Plastic paddy

THE

FILES

As Béarla ---> As Gaeilge

My journey learning the Irish Language

About me

As a boy born of an Irish mother and English father - it seems I was destined to be confused! I grew up 20 miles north of London in Welwyn Garden City. My mum always tried to instill a love of Irish culture in me and my brother to the point where we vacationed yearly to Ireland, we listened to Irish country music in the house and took Irish Dance classes weekly. Many weekends were spent for me as an Irish Dancer at local, national and sometimes international competitions. With mum. She loved to watch me dance.

My brother decided that Irish Dance wasn’t for him after a year but I carried on - to the point where I became very good at it. The ‘underground’ Irish Dance scene in London was a fascinating journey of culture, competition and socialization. Even though mum had been fluent in Irish until she moved to England at the age of 13, she never really spoke the language again. But I was aware of it in various ways through the Irish Dance scene, the singing of the national anthem at the shamrock club on Saturday nights (after an evening of Irish show bands and waltzing with mum). So I was exposed to the language a little.

The next step of my journey took me across the world traveling and dancing with both Riverdance and Lord of the Dance (I told you I was good at it!) In those companies there was access to a little more Irish with friends who spoke the language. I learned my cúpla focail (few words) as gaeilge (in Irish) during that magnificent time of my life. The problem I faced growing up and into adulthood was that I wasn’t Irish enough for the Irish, and too Irish for the English. A ‘Plastic Paddy’ as it’s sometimes called. And although to some I’m the most Irish of Englishmen that they’ve met it’s still a confusing place to be!

Now that I’m in my 50’s (that happened so quickly) I’m not too concerned about labeling myself as anything anymore but I’ve always had a hankering to learn the Irish language. Living in America for the past twenty odd years has been amazing and the opportunities are wonderful but many Americans aren’t even aware that there is a separate and very distinct language in Ireland.

So, here we are! I signed up for a 14 week beginners class through the Irish Railroad Workers (info here) and my journey starts in earnest.

I decided to document my journey so that I have a record of either my failure or my growth!

So céad míle fáilte (a hundred thousand welcomes) to the Plastic Paddy Files.

HEAD EXPLOSION 🤯

It’s overwhelming when starting to learn a new language! A fire hose of information comes at you and all you can do is dutifully listen and repeat. Understanding very little! Ugh. We started with saying hello. Dia dhuit (dee-a gwitch or dJee-a qwitch) A discussion around the Irish alphabet and pronunciation then followed! For the sake of understanding I will put my interpretation of the phonetic pronunciation in parentheses. But remember to consider how that sounds in an Irish accent. And please remember … I’m a beginner at this and trying my best to get it right!

There are 3 main dialects of Irish: Connacht - considered to be the ‘standard,’ Ulster and Munster. Each with their own unique ways of saying words. Bear in mind that any Irish accent, from any of the counties, cities, towns or villages may alter the sound of words! Fascinatingly, the traditional Irish alphabet has 18 letters which it uses to express over 40 different sounds. See below for more info!

All the rules! Yikes 😩

What I learned from the class was just to keep trying out word sounds over and over until it makes sense.

A couple of resources I was given and some I found were …

App - EASY IRISH

FORVO.COM - type in a word and if it’s in there will have one or more people pronouncing it.

FOCLOR.IE Irish/English Dictionary

TEANGLANN Irish/English Dictionary

GOOGLE TRANSLATE - basic but very user friendly