CAMPBELL DEFENDS RACIST DISRESPECT FOR IRISH LANGUAGE

Posted By: November 05, 2014

Campbell defends ‘curry my yoghurt’ comments

News Letter. November 4, 2014

 

DUP MP and MLA Gregory Campbell has defended himself from nationalist outrage after
he parodied the Irish language during an Assembly debate.

 

During a debate on Monday on the Irish language and Ulster Scots, principal deputy
speaker Mitchel McLaughlin invited Mr Campbell to speak.

 

Mr Campbell replied: “Curryrepresentative was parodying the Irish phrase “go raibh
maith agat, Ceann Comhairle” which in English means “thank you, speaker”.

 

Mr Campbell then asked the culture minister Caral Ni Chuilin about a minority
languages strategy.

 

However, the minister refused to answer him, saying that his behaviour was not
“befitting a member of the Assembly”.

 

“If it’s anything to go by what you just did, we don’t need a strategy for pure
ignorance,” said added.

 

Mr Campbell later described Sinn Fein’s use of the Irish language as “politically
motivated tokenism”.

 

SDLP MLA and fluent Irish speaker Dominic Bradley described Mr Campbell’s comments
as “disgraceful”.

 

Mr Bradley added: “The main point which Mr Campbell succeeded in making was that of
his own narrow and bigoted attitude towards the Irish language.”

 

He added: “The SDLP will beMr Campbell comes before the house to apologise for his
disrespectful remarks.”

 

Sinn Fein Irish languageanything Irish was once again on full display as he strung
together a line of English in a way to mock the Irish language”.

 

She added: “If Gregoryhave been accused of racism from all sides of this house.

 

“Unfortunately this islanguage act, and whose representatives have a long history of
insults to the Irish speaking community.”

 

But Mr Campbell hit backequality between Irish and other minority languages but seem
determined to promote Irish as a purely political point”.

 

He said the minister shouldChinese and not just the “politically motivated tokenism”
of how Sinn Fein use Irish in the Assembly chamber.

 

“Indeed, the fury unleashed when anyone would dare question that is proof of the
political protection given to it by Sinn Fein,” he added.

 

“The sound and fury fromthat they place their politically motivated language support
above other vital public services which benefit everyone across our society.”