Gradaim Ghlór na nGael
Do you recognise the line:
"A Uachtaráin, a dhaoine uaisle, a chairde go léir, is mór an onóir dom an corn seo a ghlacadh ar son foireann na Gaillimhe"
"President, ladies and gentlemen, friends, it's a great honour for me to accept this cup on behalf of the Galway team".
Okay, it might be a few years since a Galway captain said it, but some variation of the above is said on All Ireland final day in Páirc an Chrócaigh / Croke Park every year.
I was going to use a variation of the above when accepting my Irish language business award at Croke Park earlier this week ;-)
"A Uachtaráin, a dhaoine uaisle, a chairde go léir, is mór an onóir dom an gradam seo a ghlacadh agus é a thabhairt abhaile trasna na Sionainne."
"President, ladies and gentlemen, friends, it is a great honour for me to accept this award and to bring it home across the Shannon."
It wasn't to be however as the only speaker on the occasion was M.C., Sineád Ní Uallacháin, who did a fantastic job presenting the awards to business owners from all over Ireland.
Now go make yourself a nice cupán tae, and settle in for a bit of a read as this blog is longer than usual.
I did have three hours to think on the train back to Galway from Dublin after all!
Gradaim Ghlór na nGael | The Glór na nGael Awards
The Irish language organisation Glór na nGael presents awards each year to recognise businesses which promote the use of Irish and this year All About Irish was awarded a gold award for service through Irish; and a bronze award in the marketing category.
Cúis Mhachnaimh | A Reason to Reflect
The award ceremony was a really gorgeous occasion (despite the disappointment of not getting to deliver my carefully crafted speech) and a chance to meet other Irish language business owners.
The awards gave me a reason to reflect on All About Irish, on how it started, and where it's at now.
On the train aniar as Baile Átha Cliath / heading home from Dublin I pondered two questions....
What exactly is All About Irish, and what is different about it?
I came up with the following answer:
All About Irish is a unique three part method for learning Irish, honed in the west of Ireland on the shores of Galway Bay!
The three parts of the method are:
1. Structure
2. Sounds
3. ExpoSure (I can't think of any suitable word beginning with 's'!)
This method didn't come about overnight however and to understand how each of the three parts came together ultimately it might be best to start at the beginning!
An Tús | The Start
I am a state certified Irish language translator and have spent time working at the EU Commission in Brussels.
A number of years ago after I returned to Ireland from Belgium I was asked to teach Irish to an adult evening class. I was given the materials and told what to teach. The students were extremely enthusiastic and really wanted to improve their Irish. In general, they understood quite a lot of Irish. The difficulty was, despite knowing lots of words, they had great difficulty putting the words together in the right order, and had little confidence in their ability to speak Irish.
The material I had been given was topic based - lots of new phrases and vocabulary based on different topics. I realised pretty quickly that going through this material would be of some benefit - it would increase vocabulary, but it was doing very little to solve the problem of not understanding HOW the language worked; the nuts and bolts of the language; and the ways in which Irish is completely different to English.
I decided to leave the materials I had been given ar leataobh / to one side and decided to focus instead on teaching the STRUCTURE of the language.
1. Struchtúr na Gaeilge | The Structure of Irish
If I had told the students at the start of the course that I was going to teach them the structure of the language for 8 solid weeks I think I might have had a mass exodus!
This is because of the bad rap the teaching of Irish grammar has got for years.
(I use the word 'structure' instead of 'grammar' sometimes, in a cunning effort to offset the feelings the word 'grammar' can provoke in many people!)
Learning grammar is incorrectly perceived as difficult, and I often hear things like:
'I don't want to learn grammar, I just want to speak Irish.'
(To my mind, that is like saying 'I don't want to do laps of the pitch, I just want to run a marathon.')
It doesn't work like that!
Anyway, getting sidetracked...
grammar is just a scary word for 'patterns'.
Grammar is a description of the patterns of a language, and knowing the patterns of a language is a shortcut!
Focal scoir
A final word about structure/grammar/patterns...
the goal is not to know every minute little detail and every exception to every grammatical rule. The goal is only to have a solid understanding of the basics of the structure of the language in order to dispel the confusion caused by having no understanding at all about how the language works.
2. Fuaimniú na Gaeilge | The Sounds of Irish
When teaching this first evening class I also discovered quite quickly that many of the students didn't have a good grasp of the sound system of Irish. For example there was no distinction in sound between: 'Cuir ansin é' (Put it there) and 'Chuir mé ansin é' (I put it there); or between 'bád' (a boat) and 'báid' (boats).
The Dialect Question
I also came up rather quickly with a new challenge, and that was how to deal with the issue of the different dialects when teaching Irish.
There are three main dialects of Irish: Ulster Irish; Connacht Irish and Munster Irish, and certain sounds and words can vary between the dialects.
Having some awareness of dialects is essential otherwise a learner might hear a different pronunciation to what they have learned and incorrectly assume that the way they have been saying something is 'wrong!'
All About Irish was always going to be predominantly based on Connacht Irish, given that I myself have Connacht Irish.
At the same time I knew that it was important to make sure that courses contained lots of comparison between the dialects and that learners would become familiar with the correct sounds of the language, is cuma faoin gcanúint / regardless of the dialect!
3. ExpoSure
For want of a word beginning with 's' I will go with 'expoSure' as the third pillar of the All About Irish method for now.
I discovered that despite students now understanding the Structure and Sounds of the language one more element was required:
Repetition!
There really are no shortcuts when learning a language. The amount of repetition required before the elements of a language become ingrained and available for automatic recall is off the scale!
I was sometimes disappointed that students might have a great understanding of how the language works, but still weren't as fluent as I would have hoped. This is where I discovered that I needed to step away! Sometimes all that is needed is time. More language input and more time! This is done by reading and listening to as much Irish as possible.
The final piece of the jigsaw!
I started to encourage students to read more in Irish at their level; to watch more Irish language TV and to listen to more Irish.
Ag dul ar líne | Going online
Having started to develop my own method I wanted to make it available and in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, I launched my first online class. By then I had a fairly ugly website (not the slick website I have today ;-) ), and for whatever daft reason, I thought that using pictures of airplanes would be a good marketing ploy.
I launched 3 x 4 week programmes in September 2020 called:
1. On Board
2. Up and Away
3. Cruising
Yes, pictures, of airplanes when no one was able to travel. Céard a bhí ar intinn agam? What was I thinking?
I published the courses and waited.
The following day I couldn't believe it when Éamonn, in the States, had purchased all three courses!
I literally couldn't believe it!
I had thought people might just buy the first one, and then if they liked it they might move on to the next one.
'This is a great sign,' I thought, 'this is going to fly!' (excuse the pun).
However, that was it.
Crickets.
Nothing.
Tada.
A week went by.
The course was due to start in just one week, and so far it was only going to be myself and Éamonn.
And then, just as I was about to give up hope Brian from Ennis signed up; followed by Brian in California; Bernie in Galway; there were a couple of last minute sign ups and with that the courses were full steam ahead!
I think back to that initial group and wonder how they stuck it!
I was like a sergeant major, I was so determined that they would learn!
The classes would run over time. They were sent detailed notes and piles of obair bhaile / homework.
And yet they came back.
We were 'up and away', and before you knew it we were indeed 'cruising'!
The group wanted to keep going, and so I made a fourth course 'Practice makes Perfect'.
Needless to say, I have to thank those initial students who kept turning up week after week during the winter of 2020.
They gave me the muinín / the confidence I needed to continue!
Seal in Barcelona | A Spell in Barcelona
After the pandemic I had itchy feet and decided to spend a few months in Barcelona where some friends of mine are living.
While I was there I met another Irish speaker, Joe Ó Fátharta, from Indreabhán, Co. Galway. Joe is a graduate of Irish studies and very knowledgeable on everything to do with Irish literature and poetry.
One of the greatest pleasures of learning a language is getting to know the poetry and literature in that language. For most of my learners, however, the idea of tackling Irish language poetry and literature on their own was very daunting. Myself and Joe decided to make a course which would combine my teaching method and Joe's literary knowledge. The concept proved a great success. As one student living in Canada said "realistically I'm not learning the language to be able to order a cup of coffee in Irish. I mean I can do that in English, but learning the language so that I can access the literature and poetry of the language is special and is a really rewarding experience."
Joe's narrations were described as 'frankly irresistible' and the Learn Irish Through Literature course was so rewarding that we decided to collaborate again on another course. Poetry this time!
As so many people use the language to reconnect with Ireland, or their ancestry, or indeed themselves we decided that 'Fill Arís / Return Again' was the appropriate name for the learn Irish Through Poetry course.
Gaeilge i nGaillimh | Irish in Galway
While it's great to teach online there is something extra special about teaching in person, and helping to increase the use of the Irish language in the west of Ireland.
Being based in Galway city has given All About Irish many opportunities, from participating in the first ever Irish language Tonnta festival in February 2024 to teaching for local organisations Gaeilge ABC in Knockncarra and An Bruach Thoir on the east side of Galway city; and teaching in-house at the Marine Institute and with GRETB (Galway Roscommon Education Training Board).
And that is finally one of the things that makes All About Irish different...
All About Irish is firmly rooted in the west of Ireland on the edge of Cuan na Gaillimhe / Galway Bay!
Céart atá le teacht? | What's to come?
Sin í an cheist! That's the question!
I will have to take another trip soon to give me space for some more machnamh / reflection on what might be next for All About Irish.
Bealach amháin nó bealach eile / one way or the other I am very happy and proud that All About Irish has now taught Irish to hundreds of people in Ireland and all over the world, and getting the gradam / award from Glór na nGael was a great way to mark that achievement!
