Woman Collapses After Being Spoken to in Irish

11th Mar 2014

A Bandon woman is in a serious condition in Cork University Hospital after collapsing in a local restaurant. Barbara Healy O’Sullivan, a waitress at Smyth’s Café on Main Street in Bandon, lost consciousness after being spoken to in Irish by a customer.

An eye witness revealed a customer had said ‘go raibh maith agat’ (the Irish language translation of ‘thank you’) to Mrs. O’Sullivan when the 27 year old mother of two delivered a lunch order to his table.

“The waitress looked dazed and confused while she searched her brain for a response”, another eye-witness claimed ,”and she began frothing at the mouth. We all urged her just to walk away but she seemed to be searching for the appropriate response and then fell down.”
 

Barbara O'Sullivan being hauled over the coals

A Garda spokesman said that initial investigations show the cause of the accident was that “twas taught badly in school”. The customer was arrested for breaching the peace and is being held under Section 3B of the Offences Against the State Act.

Due to concerns by local people of repeat incidents a large number of Gardaí have been drafted in from Cork city to investigate possible responses to the customer’s questions.

“We are looking at all possibilities”, said Garda Liam Óg Mandela “and certainly are not ruling out things like di nada, prago or other things we’ve picked up on holidays”.    

Addressing the media and standing in front of a large “Fáilte” sign on the Inishannon Road, Bandon town councillor, James O’Hagan, has demanded that the government provides an answer to his constituents’ concerns as soon as possible.

“My constituents have spent barely more than a decade receiving Irish tuition and are terrified”, he said, “they can’t possible be expected to respond to such difficult questions on the spot – how are we supposed to know what to say when someone says thanks to us in Irish? People need time to learn these things off.”