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DARACH Ó SÉAGHDHA started the Twitter page The Irish For back in January 2015.
The page, which has over 23,000 followers, does pretty much exactly what is says on the tin, offering translations and guidance on pronunciation.
The Irish For ✏ / TwitterThe Irish for white wine is 'fíon geal'.
— The Irish For (@theirishfor) August 18, 2017
Don't say 'fíon bán' unless you've already established a reputation for droll humour. pic.twitter.com/8pPnAuz3yf
Expanding from its humble beginnings, Ó Séaghdha’s project has grown to incorporate a podcast and a new book, called Motherfoclóir.
With a tagline of “dispatches from a not so dead language”, and a foreword from comedian Dara Ó Briain, the 39-year-old sat down with TheJournal.ie to explain why the Irish language can still be a vibrant thing that’s worth caring about.
Using Irish to make sense of the world
In the introduction to the book, Ó Séaghdha explains his love for the Irish language and how he went about trying to exploit the opportunity of social media to get a more positive message across.
He writes: “I set myself three rules for running this account.
1. Don’t get involved in debates about state policy on Irish language – teaching, signage, constitutional controversy, expenditure and so on… The Irish language doesn’t belong to any government or party and its many charms exist whether it is promoted correctly or not.
2. It must be pleasing to those with no Irish, as well as to those with more than myself.
3. Build a palace from the rubble of everyone’s else smashed expectations. People who expect the Irish language to be confined to things they aren’t interested in talking about – smash their expectation.
So what is it in the Irish language that Ó Séaghdha describes as “the amazing buried treasure”?
“If you find a quiet space to look at the Irish language itself,” he said, “away from the associations that people have with it, you discover what a great language it is.
What it’s trying to do is show people how they can make sense of the world around them through Irish. There are words and phrases that we don’t have in English, and you can sometimes use Irish to sum up a situation in a better, more satisfying way. So we should do it.
In one example in the book, Ó Séaghdha writes: “Turscar is more specific; it means ugly, dead seaweed that the sea has abandoned on the shore.
Cleverly, this is also the Irish word for spam email.
Some more examples of interesting quirks of the Irish language that Ó Séaghdha uses in the book include:
Maynooth University / Twitterand the soft pawed King of the, inexplicably Ireland based, sect of Ninja Racúin is Raciúnas
— Maynooth University (@MaynoothUni) August 21, 2017
Interestingly, Ó Séaghdha has found that a lot of words develop organically, away from the classroom, and he said that is something that helps to keep the language alive.
“With language, I’m not sure it it’s advisable or preferable for people sitting in a room deciding what is a word and what’s not a word,” he said. “There are words being formed right now in gaelscoil playgrounds.”
Grá don Gaeilge
Darach’s passion for the language came from his father, a multi-lingual school inspector.
“Both my parents were Irish speakers,” he said. “But my brother and I recoiled from it a bit as teenagers. It was only later I realised the value of it to be honest.”
As his father’s health deteriorated in later years, Ó Séaghdha found himself attracted to the Irish language more and more.
After he passed away, I think it was a way to keep a connection with him.
Now a father himself, Ó Séaghdha said that the process of writing the book involved a lot of introspection.
“It was tough to write this book,” he said. “It was roughly a year after my father died, and my daughter had been diagnosed with Down Syndrome.
Writing this book was a way for me to process all that was going on.
The married father keeps the Twitter account up-to-date during his commute to work in Dublin, when his wife is watching the TV and after his daughter wakes up for early morning feeds.
“I’d love my daughter to learn Irish too as she grows up, but it’s about getting her the right supports in place,” he said.
Motherfoclóir is dedicated to his father and his daughter Lasairíona.
Taking the politics out of the Irish language
Ó Séaghdha cited common criticisms made of the Irish language – the quality of teaching in schools, the cost of translating it for the State – and said that it was these issues that he wanted his project to remain separate from – both on Twitter and with the Motherfoclóir book.
“It’s an ongoing thing,” he said. “It’s like an episode of Murder She Wrote. It’s the exact same story each time, with a few minor changes on who’s involved.
I feel like every time there’s a debate about the Irish language on the news, it’s exactly like that. I didn’t want to be a part of that. Why can’t the conversation just be about the words themselves?
“And even in education, Irish has become a placeholder for everything people didn’t like about school. And the Twitter page and this book were ways to try to change that.”
Ó Séaghdha has had a great deal of success in doing exactly that with his The Irish For Twitter page, creating an online community where people engage on a daily basis with the Irish language.
“I had one a few weeks ago,” he said, “comparing uachtaran (president) and uachtar reoite (ice cream). Some of the puns that came in were brilliant.”
He said that he gets the odd negative comment and feedback from people online, but doesn’t let that faze him.
You get the odd person who’ll come along say ‘Irish is a dead language’. I just think ‘judging by your punctuation, English isn’t far off either’.
For the father-of-one, having this space where people can ask questions and speak about the language is a positive thing.
“Getting into the Irish language community isn’t something that will cost you to do,” he said. “It’s not school-driven. And people really seem to have a genuine interest in it.”
As Ó Briain puts it in the foreword: “Enjoy the journey. There’s no exam in the end.”
Motherfoclóir is published by Gill Hess, and will be available to the public from 7 September.
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Ana mhaith.
@Banana Rama: …which has nothing to do with yoga.
Judging by the demand to get into Irish primary schools in my area, the Irish language is anything but dying.
@Michael Donnelly: exactly Micheal, and interesting how it the ones here that didn’t understand it or where cr@p at it that say it’s useless, waste of time etc. Shame on them
I say as our language is the only thing that distinguishes us from the other countries in the EU now .
@Michael Donnelly: What, I wonder, is the real reason for the demand for Gaelscoileanna places when many pupils attending these schools struggle with speaking Irish out of school?
@PeteMcC: I have six children who went through Gaelscoileanna neither myself nor my husband have fluent Irish I just wanted my children to have the language because the way it was taught to me was not good. They all have excellent Irish thanks to their education and it has opened many doors for them.
@PeteMcC:
Extra points for the CAO
@Michael Donnelly: I think some people want to get into Irish language schools to avoid …..or should I say to have their kids mix with more Irish kids, not me I don’t buy into that.
@Mr Mystery: that’s crap there’s 24 different nationalities attending the Gaelscoil I work in!
@David Carino: “I say as our language is the only thing that distinguishes us from the other countries in the EU now .” No its that very attitude that puts me off. I’m all for the promotion of the language as something fun, something to keep alive and something to learn in a fun way. This rhetoric is part of the old gaelnazi style. For starters its not “my language” tracing my family history back over 800 year in Leinster, none of them spoke Irish as a language. And the old your not “real” Irish is a nonsense agreement. The original Irish inhabitants ddint speak Irish ether, that came with celtic invaders. There is no Leinster dialect. The anti-English nonsense needs to be dropped to, and a less positive stance on our Roman occupiers. But in saying that the language should be kept alive in the right way, not by force. Teach it in schools as a fun activity, drop the exams, drop learning the grammar until you can speak it fluently. Invest more in childrens (young children age 2-5) tv and apps (such as cuile caint) Turn doom and gloom into something positive and put the gaelnazis in a cave with their peig radio recordings on a constant loop
@iMoan Brutal: How can you become fluent in a language without any grammar?
@Helen Ni Riain: depends on where you live I guess, there’s 0 attending where I live and there’s no Irish language secondary school, but if you think that people in small towns want their kids to go just to learn Irish in all subjects up until 6th class then ok.
@iMoan Brutal: If your ancestors have been here for at least 800 years the chances that none of them spoke Irish is zero – how would you know they didnt anyway?
Re Leinster different dialects were spoken, and a lot later thsn many think eg there were were native speakers in the Dublin mountains in the 1830s and in Louth in the 1950s.
@PeteMcC: I would point out that in my experience many kids who go from a Gaelscoil to an English secondary school usually have a decent step up from other students in the class and will have always have a decent foundation but do suffer from substandard irish teachers in the secondary school and lack of opportunity to keep practising and using it.
As with any language you can learn it over a few years but also forget it when unused over a few years…
A chomh-Gaeil, tá claonadh ollmhór i gcoinne ár dteanga féin. Féach ar Banc na hÉireann. Scrios siad an rogha Gaeilge dona meaisíní airgead. Tá an leibhéal i nGaeilge sna bunscoileanna millteanach ar fad. Tá sé cac go leor sna meánscoileanna chomh maith.
Gan amhras, caithfimid coraíocht agus troid don ár dteanga náisiúnta. Beidh sé marbh go luath seachas sin.
@TheJournalAsGaeilge:
Maybe they deleted it because almost no one used it.
@TheJournalAsGaeilge: Bank of Ireland still have the option to withdraw money as Gaeilge, radicals like yourself make Irish off-putting for others.
@TheJournalAsGaeilge: sign the gaelnazis are in town.. you do more harm to the language than ANYONE else
@iMoan Brutal: I just learned a new English word – gaelnazi! :-) Awesome. I like it. It does exactly what it says on the tin. And I like Irish, I just hate the way it was taught. The twitter account in this article has rekindled my interest because it’s not ramming the language down our throats, just showing an interesting slant on the language and making it ordinary and relevant.
@Atheos Euripides: And isn’t that fantastic and so important that you have the option of withdrawing money in Irish! What an experience, and it doesn’t at all hold up the queue while each person has to select if they want irish or english just to get their bunce.
@Keith McDonagh: For a language to be alive, it doesn’t require that EVERYONE speaks it as their first language. When a section of the population speak it to communicate with each other, surely it is a living language. The opportunities to use an Ghaeilge are there; you just have to look for them. Like our music, sport and dance, Irish is something that belongs to all of us and we shouldn’t be too eager to give it up.
Maybe not but it shouldn’t be forced on to those who don’t care about it. If people want to learn it & speak to eachother in it then fine, whatever. But anyone who doesn’t want to use it shouldn’t have to bother with it.
@Keith McDonagh: and when do you think is a good time to let people decide that for themselves?
@Keith McDonagh:
Fine, you don’t have to engage with it but then you are not really Irish are you?
@Con Murphy: I’m Irish, born & raised. I’ve just always hated learning it in school & felt there was no point but was still made to sit through it everyday.
@Keith McDonagh: I hated school in general, should I be allowed to opt out of that as a child?
@Keith McDonagh: Exactly and whether we like it or not, the ‘living language’ in this country is English, that’s what we grow up with in reality; so we can be Irish without speaking a language we don’t need to know in order to relate to everyone else who grew up here.
I’m usually one of those complaining about the compulsory nature of Irish in schools,but kudos to this guy. This was genuinely culturally informative and piqued my interest in the language in a way that no one has done in a while
Really wish I could speak Irish but like most I cant. Definitely hope to learn it in future in a place where its taught competently
@DonalC: There are lots of classes and ciorcal comhrás for adults all around the country. The focus is on chatting and having a bit of craic i nGaeilge. All levels of learners are catered for. A quick Google search will find them or contact Conradh na Gaeilge and they’ll send you in the right direction. You might be surprised at how many adults are returning to Irish. @theirishfor is a great account to follow too. Tús maith, leath na hoibre!
@Siobhain: Tre
@Siobhain: *True, and Conradh na Gaelige run a great club/bar on Harcourt St. if anyone is looking for some comhrá trí mheán na Gaelige
@Malachi: *Gaeilge – might need to go there myself for a wee refresher…
@DonalC: You can learn beginners Irish on the Duolingo smartphone App now.
@Atheos Euripides: “The spider reads the orange newspaper…”
@Atheos Euripides: great app. I used it to pick up a bit of spainish. I’ll definitely use it to strengthen mo máthairtheanga.
I have no problem with Irish being taught in school but it should be as a choice language, along with Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Chinese and even Latin. Because let’s be honest when is anyone going to use Irish for anything other than casual conversation with another Irish speaker or to impress some American relatives. A modern European or Asian language would be far more valuable to future generations. Most of Central and South America is Spanish speaking, half the African continent speaks French, China one of the Economic powerhouses of Asia.
@Mick Jordan: Spanish is by far the most useful but I still think Irish should at least be compulsory up to junior cert
@Mick Jordan: Mick, if learning any subject in school were purely down to how ‘useful’ it were, subjects like art, music and literature would have been binned years ago. Of course, it’s NOT that simple. It’s about broadening one’s horizons. It’s about the joy of reading Beowulf, the Mabinogion, the Count of Monte Cristo, the Mahabharata, the Knight in the Tiger Skin or the Iliad in their original forms. Learning should be a reward in itself, not about how it can be converted into capital.
@Mick Jordan: This talk by people like yourselves that we should make Irish a choice language just because no other countries speak it is ludicrous especially considering that it’s one of the most ancient languages in the world that is still spoken and it’s our native language.
By that reasoning, Catalonian, Galician, Basque, Danish, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Maltese etc should not be taught as compulsory subjects in their respective regions because nobody else outside those regions speak those languages, which is stupid, and the thing is a lot of them speak more than three languages because languages are simply taught better, most people in Ireland cannot speak more than two languages at best, to blame that on Irish being a compulsory subject is stupid.
@Mick Jordan:
Our language should not be a matter of choice, it is essential to what we are. Should English or Maths be optional?
@Odran Corcoran: What language are you writing in? What language do you use as your first language on a normal day? As for the Danes, Sweds, etc their language is their first language taught to them from infancy by their mothers, English for good or ill is ours. As result of 700 years of English rule. And English is by default recognized as the International Common language. All Air and Sea communications are done in English. It is the Second language taught in most education systems across the world. I was force taught Irish in school decades ago. Today I couldn’t string as sentence together in Irish if my life depended on it. And that would be the case for the vast majority of Irish people. So give kids the choice. If they choose it they will learn it well.
@Con Murphy: It has nothing to do with who we are. It is nothing more that a form of communication. Should the Iraqis speak Babylonian, should the the Serbs speak Scythian, should the Isrealies and Palestinians speak Aramaic, should the Danes, Swedes and Norwegians still use Runes in their writing style, should the Egyptians still use Hieroglyphs in theirs? Because if it is who they are why don’t they still speak or use them? The Irish you may speak today has very little in common to the Irish spoken 1500 years ago does that make you less Irish? Language evolves just as everything in nature does.
@Harry Whitehead: And there you have hit the nail on the head. The Joy of Learning. If kids are forced taught something they themselves can see no point in they won’t enjoy learning it. I well remember, I despised Irish Class. I hated every second of it. But I loved History, Geography and English. Math I is was neutral on. I would have liked to have been taught French or Spanish but I was never given that choice. Teaching hours are limited so Irish took up time that could have been used for either of them.
@Mick Jordan: the U.K. took the route where languages were made non compulsory. The result was the collapse of languages in secondary schools (apart from the fee paying schools who had the sense and smarts to see the value in ensuring students weren’t monolingual).
@RG Law: Irish is compulsory here. How many people can speak it fluently? Around 10 Thousand out of 4.5 million? Not exactly a great success now is it. Make a second language compulsory in primary schools but give the kids a choice of the language they wish to learn. Kids aren’t stupid, a 7 yr old can see the what a modern European language can offer them as opposed to a language spoken only by a tiny minority and used mostly in social conversation between them.
@Mick Jordan: “What language are you writing in? What language do you use as your first language on a normal day?”
Changes nothing. The English language is the international lingua franca of commerce and diplomacy. You will find that in the Spanish state the situation is similar, Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world yet it does not deter people from the Basque Country protecting, promoting and speaking their own language, likewise in Catalonia and Galicia.
@Odran Corcoran: Nobody is advocating banning or abandoning Irish. But forcing kids to learn it is pointless. Give them a choice. If they choose Irish it is because they will have an interest in learning it and will enjoy doing so. We all were force taught Irish in both primary and secondary school. 4.7 million people. How many of us can speak Irish fluently, 1% of the population at best. Not great now is it. Why are the numbers so bad? Surely being compulsory in school it should be far higher. Is it that most kids have zero interest in learning it? And if that is the case why? But Kids that “choose” to learn say French or Spanish go on to be fairly competent in those languages. Odd that don’t you think.
@Mick Jordan: at what age should kids be given the choice in your opinion?
@Dave O Keeffe: 6 to 7. At that age they will pick up a language far quicker than in their teenage years. And you teach them the same way they are taught to speak English in the first place. Don’t worry about grammar or syntax or even reading or writing it until they have a grasp of the conversational. You don’t expect a child to learn grammar or to read or write when they are learning to speak.
@Mick Jordan:
South America has more Portuguese than Spanish speakers.
It is a dead language, otherwise everyone would be using it as their first language wouldn’t they? Just accept that it’s dead, make it optional in all schools & be done with it.
@Keith McDonagh: you should look up the definition of dead in a dictionary.
@Keith McDonagh: When I read posts like yours, I realize that we need to stop teaching Irish in schools and focus more on English, because we are producing people with a very poor grasp of basic English words, like “dead”. How can someone spend 13 years learning English in school and not understand basic vocabulary like this? Mind boggling!
@Talleyrand Frye: Yeah well like I said, if it wasn’t dead, wouldn’t everyone in this entire country be speaking it on a daily basis? Out of everyone I know, family, friends, old schoolmates, work colleagues & some of their familes, absolutely none of them can speak 2 words of Irish or know anyone else who can. If you want to learn it then fine, do it but most people don’t care for it & don’t want to have to bother with it.
@Keith McDonagh: Everybody in Wales doesn’t speak Welsh, is Welsh dead too? No wonder you struggled to learn Irish in school.
@Atheos Euripides: I think poor Keith also struggled to learn English in school…
@Keith McDonagh:
It is not dead and it never will be, because real Irish people will never let that happen. Wishful thinking there Keith.
@Keith McDonagh:
You need to broaden your circle of friends.
@Keith McDonagh: Spot on. It’s a valid part of history but it’s not our present just because we have bilingual road signs or cash points.
Póg mo fón
@Niall O Neill: Póg m’fhón.
Should be made optional in secondary and resources diverted to important but ignored languages e.g. Mandarin, Japanese , Russian
@Ian O’ Connor: Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world and also happens to be a language a lot of us could practically use every summer . Never understood why French was the main foreign language in our schools.
As soon as the gaelnazis drop the chip from their shoulder the Irish language will flourish 10 fold. Theres nothing wrong with the Irish language, but there is everything wrong with how it is taught. It should be taught to kids through fun, forget learning verbs and tense, all that should come much, much later. Time to drop the anti-English nonsense too.The main reason that half the population can only muster up the phrase to ask to go to the toilet and little else after having 14 years of it in school is evidence enough! Time to have It as a fun subject, drop the exams! What is the overall benefit of having Irish as an exam subject in the leaving cert?
@iMoan Brutal: It’s taught very well in my daughter’s school. Possibly related to the change of syllabus circa 2006. The kids really enjoy Irish and their teachers say to me, “they shouldn’t realise they are learning”.
A universe apart from my experience. Great news, isn’t it?
@Iarla Ó’Riada: A step in the right direction.. I assume its primary school? If not that’s a positive step away from stupidity.
Not Dead but Lingering. Pity to see it groping for support even in Gaeltacht areas.
Me likie
Peig Sayers.
@Irving Chubbie: the 2 words that are the very reason why so many, including me, turned their backs on the Irish language.
Learning a language should be fun, exciting, not a lesson in banality and boredom.
@William Clay: What’s to say learning a particular language makes it more fun than another? Obviously it depends on the people teaching, and how good they are at explaining. That works for any subject, not just languages.
Irish language is the greatest waste of all times, the greatest waste of teachers and students time and has destroyed the lives of so many students who fail it in the leaving certificate. It should be taken out of the school syllabus altogether. It is not relevant to earning a living so forget about it altogether.
A waste of money on a load of were better than them language snobs.
Forced education, radio station, TV station, government documents, the guards, courts such a waste for something the majority of us rejected in school.
Most of the generation which was subjected to compulsory Gaeilge had a bad experience with the high fluency & grammatical requirement for public service jobs, & it’s irrelevance in college,commerce & industry.. Some of us also had to do Latin, & the combination of both, a significant proportion of school time was dissipated.
Whatever about Peig, who ever warmed to Caesars Gallic Wars?
A combined Irish Culture extra curricular optional programme in school & college is more likely to attract students, perhaps with feis type , & gap year , activities. Modern marketing promotion is needed also to achieve a higher profile over other cultural pursuits.
Quid pro quo with gill hess?
“Judging by your punctuation, English isn’t far off either”
The headline in this case appears to be prophetic, judging by the comments section.
Time to bring back Esperanto perhaps?
Tír gan Teanga, Tìr gan anam …..
Country without language
Country without soul….
have your say