinational workforce and that if staff members were allowed to use their mother tongues the company would be unable to operate. Because of that supposed worry and its function as a “hospitality business” the decision had been made to make English the only permitted language on the premises, in all circumstances. When it was pointed out to Fionnbharr Ó Sé Finbarr O’Shea that Irish was legally the national and first official language of Ireland his dismissive reply was: “We’re all Europeans!”.

Presumably that is strictly English-speaking Europeans.

The behaviour displayed in Cork is disgraceful, creating a hostile working environment for an Irish-speaking individual so that he feels the need to leave his job. It adds further weight to the need for a well-subscribed “fighting fund” for the Irish language which will litigate Anglophone opponents of Hibernophone rights into submission. Equality is never willingly granted by those who control it. It is forcibly taken by those who seek it!