Look, my Man/Woman.

You talk of the era of De Valera, and you're trying to use it as some sort of a stick; to pour scorn on how a young 'nation' was desperately trying to regain it's sense of identity.

Inside the six counties no such compulsion was required to learn the Irish Language, or at least to (God forbid) sit a GCE in it.
It was a ploy that may have backfired, as those who did want to learn it...did, and this saved us from a lot of disgruntled and bitter people, who like you, had no choice in the matter.

Personally, I wouldn't have made the learning of Irish compulsory. But hindsight is both a great educator, and bringer of understanding.

We are, though, talking about 'curative' measures, here. After having had our culture almost destroyed; where starving people were given a bowl of thin soup in return for re-canting their religion and identity, you complain about the cleaning up the mess. Or at least seem unwilling to forgive the methods they employed.
I am familiar with Myles na gCopaleen's imagery of 'na Gaeligorí', and the An t Áthair Pheadar Úi Leirigh's of this world, as they tried to standardise the form of the language.

They were rough times, I know. But as you well know, the abolition of corporal punishment is a relatively recent concept, and I (as a pupil of the Christian Brothers) was not spared any of the rod, just because I didn't have to..but did, choose to learn Irish.

But are we going to sit here and share horror stories from our childhood? You don't have a chip on your shoulder, Guest...you have the Amazon Rain Forest sitting right there, and it's emitting large doses of Carbon Dioxide, to boot.

Fair enough, you ran away from the country with enough resentment to fill pint glasses with.
That is sad, for a lot of people, as you rightly point out, left dis-illusioned. I hear very few exiles, though condemn their homeland in the terms that you do.

"...I am for Britain because it makes sense - and besides I love all the different things there, like Newcastle Brown Ale, Soda Bread etc etc. To seperate it up into little fiefdoms of different languages, where will that end? The O'Grumpies on one side of a river throwing rocks at the LaGrotties on the other, while they have not even one shared word to work out their problems?..."

Prefer Britain if you like (although I don't remember anybody asking you to make a choice in the matter), but Newcastle Brown and Soda Bread are easily available at home, and I don't think there was ever any plan to seperate Ireland up 'into little fiefdoms of different languages'. If you left for those reasons, you were both unobservant and subject to not a little degree of paranoia.

You were educated in the 26 counties, and you had it tough. I was educated in the 6 counties and I had it tough.
But the difference between You and me is that I came to terms with it...and moved on. If I never held it against my parents for giving me the odd 'clip around the back of the ear', I can certainly use the same reasoning to forgive those at whose hands I suffered a hell of a lot worse.

But that's your choice. And I know that sometimes it feels better to acquiesce in the bitternesses of the past; it certainly can give a person that extra reason to hate. But that choice is also yours.

I see no 'argument' in your post, but I sensed the intelligence of it by the 'handle' you gave yourself.

Be bitter if you want to be, and don't face up to your demons. But until you sort that trip out, you and I will be communicating on two different levels.

B.