This article first appeared on Galway Bay FM

A Sinn Féin TD is seeking an urgent meeting with the new President of the University of Galway over the role of the Irish language.

The party’s spokesperson for Gaeilge, Aengus Ó Snodaigh has written to Professor David J Burn and the Údarás na hOllscoile Chairperson Máire Geoghegan-Quinn.

Professor Burn, from the UK, was announced as the new President of the University last week.

Sinn Féin Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh is the former Chair of the Oireachtas Committee on the Irish Language, Gaeltacht and the Irish-speaking Community

He says there’s disappointment within the Irish speaking community that UG has appointed its first president without Irish in ‘over 100 years’.

He claims the appointment will be seen as a ‘step backwards in a university which is meant to be central to the revival of Irish and of the Gaeltacht.’

In 2016, the university dropped its long-standing requirement that the president of the university must be fluent in Irish