With impeccable timing, as Stormont lurched into another funding row over the Irish language, Conradh na Gaeilge launched a report in Belfast on Tuesday entitled A United Ireland: A Transformative Opportunity for the Irish Language and Gaeltacht.

The report should not be read as a corporate policy. It is an academic paper commissioned following conference motions calling on Conradh na Gaeilge to take a position on unification. This is a push from grassroots members that has caused concern at leadership level. However, the report still usefully zeroes in on the key issue for Irish in a united Ireland: should the language remain compulsory in education and for some jobs?

The report’s author, Queen’s University doctoral student Róisín Nic Liam, notes that ending compulsion is one of the basic “bargaining chips” people imagine might be offered to unionists as an obvious aid to reconciliation along with a new flag and anthem.

Unlike a new flag and anthem, there is a consensus that compulsion should end. Advocates of this have included Professor Brendan O’Leary, Fianna Fáil TD Jim O’Callaghan and Fine Gael TD Neale Richmond.

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