Is Ireland a bilingual state?

Abstract

This article is a critique of the recent judgments of the Irish Supreme Court on the subject of bilingual juries in Ireland. By ruling that to allow Irish speakers to be tried by a jury that speaks Irish would be unconstitutional, despite the constitutional status of the Irish language as a national and the first language of the state, it has undermined the bilingualism of the Irish state and betrayed the principal function of the state that the founders had envisaged. The article argues that the issue of bilingual juries in Ireland has left the state on a crossroads, but in a position where it must act. It concludes by offering two alternatives: either to abandon its commitment to bilingualism or to honour it fully.