The practice of drafting constitutional amendments in English and then translating them into Irish should be reviewed, a leading authority has said.

Seán Ó Conaill, a law lecturer in University College Cork and an expert on the use of Irish in the Constitution, has said Irish translators were presented with English text already signed off by Cabinet and inflexible to change. He was responding to an issue raised in relation to the Irish version of the proposed amendment to the Constitution to allow same sex-marriage.

The English version is: “Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex.” The Irish translation is: “Féadfaidh beirt, cibé acu is fir nó mná iad, conradh a dhéanamh i leith pósadh de réir dlí.”

Directly translated back into English it states: “A couple may, whether they are men or women, make a contract of marriage in accordance with law.” He said that other bilingual jurisdictions such as Canada and Wales had adopted a method of co-drafting where the laws were simultaneously drafted in both languages. More.

See: The Irish Times

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