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Gaelic mafia hi-jacking Edinburgh Gaelic education issue         3/3/11

Sirs,

I feel I have to correspond with your readership in the Motherland to outline what our beloved Gaelic language has become in Edinburgh.  On the evening of 28 February a consultation meeting was held by City of Edinburgh for views to be expressed on the two options on increasing the size of the facilities for Gaelic medium education in the city.

Unfortunately this meeting was hi-jacked by middle class parents and a state funded Gaelic mafia.  It was clear from the outset that the tidal wave of support for the more expensive option of a new Gaelic only school in Bonnington was orchestrated by a militant and un-democratic Comunn nam Parannt.  

It was painful listening to mid-Atlantic and West End accents of the Edinburgh middle classes outlining their demands to the Council for state aided special bi-lingual schooling for their children.  One can assume that they are the class in Edinburgh just below affording the fees for Heriots and Stew-Mel.   

Two members of the state funded Gaelic academia kept referring to emotional historical arguments rather than the cold reality of these current austere times.  Almost unbelievably the year 1670 was quoted by a trainee Gaelic grandee at one point.  Another grandee used the phrase that education should be focussed on rather than cost.  

Try telling that to the parents in Edinburgh losing out on financial investment at the expense of creating a segregated school only 43% occupied and leaving another one 45% occupied.  Indeed when the Evening News released the story the message boards were predictably crammed with anti-Gael sentiment.  

These comments do not bother Comunn nam Parannt however as they are not Gaels anyway!  What needs to be remembered is that the actions of these morons creates racial hatred in Edinburgh against the Gaels and where they come from but not specifically against what the government term as Gaelic speakers.  There is a difference between the two.    

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