Just a plastic on the wrong side of the water but I’m in the long process of trying to make sense of the fairy speak myself. If the Jews managed to return to Hebrew after a hundred generations, the people of Ireland (and the diasporans) can teach themselves to speak the language their families spoke a few generations ago, a chairde.
Heartbreaking ❤️🩹 ☘️
@gaeilgelegrace (instagram)
It’s time to be brave and start learning Irish
Writer and poet Manchán Magan
Mo bheannacht Nollag orainn i mbliana ná
go nglacfaimis, ar deireadh thiar thall, leis
an bhfulaingt agus leis an bpian atá ionainn
go léir, go neamh-chomhfhiosach, de
bharr chlaochlú agus thréigint na teanga.
(My Christmas blessing this year is that we
may, at long last, begin to acknowledge the
trauma and pain that lies unconsciously
within us all with regard to the decline and
abandonment of our language.)
Cuirimid an milleán ar na múinteoiri
agus ar an rialtas, in ionad glacadh leis
nach raibh de rogha ag ar sinsir ach casadh
i dtreo an Bhéarla tar éis an Ghorta.
We blame the teachers and the
Government instead of accepting that our
ancestors had no choice but to turn to
English after the Famine.)
Theip an talamh orainn. Bhiomar ag fäil
bháis le horas. Ni raibh aon dul as ach
scaradh leis an nGaeilge ions go bhféad.
faimis bogadh go mórchathair in Éirinn nó
thar lear. (The land failed us. We were
starving. We had no choice but to abandon
Irish so that we could move to a city in
Ireland or abroad.)
Má ghlacaimid go macánta le seo,
féadaimis stop ag cur an milleán ar dhaoine
eile, agus dúshlán foghlaim na Gaeilge a
thógaint orainn féin go cróga, agus cneácha
na sean-ama a leigheas. (If we accept this
honestly, we can stop blaming others, and
bravely take on the challenge of learning
Irish and healing the wounds of our past.)
In fairness having teachers who couldn’t hold a basic conversation in Irish teach compulsory Irish was always a bad idea and an educational trauma in itself.
I think he is right but then you’d have argue with the British apologists in ireland who reject that Westminster policies in ireland were genocide.
He lives up the road from my mother. Nice fella.
‘The land failed us’
The ‘land’ failed people because they had resorted to living off a single foodstuff that could be grown in a small space because their land had been *confiscated by occupying powers* in plantations. It’s not a magic coincidence that everyone was living off almost solely potatoes, it was a consequence of colonialism. There wouldn’t have *been* a famine without it.
I might be too pessimistic, but I think in the modern connected world we live in where English is the de facto common language in the western world, it’s probably the hardest time in history to try and resurrect a language.
I’m not against the idea, I just think it faces way too many barriers. If we had changed tack 30 years ago we might have had a chance, but I can’t see it happening now.
11 comments
Gaeilge abú!
He’s a legend in fairness
These are the best posts on this sub
Just a plastic on the wrong side of the water but I’m in the long process of trying to make sense of the fairy speak myself. If the Jews managed to return to Hebrew after a hundred generations, the people of Ireland (and the diasporans) can teach themselves to speak the language their families spoke a few generations ago, a chairde.
Heartbreaking ❤️🩹 ☘️
@gaeilgelegrace (instagram)
It’s time to be brave and start learning Irish
Writer and poet Manchán Magan
Mo bheannacht Nollag orainn i mbliana ná
go nglacfaimis, ar deireadh thiar thall, leis
an bhfulaingt agus leis an bpian atá ionainn
go léir, go neamh-chomhfhiosach, de
bharr chlaochlú agus thréigint na teanga.
(My Christmas blessing this year is that we
may, at long last, begin to acknowledge the
trauma and pain that lies unconsciously
within us all with regard to the decline and
abandonment of our language.)
Cuirimid an milleán ar na múinteoiri
agus ar an rialtas, in ionad glacadh leis
nach raibh de rogha ag ar sinsir ach casadh
i dtreo an Bhéarla tar éis an Ghorta.
We blame the teachers and the
Government instead of accepting that our
ancestors had no choice but to turn to
English after the Famine.)
Theip an talamh orainn. Bhiomar ag fäil
bháis le horas. Ni raibh aon dul as ach
scaradh leis an nGaeilge ions go bhféad.
faimis bogadh go mórchathair in Éirinn nó
thar lear. (The land failed us. We were
starving. We had no choice but to abandon
Irish so that we could move to a city in
Ireland or abroad.)
Má ghlacaimid go macánta le seo,
féadaimis stop ag cur an milleán ar dhaoine
eile, agus dúshlán foghlaim na Gaeilge a
thógaint orainn féin go cróga, agus cneácha
na sean-ama a leigheas. (If we accept this
honestly, we can stop blaming others, and
bravely take on the challenge of learning
Irish and healing the wounds of our past.)
In fairness having teachers who couldn’t hold a basic conversation in Irish teach compulsory Irish was always a bad idea and an educational trauma in itself.
I think he is right but then you’d have argue with the British apologists in ireland who reject that Westminster policies in ireland were genocide.
He lives up the road from my mother. Nice fella.
‘The land failed us’
The ‘land’ failed people because they had resorted to living off a single foodstuff that could be grown in a small space because their land had been *confiscated by occupying powers* in plantations. It’s not a magic coincidence that everyone was living off almost solely potatoes, it was a consequence of colonialism. There wouldn’t have *been* a famine without it.
I might be too pessimistic, but I think in the modern connected world we live in where English is the de facto common language in the western world, it’s probably the hardest time in history to try and resurrect a language.
I’m not against the idea, I just think it faces way too many barriers. If we had changed tack 30 years ago we might have had a chance, but I can’t see it happening now.
He’s a mong. Stop posting his shite, please OP.
Just bought his new book, absolutely great read