| The survival of the structure and most of the artistic and cultural treasures of Notre Dame is heartening. And listening to and watching the Parisian, other Frenchmen and women, and commentators from all over the world, was inspirational. Christians and other believers together with unbelievers and devout atheists lay claim to that Cathedral, proud to belong to the human species that created it. Within a few hundred metres of Notre Dame is another Gothic Jewel, the Sainte Chapelle, deconsecrated and long neglected after being used to store junk after the Revolution. It’s within the Palais de Justice and can be visited, for a fee.. The Basilica of St Denis contains the remains of 43 Kings and 32 Queens of France. If, God forbid! Notre Dame were to be totally destroyed, Paris would still be worth a trip by discerning visitors, as well as mass tourism. And France has many more gems to delight Saints and Sinners. What has Ireland got that is unique? And three times as old as the Cathedral of Notre Dame? It has got the Irish language and the oldest literature North of the Alps. Greek and Latin lore was being passed on in Irish, and the Judgement of Paris and the Horse of Troy were known of in Ireland before the first bricks of Paris (France) or Troyes were baked or laid. But who with influence in Ireland gives a traithnin about Irish? .Something around a half of one percent of RTE programmes are in Irish, according to a recent report. In the Gaeltacht I’m told few doctors or nurses, or bankers can converse with their patients or customers in Irish. Some years ago in a legal action both disputants, from Leitir Mor, needed translators to instruct counsel and communicate with Judge and Jury. And a Minister of Education, Gemma Hussey (who had run her own Language School in Dublin), recalled in her Memoir, how, on taking up her portfolio, she met her senior civil servants “who had impenetrable Irish names.” Ms Hussey is but one of the philistines and barbarians within the Pale. But she does have a way with words. A way like that of Mrs Malaprop. Describing a visit by the American feminist Betty Friedan to Dublin, where she addressed some hundreds of Irish women disciples, Hussey recalled how instantly she held them in the palm of her hands – “It was a SEMINAL moment!” What Balls! What Spunk! |
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