Is Fearr Gaeilge Bhriste ná Béarla Cliste

As an Irish and Education major is college that was our go to,  “broken Irish is better than clever English” It still holds for me today, but it is seldom I get the opportunity to speak with anyone in the language of my ancestors. I was not born or raised in the Gaeltacht (Irish speaking areas of Ireland) and despite learning Irish in a much maligned school system, I have a deep love for the language. I think the difference was the respect my parents had for the language and of course the fact that my Dad was a teacher and spoke Irish fluently helped too. As a result my siblings and I not only had a favorable attitude towards the language at home but my parents went one step further and sent us all packing at one stage or another to spend a summer in the Gaeltacht, living with an Irish speaking family, taking classes each morning and participating in cultural activities like music and dance in the evenings. 

As a result, Irish or “Gaeilge” is part of who I am. I try to make a daily effort to to do something related to it even though I now live almost 8,000 miles away. I read, watch “An Nuacht”, the Irish news in Irish, listen to Radió na Gaeltachta, (Irish radio) watch TG4 (Irish TV channel), and I even teach Irish classes online. A lot of effort to stay connected to my roots but as I mentioned it’s part of who I am. 

It’s a beautiful language, one of the oldest in the  Indo-European Language Family. It is one of three along with Scots Gaelic and Manx, that make up the Goidelic (Gaelic) branch of the Celtic Languages. It is one of the 23 official languages of the European Union and is the official First Language of the Republic of Ireland. 

Modern Irish uses the Latin alphabet without the letters j, k, q, w, x, y, and z, though these are often used in newer words that have migrated from English into the language. The acute accent, known as the síneadh fada is used to lengthen the vowel sounds. Séimhiús (lenition) and urús (eclipses) are used to indicate different grammatical relationships between nouns, verbs and adjectives.