Neither Seachtain na Gaelige nor St. Patrick’s Day are what they promise time wise. Seachtain na Gaelige is actually 2 weeks long although “Seachtain” means “Week”.
St. Patrick’s Day festivities have been turned into a St. Patrick’s Festivals around the country. Continue reading
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. Continue reading
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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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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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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The Irish language, also known as Irish Gaelic, or simply “Irish” in Ireland, is a member of the Goidelic group of the Celtic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. The language is categorised into three periods: Old Irish (7th–9th century A.D.), Middle Irish (10th–16th century), and Modern Irish (since the 16th century). (Lehman, An Introduction to Old Irish, 1975)
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As you may or may not know, there are three main Irish language dialects:
* Munster dialect (south of Ireland, such as counties Kerry, Cork and Waterford)
* Connacht dialect (Connemara Gaeltacht and Aran Islands in the west of Ireland – both in County Galway, and County Mayo)
* Ulster dialect (north of Ireland, such as Donegal and Belfast)
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