Sir, - What a lamentable jeremiad Malachy O'Rourke (Weekend, September 26th) launches at Irish in general and an caighdean 1958 in particular! Indeed so deep is the gloom that nothing clear or helpful issues from the non sequiturs, irrelevancies and pessimistic confusion. As Mr O'Rourke is based in the EU, perhaps he could take the opportunity to complain to the Germans about - for a start - their unpredictable substantival plurals, taxing adjectival concordance and tricky case options after some prepositions. Russian too would provide him with a suitable target. But the fact that muintir na Ruaise are not digging in their heels, bail o Dhia orthu, against the deplorable campaign of Europeanisation, not to say Americanisation, that has been conducted among them since the fall of the Iron Curtain, probably means that for the foreseeable future Mr O'Rourke is unlikely to have many Russian colleagues at the Council of Ministers. Had things been otherwise he could have niggled away about the obtusely downmarket, rebarbatively Cisatlantic inflections of their language.
As regards Irish, the symptoms of dumbing-down disease, that 1990s epidemic, emerge as the most discernible component in a largely obscure article. Go sabhala Dia sinn uilig! It would certainly be extreme to rule out cautious and authoritative revision of an caighdean caoga a hocht but much more to the point would be the foundation of an Irish Dictionary Board. Its task would be the permanent updating of existing dictionaries and especially the useful 1977 volume of O Donaill/de Bhaldraithe. This time the work should be completely in Irish and some at least of the entries should have phoneticised pronunciation given. - Yours, etc., D. M. MacDermott,
Cathedral Lane, Elphin, Co Roscommon.