Irish language paper closes

Ireland's largest Irish language newspaper, Foinse, has closed down.

The paper which was published weekly on Saturdays had been struggling since 2007.

It is the second Irish language newspaper to fail in the last seven months - Lá Nua was closed in December 2008.

Janet Muller, of language group Pobal, said more could have been done and called on politicians to "stop the destruction of vital services".

Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, former publisher of Lá Nua, has claimed Foinse suffered from a lack of support from cross-border body Foras na Gaeilge.

He said: "For Foras na Gaeilge to lose one newspaper in Lá Nua is a tragedy but to lose two now with Foinse closing is just plain carelessness.

"Foras na Gaeilge is clearly out of its depth when dealing with business ventures and it's up to both governments and the members of the board to spell out how they plan to replace the failures of the Foras with the type of services - including media services - which Irish speakers deserve."

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