A Chara, - I'm not sure what prompted my friend Brian O'Shea to write his piece on "total immersion" in Gaelscoileanna (Nov 27th). He admits there is no conclusive evidence to suggest children have suffered from what is the almost universal practice up to now.
Indeed, everybody associated with Gluaiseacht na Gaelscoileanna supports total immersion, including it appears most of the parents involved. Mary Hanafin disagrees and now it appears so does Brian O'Shea. Indeed it is sad to see Brian trivialise the debate by dismissing it all as being about a mere 2.5 hours per week teaching English to junior and senior infants. It is of course about much more than that. It is about the ethos children encounter when they first arrive in school. And of course if it is so trivial a matter then surely the correct response would be to stick with the status quo until the research which Brian seeks is completed.
It is a pity too that Brian wrote his piece with the full authority of his position as chairperson of the Labour Party because his views do not represent party policy. If he was simply trying to start a debate in the party then he picked a rather peculiar issue to begin with.
Maybe next time he'd address his questions not to a dedicated and committed group of teachers and parents but to his powerful friends in the trade union movement. Then he could ask them the question that they are rarely asked and never answer.
That is the question of why after 25 years of what is called "social partnership" , and 10 years of an economic boom, economic inequality is worse in Ireland now than it was in the recession-scourged 1980s. Is the role of our trade unions simply to provide a figleaf of respectability for what would be far better described as an economic compromise than a social partnership?
That's the first question I would have asked if Brian hadn't beaten me in the contest for party chairperson!!
Because that's what I see as the fundamental commitment of the Labour Party, the commitment to reduce all forms of inequality but most especially economic inequality.
A diversion of the kind Brian has launched will get a headline or two but in the medium term it will do no more than alienate people who thought that Labour was a friend of the language.
It still is the economy!! - Le meas,
BRENDAN RYAN,
Glanmire Rd.,
Cork.