Heritage and values recede

Heritage and values recede in modern Ireland

De Facto
Liamy MacNally

There has been a timely call from Mayo Sinn Féin County Councillor Gerry Murray for the re-nationalisation of Eircom. He has a point. The only people who profited from the privatisation of Eircom were the Government and the fat-cat company directors who paid themselves handsome dividends while the company was slowly sinking into the sands of technology history. Rather than invest to keep the breath of life in the infrastructure of telephony, it was deemed more important to line the bank balances of those in charge with the hard-earned euro of people who sweated generations to ensure that the country had a phone service. Eircom’s profits are founded on the country’s telephone system. It was the crass stupidity of both major parties that prepared and sold the country’s silver by reducing our national infrastructure to pounds, shillings and pence. The lowest common denominator has become the bar of decision-making and forward planning (those ghastly business terms) for too long. 

Deregulation
Fianna Fáil, despite the party’s many gifts, is not alone in what can only be described as, national whoring, where everything is priced and sold to the highest bidder. We know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Eircom has been deballed, debased and decoupled; and the telecommunications industry has been deregulated. The word sounds lovely, but in essence, it has just become a licence to screw customers even more. There are companies in business in this county now who urge us to talk and talk but who would be better off if they would walk and walk back to where they came from. Colonialism by telecommunications is a new concept but it is alive and well and working away in this country. Ask the many people who have had their phones cut off by British-based telecommunications companies, who cannot even supply ‘customer support personnel’ proficient in the Queen’s English. They then choose to ignore what has been agreed between the customer and the operator and the customer ends up disconnected. This crass action is the result of inane decision-making in Dublin and Brussels. Regardless, the faceless decision-makers will not have to face anybody or account for their stupidity. The victims are the public and when the fog clears, the ‘public’ does not have a voice. These arrogant telephone companies and their ilk that now infest this country should be sent back to where they came from with their tabloid mind-sets firmly folded between whichever part of their entrepreneurial anatomies is most uncomfortable. We do not need telephonic colonisation, because by its nature, it is not there to serve but to plunder. Nobody minds any company that is there to provide a service, regardless of its origins. 

Progressive development plans, democratically
Back to Cllr Gerry Murray and his concerns. He wants Eircom, and its new ‘owners’, Australian company, Babcock & Brown, to invest in the network and introduce a much faster roll-out of broadband across the country. The negligence of the Irish Government with Eircom will be repeated with Aer Lingus and other State-sponsored companies because the 4%-ers, the PDs, have so much sway in government. Any small party must now realise that if they are to support a major party to form a government they can play way above their station in terms of government policies and Cabinet representation. Small parties are only small in seat numbers, not in the power they wield in government. Ask the PDs.
The sentiments of Gerry Murray are somehow echoed in a speech by Seán Ó Héalaí when he launched the Plean Forbatha Chill Chomáin 2006-2010 in Ceathrú Thaidhg on Saturday. He reminded people about the amount of development plans that have already been prepared and are now well past their sell-by dates. Mayo has three Gaeltacht areas (now there’s a quiz question!) and the former broadcaster was not slow in giving several examples of incorrectly spelled road signs in the Irish language. That is bad enough but what is worse is that people appear to accept the incorrect spellings by not protesting. Either the Irish language has a place in our heritage and our hearts or it does not. Those who say that it does not matter either way deserve the indifference they will experience. No one minds people who cannot speak Irish properly. There is a school of thought that will argue until eternity over what proper Irish is. They can argue all they want, people want to see good intention, the good will of those who appreciate the depths of the heritage in which we are so deeply enmeshed. 
Seán Ó Héalaí has a treasure trove of incorrectly spelled road signs. One of the many classics is: “Fáilte go hIorrás, cuir ort do chrois sábhála.” Literally, this translates as: “Welcome to Erris, put on your safety cross.” He welcomed the fact that under new legislation all road signs in Gaeltachtaí would be in Irish alone. He said that this is an opportune time for all people who live in Gaeltachtaí to ensure that the correct Irish spelling is on the signs. He paid tribute to the local people for the work they had done in preserving the local names on fields and townlands. He acknowledged the ‘bottoms-up’ approach of people involved in local development initiatives. He cited several publications over the years, including ‘Logainmneacha agus Oidhreacht Dhún Chaocháin – The Placenames and Heritage of Dún Chaocháin’ by Uinsíonn Mac Graith agus Treasa Ní Ghearraigh. 
Seán Ó Héalaí praises the plan for its vision in all cultural and heritage aspects. He then takes issue with the Mayo County Council Heritage Plan, 2006-2011. He cites ‘objectives and actions’ of this plan that form part of a ‘wish list,’ 47 in total. Number 40 on the list reads: “Promote the use of the Irish language on townland signs and in names of new developments.” All this from the same County Council that has consistently refused to appoint an Oifigeach na Gaeilge, an Irish Language Officer. Talk talk!