Neither Seachtain na Gaelige nor St. Patrick’s Day are what they promise time wise. Seachtain na Gaelige is actually 2 weeks long (5th – 17th March this year) and St. Patrick’s Day festivities have been turned into a St. Patrick’s Festivals around the country.
Seachtain na Gaelige is, simply put, a celebration of Irishness through the medium of Irish language. it includes music events, conversation evenings, table quizzes, different workshops and more. The events are organized all around the country by local councils, schools, libraries and other cultural bodies. For a full listing check their website. Another thing we get every year for Seachtain na Gaelige is a music CD containing rerecorded Irish pop songs, that were originally recorded in English – Ceol 2010 this year.
St. Patrick’s Festival in Dublin starts on February 12th March with funfairs for children and music and comedy gigs for adults. But there is much more than just those, with all events culminating with the big St. Patrick’s Day parade on Wednesday 17th, starting at 12 noon from Parnell Square.
Limerick is organizing the second biggest parade in Ireland, or that’s what they’re promising! It has to be checked out – starting at 12 noon and going down O’Connell Street. Limerick also has it’s famous Band Parade – the Limerick International Band Competition, taking place on Sunday 14th March at 12 noon, same location as the parade.
Both Cork and Galway have cultural events scheduled from Saturday 13th all the way to the big parade day. In Galway the parade starts at 12:30 on Dominic Street, in Cork a bit later at 1 pm from South Mall.
Welcome!
There’s been a nice selection of Irish language films in the past few years.
Oideas-gael.com sell a DVD with of a whole range of Irish short films.
Yu Ming is Ainm Dom
A favourite of mine is Yu Ming is Ainm Dom. It’s about a Chinese guy who learns the language and then tries to use it when he arrives in Dublin:
Fluent Dysphasia
Fluent Dysphasia is about a guy who drinks so hard the night before that he forgets how to speak English.
Fluent Dysphasia
Fíorghael
This short film deals with modern politics in Ireland.
Others
Mac an Athar (downloadable)
An Teanga Rúnda
It’s not easy to learn to speak any language. But isn’t it nice to get a taste of a new language? The following are a couple of Irish language links to get you interested.
The Irish language has a few toasts or blessings that people have found endearing for generations. Actually, the language has a very rich tradition of proverbs, many of them witty and funny.
We’ll start with some simple Irish language toasts.
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We’ve covered how to count numbers in Irish. But when you’re counting people, Irish Gaelic has a special way of counting people. It’s a nice specific way of counting, as the words make it instantly obvious that you’re talking about a collection of people rather than things.
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The 17th of March is a day of international celebration of Irishness. At least, that it what it has come to be.
St Patrick arrived in Ireland when the Irish themselves were not yet renowned for travelling the globe. He is now one of the patron saints of Ireland, and his day of celebration is shared amongst Irish people in Ireland and further afield.
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Tags: st patrick's day
Our aim here is to give you a complete overview of how and where to get Irish language lessons. While the language is weak in its traditional areas, there is a huge buzz about the language. This includes people who haven’t grown up in Ireland but still have a great interest in the Irish language. To that end, there are Irish language lessons available worldwide.
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Irish language radio has come quite a long way since the “old days”. Once confined to a few radio hours a day, there are some cool Irish language radio programs to listen to these days. What’s more, with podcasts or simple MP3 downloads you can catch archived shows without having to listen in to the Irish radio live.
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Let me tell you a secret!
Irish Gaelic is not called Irish Gaelic by Irish people in Ireland.
It’s nice that we could get that out of the way. So if you’re looking for another name for the Irish language, you can begin with “Irish“. Many Americans have said that this sounds unnatural to them, but it is how the language is called in Ireland.
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If you’re a native English speaker, you’ll only be familiar with counting such as “One, two, three”, and also counting things using the exact same words “One dog, two dogs, three dogs”. But the words for the numbers in the Irish language change depending on the following situations:
- If you are just counting numbers.
- Or if you’re counting things.
- Or if you’re counting people.