Tobacco warnings to be made bilingual

[GJG]

No doubt the tobacco companies are cock-a-hoop that half the health warnings on cigarettes will now be unintelligible to most of the population.

From October, cigarette packets on sale here will have to carry warnings in Irish as well as English.

This follows a settlement at the High Court today.

Caitriona Uí Riain, a primary school teacher from Co Cavan, had taken a legal challenge to what she claimed was the State's failure to implement a European directive that the health warnings on tobacco products should be displayed in all the official languages of a State.

Source

As a supporter of the Irish language I find this type petty action, pretending that Irish has a far wider penetration than it does, shaming and farcical.

Health warnings on cigarette packets are very effective – we know this because the tobacco companies fought like cats to resist them. They also tried every trick in the book to reduce their impact – printing them on the side of the packet, printing them in difficult-to-read fonts and using shiny ink that was difficult to read in some lights. They only gave up on these when required by law.

Now they have the perfect excuse to halve their impact.

I support the Irish language and I support realistic initiatives to promote it. But I think the posturing pretence that anything more than a small minority of people in this country have a strong command of written Irish does nothing to promote the language. Indeed, the ridicule invited by the dafter demands of the Galiban – like paying €13,000 a minute to translate European Parliament speeches – makes people hostile to the language when they would otherwise not be.

Research shows that lifelong smokers – the ones who die from it – start smoking as children, before they can make the adult decision whether they want to be smokers or not. This decision will make sure that there more of them.

I would urge people to turn their anger about this not against the Irish language, but against the greedy puffed-up self-important people who want to profit from Irish, not promote it.

[White Horse]

Great news for the tobacco industry. Warnings in English will now be half the size and half as effective.

[qtman]

No doubt the tobacco companies are cock-a-hoop that half the health warnings on cigarettes will now be unintelligible to most of the population.

From October, cigarette packets on sale here will have to carry warnings in Irish as well as English.

This follows a settlement at the High Court today.

Caitriona Uí Riain, a primary school teacher from Co Cavan, had taken a legal challenge to what she claimed was the State's failure to implement a European directive that the health warnings on tobacco products should be displayed in all the official languages of a State.

Source

Bizarre.

They might as well print the warnings in Russian for all the effect they'll have in Irish.

This lady has way too much time on her hands.

[ivnryn]

Would it be possible to rule that the proportion of each language be proportional to the relative proportion of the people in the 'expected area' that speak each language.

In Dublin, 97% of cigarette packages would have the warning in English, while in the Gaeltacht, it could be 50/50 (or maybe even majority in Irish).

I dunno how hard this would be to manage, but it shouldn't be that large a burden for companies as they already have to have specific packages for Ireland's warnings anyway.

[Riadach]

Well Mr Ó Cuív did once say that he would happier seeing a packet of cornflakes in Irish than legal documentation.

[joel]

No doubt the tobacco companies are cock-a-hoop that half the health warnings on cigarettes will now be unintelligible to most of the population.

From October, cigarette packets on sale here will have to carry warnings in Irish as well as English.

This follows a settlement at the High Court today.

Caitriona Uí Riain, a primary school teacher from Co Cavan, had taken a legal challenge to what she claimed was the State's failure to implement a European directive that the health warnings on tobacco products should be displayed in all the official languages of a State.

Source

As a supporter of the Irish language I find this type petty action, pretending that Irish has a far wider penetration than it does, shaming and farcical.

Health warnings on cigarette packets are very effective – we know this because the tobacco companies fought like cats to resist them. They also tried every trick in the book to reduce their impact – printing them on the side of the packet, printing them in difficult-to-read fonts and using shiny ink that was difficult to read in some lights. They only gave up on these when required by law.

Now they have the perfect excuse to halve their impact.

I support the Irish language and I support realistic initiatives to promote it. But I think the posturing pretence that anything more than a small minority of people in this country have a strong command of written Irish does nothing to promote the language. Indeed, the ridicule invited by the dafter demands of the Galiban – like paying €13,000 a minute to translate European Parliament speeches – makes people hostile to the language when they would otherwise not be.

Research shows that lifelong smokers – the ones who die from it – start smoking as children, before they can make the adult decision whether they want to be smokers or not. This decision will make sure that there more of them.

I would urge people to turn their anger about this not against the Irish language, but against the greedy puffed-up self-important people who want to profit from Irish, not promote it.

It is NOT shaming - it is simply a measure of equality for the native language. That is as it should be.

[GJG]

Would it be possible to rule that the proportion of each language be proportional to the relative proportion of the people in the 'expected area' that speak each language.

In Dublin, 97% of cigarette packages would have the warning in English, while in the Gaeltacht, it could be 50/50 (or maybe even majority in Irish).

I dunno how hard this would be to manage, but it shouldn't be that large a burden for companies as they already have to have specific packages for Ireland's warnings anyway.

No

[QuizMaster]

Would it be possible to rule that the proportion of each language be proportional to the relative proportion of the people in the 'expected area' that speak each language.

In Dublin, 97% of cigarette packages would have the warning in English, while in the Gaeltacht, it could be 50/50 (or maybe even majority in Irish).

I dunno how hard this would be to manage, but it shouldn't be that large a burden for companies as they already have to have specific packages for Ireland's warnings anyway.

Do you seriously imagine that Irish is the day-to-day spoken language in 50% of the Gaeltacht?

[Riadach]

Would it be possible to rule that the proportion of each language be proportional to the relative proportion of the people in the 'expected area' that speak each language.

In Dublin, 97% of cigarette packages would have the warning in English, while in the Gaeltacht, it could be 50/50 (or maybe even majority in Irish).

I dunno how hard this would be to manage, but it shouldn't be that large a burden for companies as they already have to have specific packages for Ireland's warnings anyway.

Do you seriously imagine that Irish is the day-to-day spoken language in 50% of the Gaeltacht?

Official or breac?

[GJG]

Well Mr Ó Cuív did once say that he would happier seeing a packet of cornflakes in Irish than legal documentation.

Bullseye. This is exactly what I am talking about. Use Irish to enrich people's lives, not impoverish it.

It is NOT shaming - it is simply a measure of equality for the native language. That is as it should be.

It is shaming, because I am a supporter of Irish and I find it shaming.

The reality is that Irish is not the native language of most people on this island. It would be good if we could encourage that situation, but we won't make it true by pretending that it is, and we certainly won't make it true by alienating the people who don't speak Irish.

Exactly how do I reply when people argue See, we should ditch Irish because the nutcases who support it are so intolerant that they are willing to risk children's health and lives in trying to force reality to fit their fantasy?