Finola meredith biography of barack

One of the most singular ironies of living in Northern Ireland is that language – the most fundamental human tool of communication, the shared medium through which we all encounter the world – becomes, in itself, a source of division, suspicion and alienation.

In the prevailing system of oppositional cultural apartheid, now effectively enshrined in the political accommodation at Stormont, the Irish language ‘belongs’ to nationalists and republicans, while unionists and loyalists must be content with ‘their’ language, Ulster Scots.

Of course, this is a false dichotomy, distorted by competing ideological agendas. Nobody ‘owns’ language; by its very nature, nobody can plant a flag in it and claim Fionola Meredith books and biography - Waterstones QUBAK