The Irish Language and the Sinn Fein/IRA campaign to extort more money from the public purse to finance their ‘Gaelitising’ Ulster!
Today’s BBC Northern Ireland news website had the following article prominently (naturally) displayed!
Free Presbyterian Church holds Irish language event
Two pictures adorned the news report.
They are of Rev Paul Thompson (left) and Rev Kyle Paisley.
The report was all about a meeting entitled: ‘Preispitéirigh agus an Ghaeilge’, and was held at Farranshane House in Antrim’s Rathenraw estate. It was organised by the Pastor of Antrim Free Presbyterian Church, the Reverend Paul Thompson.
Rev Kyle Paisley is reported as saying: “Languages, including Irish, are “a gift of God to communicate and to make connections with people.”
He must never had have read or understood the Genesis account of why God, as a judgement rather than a blessing, confounded the languages of mankind because of the rebellion instigated at Babel.
“Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth,” Genesis 11:7-9.
The report say that Rev Thompson stated that the event was the fruit of a lot of work that’s been going on behind the scenes in our community. ‘There’s a deep intersection between Presbyterianism and the Irish language,’ Mr Thompson told BBC News NI. ‘I think there’s a great ignorance over the role of Presbyterians. From a Christian Pastor, we’re seeing young people embrace this as something that’s part of their past, their heritage. It’s creating that environment for people to look back at their history,’ he said.
‘For myself and others in there tonight, it’s been a journey looking at history and realising just how much of the past belongs to us. It’s nothing to be afraid of, it’s a great bridge builder.’
The event was staged at a time when Sinn Fein/IRA is vigorously campaigning for the public purse to fund their obnoxious campaign to promote the Irish language and to make it an essential feature of life in Ulster.
It must be understood that for a long time there has been a scheme of one sort or other to restore the knowledge of Irish amongst Roman Catholics. The ‘Gaelic League’, a social and cultural organisation has sought to promote the Irish language in Ireland and worldwide. The organisation was founded in 1893 with Douglas Hyde as its first president, when it emerged as the successor of several 19th century groups such as the Gaelic Union. The organisation was a spearhead of the Gaelic revival and of Gaeilgeoir activism.
Just how successful it has been with every school in the Irish Republic teaching Irish and the publicly funded Roman Catholic schools in Northern Ireland, as well the likewise funded independent Irish speaking school here in Northern Ireland striving to teach Irish, may be seen in the figures given in the Irish Republic’s ‘Central Statistics Office’ press release in 2022: ‘One in ten people who spoke Irish could speak it very well while a further 32% spoke it well. The majority of Irish speakers (55%) could not speak the language well.’ (Underlining is mine.)
This is after some 100 years of enforced teaching of the Irish language in the Republic of Ireland.
Examples of this inefficiency may be found in the stuttering and stumbling attempts by Sinn Fein MLAs to speak in Irish during debates in various Assemblies in Stormont. There was often much mocking of them by the more proficient Irish speakers!
The political parties that demand an Irish language act cannot themselves speak it
This 2017 report in ‘The Belfast Newsletter’ shows the hypocrisy of those pushing for the funding of the language.
The pernicious scheme is not born of a love of linguistics in general or of the Irish language in particular but is in truth, part of the campaign to do in Northern Ireland what could not be done in the 26-counties of the Irish Republic — make Irish the common language of the Irish citizens!
Terror
The IRA terror campaign, with its thousands of victims, was an essential part of this ‘Gaelitising’ Northern Ireland at no cost to Republicans but funded by the public purse.
I commented on this campaign in an earlier ‘Burning Bush’ article.
A pathetic and deceitful pretense of resisting Ulster’s enemies!!
Evil Purpose
It is true to say that the Irish language is no more evil than is French or German but the use of it by Irish Republicans is evil and is a means to further their cause of ousting the Gospel from Ulster.
The spread the knowledge of the efforts made in the past by godly men to reach the Irish speaking people with the Word go God is a good thing but an endorsement of the present Sinn Fein/IRA political campaign by these Free Presbyterian ministers shows their utter lack of discernment and understanding which has befallen all too many!
There is a world of difference in the objectives and motives of the many evangelists who preached in the Irish language in the past in order to reach Gaelic speakers with the gospel, as has been the common practice of missionaries do all over the world as they preached in the language of the people they were burdened to win for Christ, and the present Sinn Fein scheme of promoting the Irish language.
Cloak
Giving a cloak to the present scheme of Sinn Fein is sinful and it identifies these two men as being very foolish! Amongst the attenders of around 100 people at the event was the historian and former Sinn Féin Mayor of Belfast Tom Hartley and also the Sinn Féin MLA Declan Kearney. Their presence showed their approval of the event and was a clever exploitation of these naive clerics!
The news report implies that both these Free Presbyterian clerics indicated that they were largely unaware of how the Irish language was used in the past by Protestant preachers to reach the people of Ireland.
That is an inexcusable and sad acknowledgement! There is an abundance of information on the subject.
Gideon Ousley
One of the most prominent of those who used Irish to reach the people of this island in the past was Gideon Ousley. In 1791 he was converted to Christ by English soldiers stationed in Dunmore. He spent the rest of his life preaching the message of salvation in both Irish and English. He preached in and around our area in Kilskeery and Trillick.
Today, to preach the gospel of Christ in Irish would be a vain exercise since it is clear that very few could understand an Irish presentation of God’s truth. English is the ‘universal’ language in Ireland, even amongst those who are dedicated Irish speakers. Irish is a mere peripheral subject, even in the schools of the Irish Republic.
Honoured
Our forefathers are to be honoured for their efforts to bring the gospel to the Irish-speaking people. After all, the gift God gave on the day of Pentecost indicated that He would have all hear the gospel in their native language.
“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God,” Acts 2:1-11.
The Sinn Fein/IRA campaign, which these two men endorsed and publicly supported by having two leading Sinn Feiners present in their meeting, is far removed from the purpose of God and the efforts of our Protestant forefathers here in Ulster, to address the people in their own language and impart to them the knowledge of God’s mercy and pardon.
It is most lamentable that such folly is carried out in the name of Free Presbyterianism!
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
18th April 2025