Peadar Ó Maicín, a native Irish language speaker, has lost a Supreme Court case to have a bi-lingual jury selected from a specially designated area of Connemara where most people speak Irish.
Mr. Justice Hardiman observed that while there is no legislation requiring a juror to be competent in English or Irish, he described it as "as extraordinary state of affairs" in need of "urgent legislative action".
In his dissenting opinion, Mr. Justice Hardiman described the actions of the State in promoting the Irish language as "uniformly minimalist and grudging". Mr. Justice Hardiman did not believe there is any other country:
in which a citizen would not be entitled to conduct his business before a court in the national and first official language, and to be understood directly by such court in that language
However, the Supreme Court agreed that the case raised important constitutional issues on balancing language rights against the duty to prosecute crimes before a representative jury.
The High Court held Mr. Ó Maicín was not entitled to have his case heard by a judge and bi-lingual jury without a translator.
Mr. Ó Maicín is facing trial charged with two offences; assault causing harm and unlawfully producing an article (a broken whiskey bottle) capable of inflicting serious injury during a fight.
The State opposed the appeal on the basis that there would have to be a test of competence in the Irish language. But this would be impossible due to random jury selection.
In a majority four-one judgment, the Supreme Court held that while Mr. Ó Maicín has a constitutional right to conduct business and his trial in Irish with the aid of a translator, the right is not absolute.
