... Cá Bhfuil Na Gaeilg eoirí? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
When Debbie and I were in Ireland a few years ago, we found that if you asked about "Gaelic," you were told the term was "Irish." There were signs and occasionally someone would pronounce a word for you, but we certainly didn't run into anybody speaking Irish.
We're all taught Irish at school from beginning to end of our education, roughly for 14 years. And yet it's taught so atrociously badly that generally, most of us have little or no ability to speak it. The first time in five years of secondary education I spoke Irish was for my Leaving Certificate exams(final exams before university). I can remember constantly using French words as I fumbled through this embarrassing ordeal. Some people of course are fluent, but it is a very distinct minority largely comprising of people who studied in exclusively Irish language schools. There are pockets where the locals will use Irish(not Gaelic) on a day to day basis, in the West, parts of Kerry and Connemarra.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Andrew, for explaining that. Are there people writing in Irish, do you know?
ReplyDeleteI'm sure there are but illustrating the point, whoever they may be, I don't know of them. I presume you're aware of the work of Flann O Brien/ Brian Nolan/Myles na gCopalleen who was very learned in Irish in its broadest sense and his wonderful comic parody The Poor Mouth is a brilliant send-up of a certain kind of Irish literature favoured by the schools in the teaching of Irish. This work was originally in Irish- An Beal Bocht. So as far as tangents go, if you haven't read it, highly recommended. Flann can be described as writing under the influence of hallucinogenic Guinness, I think.
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