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Northern Exposure
The DUP's Peter Weir has asked Culture Minister Carál Ní Chuilín to detail grants awarded to organisations in his North Down constituency (AQW 22291/11-15).The answer makes for sobering reading —...
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Cothrom Eile
The Herald reports that efforts to double the intake to Gaelic-medium education in Scotland have met with a shaky start, with only 6% of the six-year target for pupils entering the first year of...
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The Mind Goggles
The Herald reports that only 48% of Scots feel that the BBC represents their lives.While that is unfortunate, it is hardly surprising, since the corporation's news coverage has failed comprehensively...
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Crabbit Cancerians
The BBC reports that the Scottish Government is to contribute£2 million to an ongoing Gaelic dictionary project equivalent in ambition to the two historical multi-volume dictionaries of Scots, DOST and...
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Books of Numbers
This week's Belfast Telegraph carried an interesting article attacking Irish-medium education. Unfortunately for the author, it's an article of the sort that says more about him, and his party, than...
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Reactionary Whitabootery
The Belfast Telegraph is carrying an opinion piece by Ulster-Scots Agency Chief Executive Ian Crozier in response to its recent front-page exposé of, and associated editorial on, the Government...
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Potemkin Villages
Looking at a map of Belfast coloured according to its sectarian demography, one could be forgiven for thinking that the city was solidly, even overwhelmingly, Protestant. In fact, of course, matters...
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The Twelfth of Never
Every 12 July thousands of Presbyterians all over Northern Ireland and the border counties of the Republic march in memory of William of Orange, the man who presided over the introduction of the Penal...
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The Sound of Bow Bells
BBC Scotland reportson the influence of Cockney — and particularly EastEnders— on the Glasgow accent. And it's even been picked up by the Guardian, with an odd focus on "social union" grafted on that...
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Saved
The results of the language questions in the Scottish Census have finally been published, with the key headline — and unbelievably good news — being that there are only 1,000 fewer Gaelic-speakers than...
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Scots and Scotsness
Those with long memories will have noted that the Scottish Census figure for Scots-speakers published the other day (1.54 million) was remarkably similar to what Ian Máté came up with for GRO Scotland...
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Language Wrongs
Mark Devenport (or "wee Mark Devenpoort" as the Blether Region once heard the late David Ervine refer to him) has an interesting article about the new "supercouncils" over on the BBC website. Tensions...
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Speaking Scots unto Nations
The Bel-Tel has revealed that the newly redesigned Irish passport will feature verses by the Ulster poet James Orr (1770-1816), who was forced into exile in America after the failure of the 1798...
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The Serial Misquoting of Samuel Thomson
Among his many other achievements, George Bernard Shaw, a great Irish writer and something of a wag, popularised the quaint suggestion that the humble word fish should be re-spelt as the fantastical...
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Castlereagh
The Blether Region very much enjoyed last night's BBC2 NI programme on Lord Castlereagh, even if the subtly Englified tones of John Bew did grate a little. The handsome hour-long documentary afforded a...
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Clearing Skies
David Ross in the Herald has an interesting article on Gaelic in the run-up to this week's Mòd in Paisley — generally reaching the same conclusion as the Blether Region that the language is no longer...
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Hiding in Full View
The BBC has an interesting article on Gaelic place-names in Lochaber, which now form the subject of a new booklet issued by Scottish Natural Heritage. It is of course only right that Gaelic be properly...
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The Fáinne War
The Oxford English Dictionary defines the verb impose as "to lay on, as something to be borne, endured, or submitted to; to inflict (something) on or upon; to levy or enforce authoritatively or...
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Fine Gall
Those taking an historical interest in the promotion of Irish since independence will know that one of the key reasons why its position remains so insecure is that although the State has been quite...
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Slegs vir Blankes
The News Letter reports that a DUP member of Down District Council is to boycott its new bilingual notepaper. Like a hardy US survivalist, William Walker has stocked up on the current English-only...
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