Many Irish People at Home and Abroad are Reclaiming
their Native Language
By TADHG MACEOGHAIN
Dia dhuit! the woman greeted me as I passed her on the side of the road in southwestern Donegal. I was a bit surprised that she used Irish and muttered a delayed response, Dia's Muire dhuit. I had never had a stranger speak Irish to me before.
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TADHG MACEOGHAIN
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Growing up outside Boston, I had never conceived of Irish as a complete and living language. To my cousins and me, it was some kind of code that na seandaoine (the "old people," i.e. my grandfather and great-aunts) would use when they did not want us to understand what was happening.
Alternatively it was also a language in which to sing old, old songs. I rarely heard other families speak it, and was not completely aware of the communities still speaking Irish and in fact fighting for its survival back in Ireland.
Upon arriving in Ireland, I was pleased to witness the use of Irish in a public context, not only in isolated communities on the west coast but throughout the rest of the country as well.
Dublin has an Irish-speaking restaurant and café, Belfast has a strongly Irish-speaking neighbourhood, and of course the gaeltachtaí or Irish-speaking areas, of Donegal, Galway, Kerry, and Cork still maintain the language as the normal means of daily communication. Television and radio are broadcast in Irish, and many schoolchildren are lucky enough to attend Irish-speaking schools, or gaelscoileanna.
People these days are becoming more and more proud of their language, and I have heard many Irish-speakers comment that Irish has much more public recognition and use today than it did 20 years ago.
No longer associated with poverty and times past, Irish has a new place in the world, and many people, both in Ireland and abroad, are beginning to reclaim their native tongue.
Tadhg MacEoghain lives in Vacouver, B.C. and teaches Irish-Gaelic locally. For more information on lessons or conversation groups, contact Tadhg at timothymckeon@yahoo.com.
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