Comment by Rónán Gearóid Ó Domhnaill on August 11, 2013 at 3:49pm

I fail to see how you cold see Mountbatten as a friend of Ireland. He saw the Paddies much like he did the Indians- as inferior to him. I cannot recall him being active in peace talks or singing that Beatle song 'Give Ireland back to the Irish'. Did he buy his Irish property or was it 'acquired' when the wild Irish were driven away? There are still Irish people in the republic paying rent to absentee English landlords who were 'granted' the land centuries previously.

Comment by Ryan O'Rourke on August 11, 2013 at 3:58pm

Mickey, I'm glad you're here as a member on The Wild Geese (really, I am), but based on what you've said in this discussion, the celebration of Irish heritage and history on this site (and scores of others) is just a bunch of nonsense since we're all just really Brits anyhow. 

Comment by Ryan O'Rourke on August 11, 2013 at 4:05pm

And Mickey, I'd just ask you to watch the videos of the teenagers exuberantly using the Irish language (which is far older than the English tongue, by the way).  Nothing about these videos says "British" to me.  Not one bit.  I've been to Britain, and it looks nothing like this.

Comment by Rónán Gearóid Ó Domhnaill on August 11, 2013 at 4:05pm

it can be hard to have an Irish identity in Ireland as we are sandwiched between the US and GB, from where the many get their influences. Sadly, many Irish cannot look to Europe. In fairness to him, there are Irish people who hate Britain, yet support Man U, watch Only English TV shows and read only English tabloids.

Comment by Rónán Gearóid Ó Domhnaill on August 11, 2013 at 4:12pm

in fairness these kids lovingly embrace the Irish language for three weeks; after all the craic is mighty there and first romances are found and lost, but then they return to the Galltacht and only speak English. You have Seachtain na GAeilge, a week where the Irish language and culture is promoted, but after that you are expected to return to 'normal'. 

Comment by Ryan O'Rourke on August 11, 2013 at 4:15pm

True, Rónán, but my main point here is that the younger generations do not echo Mickey's sentiments about the language en masse.  Large numbers of them are quite enthusiastic about embracing Ireland's first official language.  Tell you what ... every person who takes it upon themselves to learn a little (or a load) of Irish is little by little reversing the tide of what the English set into motion about 400 years ago (i.e. the dismantling of Irish identity).

Comment by Rónán Gearóid Ó Domhnaill on August 11, 2013 at 4:28pm

If Irish is the first official language as our constitution does indeed state then Magán was in the wrong country:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyll-bBZzyk 

attitudes have become more positive

I think the influx of foreigners has changed things for the better. In the eighties Irish people were more insecure. These days you hear all manner of languages and its easier to speak Irish. Its still a language with baggage. Some people feel that if you speak Irish you must hate English. Others stress that the Irish language is an important part of their identity yet only ever manage to learn a few words.    

Irish like Ireland is  a mass of contradictions.

Comment by Alannah Ryane on August 11, 2013 at 4:32pm

Little off topic but there is a growing interest in Ogham I am studying fast as I can in prep for my druid circle and groves quest in the locations I will be in. Anyone well versed in it here?

Gaeilgeoir Comment by Bernie Joyce on August 11, 2013 at 5:15pm

http://www.meoneile.ie/ailt/an-t%C3%B3stal-ar-ais-ar-bh%C3%B3thair-...

 The site above is about what goes on around the country through out the year in the Gaeltachts. I have no problem with a black person taking up our language or culture and it is open to interpretation. If a culture stays the same it becomes stagnant and boring. There is room for the old and new. If you do want to look at the past turn your eye to art history and see how the Egyptians culture stayed the same for over 3,000 years. You would be hard pushed to see a difference between the different Dynasties apart from Arkhenaten and his son Tutankhamun. On the other hand The Impresstionists wanted to brake away from the rigid academic style of their day and from them abstract, cubism, expressionism and many more art movements were born. When the Roman Empire left Britain their was chaos and it was the Irish monks that came over with their religion, manuscripts and tecknowledgy that lead to the Anglo Saxons to develop it as part of their own culture.Learn from the past but get over it, what is done is done. 

Comment by mickey mcadden on August 11, 2013 at 9:49pm

A very sad result of the mis-education that still poisons the minds of young people in Ireland.

"the English set out to destroy the Irish identity"; " Mountbatten saw the Paddies..."

Which side of the bed are you dreaming on?

I am not going to dignify such arrid rubbish with a response.

But I will suggest to you that the Gaelic language isn't the only language of ancient Hibernia.

It, like the people who brought it in, is an import.

As for the spoiled kids in your language school, not one of them is the child of a family in need, nor of a family waiting  visas to Australia. That might help explain the need for spoiled rich kids having a special school to learn the lingo of the banana republic dreamers.

But being realistic this dream is the nightmare that brought Ireland to the sad debt impasse it enjoys today.

And the language itself has deteriorated into a system of toothless gestures that root its past in an ever aging population suffering bad dental hygiene and unhealthy diet, with a syntax like preBerber grunting. Utterly lost and gone for ever. There is even a topic taught here in the USA called Old Irish. Apparantly it has some of the beauty of modern Welsh ( Cwmraig ). Modern Irish like  C.C.E. inspired music has no soul because the body is rotted away from disease and abuse.

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