Louis Marcus
Coiste Eagarthóireachta an Phléaráca
(Is téacs tras-scríofa é seo d’alt a foilsíodh in Iris an Phléaráca, 1994. Níor athraíodh an téacs seo ón mbunleagan.)
Duine de mhór-scannánadóirí é Louis Marcus. Craoladh sraith spéisiúil leis ar an dteilifís níos túisce i mbliana faoin teidil “The Irish Condition”. I measc na nithe a bhí faoi chaipideal sa tsraith bhí ceist mhór na Gaeilge. In agallamh san iris FILM WEST léiigh Louis Marcus a intinn faoin stát seo agus an Ghaeilge.
"I think I would sum up my feeling about the Irish language as one of sadness and I don't mean that in a sense of lamenting the loss of a great and rich tradition which is true but for me it's not the crucial thing. I think there has been, in Irish language revival circles far too much emphasis on the literary richness of Irish. A language in a normal society is not composed purely of literary richness. It is spoken at all levels of life and most of what is produced in it inevitably is rubbish - for me the Irish language will have been revived at a stage when you get the equivalent of the Sunday World in lrish and when you'll get pornography in Irish.
The ultimate proof that neither the state or the voluntary language revival is truly interested in achieving the aim lies in the fact that they have never made an attempt to systematically study how Hebrew was revived in Israel and how Afrikaans was made the dominant language in South Africa. These are examples that have happened so recently that they can be studied. I know for example that all the techniques exist for the teaching of language in a mass way. If Ireland decided tomorrow that it genuinely wanted to speak Irish as fluently as well as English, I would give it ten years and we would have a society in which almost everybody was able to conduct their affairs in Irish.
At the moment the idea of the state trying to revive or even preserve the language is farcical. The whole effort of the state, for example the school curriculum, is to make sure that the language won't be spoken. And one can understand why because a shift of language or a strengthening of a second language represents a revolution, and no establishment in its right mind will subsidise a revolution. They won't do it - the state, the political parties, the church and the commercial establishment."
Sách Ráite.