Fine Gael National Press Office Press Release

..................................................................

Cinemas should subtitle films in Irish for St Patrick's festival week - Mitchell

Fine Gael MEP for Dublin, Gay Mitchell, has proposed that all public showings of films during the St Patrick's Festival should be subtitled in Irish and has sought meetings with studio representatives in Ireland on the subject.

"In Brussels it is the norm that films shown publicly in cinemas are subtitled, often in more than one language. This can happen at the theatre also. I attended a Gate Theatre tour production of a Beckett play in Brussels last year which had subtitle screens discreetly placed on either side of the stage.

"It is time to try this in Ireland. I have asked for a meeting with the studio representatives in Ireland (Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Sony, Disney and Warner Bros) to propose that they introduce this, in the first instance on a trial basis, for all public showing of films for the coming St Patrick's festival week. Most of us have some Irish but lose the little we have because we cannot use it daily. Here is an opportunity to help those of us whose Irish is weak to start to build on what we have locked away from our school days.

"There are now 212 Gaelscoileanna in Ireland of which 170 are primary and 42 are secondary. In Dublin alone there are 32 primary and 8 secondary schools. There is a clear demand for the language. In addition, for St Patrick's festival week I believe most Irish people would welcome the opportunity to renew their interest in Irish."