Gaeilge na Mí

Ní bhaineann an t-alt seo le Ráth Chairn nó Baile Ghibb, ach leis an nGaeilge a bhíodh á labhairt i gContae na Mí go stairiúil.

Is ón leabhar Gaelic Dialect in East and Mid-Leinster (1933) le Donn Piatt a tháinig na habairtí thíos.

Tá go leor eolais bailithe maidir le Gaeilge na Mí agus tá súil agam níos mó de a fhoilsiú amach anseo.
Dúirt Piatt gur tháinig na habairtí seo ó fhear darbh ainm P. Fagan, agus go bhfuair seisean iad óna athair Séamas 'ac Áogáin.
Scríobh Piatt an méid seo faoi;
"Séamas 'ac Aogáin, from whom these phrases were taken, died in 1929. He was born and lived at Churchtown, near Robertstown, Trim, and his birth registered at the parish church in Dunderry. His father, also a native speaker, died in 1907."

Gaeilge Ultach a bhí aige gan amhras ach an rud is spéisiúla faoi ná gur mar 'ch' scornúil a dúradh 'th' in 'maith' agus 'dóthain.'

"Bhfuil sé ag fearthainn" (Will she farann) 'e' in 'met'.
"Sin praiseach" (Shin presheh) 'e' in 'met'.
"Bhí mé ag cúl a'ráithín" (Vee meh eh cool a raheen)
"Fuair mé boltarán buí" (Foor meh boltarawn bweeyeh)
"Caidé mar a tá tú" (Go kay m'ata tuh) 'u' short.
"Tú an gasún maith" (Tú an gawson myc'h)
"Tú an ghirseach mhaith" (Tú'n gherrsheh wyc'h) Final 'th' of 'maith' pronounced as a guttural 'ch.'
"Bhí gearrán mór aige" (Vee garron more aige)
"Chuaigh sé na Bóthar Buí" (Fooie she/sha an Bawhur Bweeyeh). (Bóthar Buí=Enfield).
"Tchím madadh dubh" (Cheem mawdoo doo)
"Tá tae mo dhóthain agam" (Ta tae mo ghorc'han agam) ch guttural.
"Go raibh muid slán folláin n' am seo arís" (Go row)

Kal meh (I ate)
Praeta-Potato
Casóg (Cawsog) 'og' as in 'dog'
Ciotóg (Kithoge) acc on first syllable. 'Oge' as 'og' in 'dog.'

Tá tuilleadh eolais maidir le Gaeilge na Mí ar fáil ó na foinsí seo agus tá súil agam roinnt den ábhar a chur ar an mblag seo amach anseo.

Gaedhilg na Midhe, An tUltach 14:7
(8/1937) Lch 5, le Donn Piatt.
Giotaí de Ghaeilg dhúchasach na Midhe, An
tUltach 29:6 (6/1952) Lgh 11-12, le Donn Piatt.
Gaeilge na Mí, An tUltach 44, uimh. 9, Meán Fómhair 1967, Lgh 9–10, le Donn Piatt.
An 'Ghaoluinn' i dtuaisceart Átha Cliath, An tUltach 10:4 (06/1933) Lgh 2-3 (Co na Midhe), le Donn Piatt.
Gaeilg na Midhe, Ríocht na Midhe 2, Uimhir 1, 1959, Lgh 61–62, le Maighréad Uí Chonmhidhe.
A south Meath glossary, Ríocht na Midhe 2, Uimhir 2, 1960, Lgh 69–72; 2, Uimhir 3, 1961 Lgh 57–59, le Margaret Conway.
Canúint na Mí, Studia Hibernica 31, le Nicholas Williams.
The Leinster dialect, An Claidheamh Soluis 12:40
(10/12/1910) 21; 12:43 (31/12/1910) 5-6; 12:48 (4/2/1911) 5-6, le Seosamh Laoide.

Tá liosta níos cuimsithí ag Ciarán Ó Duibhín ag www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/~oduibhin/oirthear/biblio.txt agus is cinnte go bhféadfaí  saothar mór a dhéanamh ar Ghaeilge na Mí dá mbailleofaí an t-ábhar uilig le chéile.

Tá liosta d’fhoinsí a bhaineann le Gaeilge Laighean ar fáil ag an nasc seo.

http://bill.celt.dias.ie/vol3/classifications.php?ClassificationID=139

“That’s just to show that I’m not a bigot” An interview about Irish with Cllr. Robin Stirling of the TUV

Recently I had the chance to speak to Robin Stirling, a councillor with the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) on Ballymena Borough Council, about his views on the Irish language.
Councillor Stirling proposed a motion in the council at the start of the month condemning funding given by the British government to Irish language broadcasting in the North.
The motion was passed after an amendment by the DUP, the three nationalists on the council, two SDLP and one SF, voted against it and the UUP abstained.
We published the interview in Lá Nua last Friday but here is what he had to say.
Councillor Stirling has two reasons for objecting to money being spent on Irish, one he believes it’s a waste because the the revival of the language is a ‘mission impossible,’ the second is the link he sees between the Irish language and Irish identity.
He also gave some unprompted views on concerns he has about immigration to the Republic and the North at the end of the interview.

“I’m very fond of the South of Ireland but I’ve never heard Irish being spoken there, I’ve asked people in shops in Dublin if they spoke Irish and they said no and in fact one woman had very negative view of it due to her experiences in school.
“The South had over 80 years to revive the language and has failed.
“They had a clear field, there was no minority to oppose it, but it was a mission impossible, and there’s no point in wasting money on an impossible mission.
“Why should we be funding a language that will never get off the ground?
“I studied French and can understand a good bit of it but I’m not looking for public money to be spent on it.”
Some have argued that Irish should receive support in Northern Ireland, the same as Welsh and Scottish Gaelic do from the British Government, and that Unionists are in fact adopting an anti-British approach in their opposition to Irish.
Did Councillor Stirling agree Irish should be treated the same as indigenous languages in other parts of the UK?
“That would presume that I agree with funding for those languages too,” he said.
“I’ve holidayed in Wales on many occasions and I’ve never heard Welsh being spoken.
“No one would argue that English is the main language of these islands and instead of spending money on other languages we should be making certain that people have a good level of English.”
During the debate in Ballymena Council Councillor Stirling mentioned the famous “every word of Irish learned is like a bullet in the struggle for freedom” line said by someone in Sinn Féin in the early 1980s.
I asked him did he himself believe that this ‘word-bullet’ theory was true but I couldn’t get an answer out of him, nor to the question of how exactly Unionists would be forced against their will into a United Ireland even if every Nationalist in Northern Ireland spoke Irish.
(In hindsight I could have asked him about the British Army's own Royal Irish Regiment's Irish language motto but I probably wouldn't have gotten a straight answer to that either).
When I asked him did he see a link between the Irish language and Irish identity his answer was “no doubt I do” and he also agreed that the language was a badge or symbol of Irishness and that this was part of the reason for his opposition to it.
“I don’t see the Irish language in a vacuum, it’s part of an assault on the Unionist community.
“Our attitude is that the Irish language is identified with the push for a United Ireland.
“Unfortunately due to the capitulation of the DUP we will see our English, British culture supplanted by Irish culture which I find anathema.”
I suggested that he was implying that British culture and English culture were the same thing but he didn’t answer that.
I also suggested that Irish could be viewed as a part of British culture if Unionists wanted, as it was a native language of part of the UK. 
Councillor Stirling’s answer to this was that he disputed the fact that Irish is a native language of Northern Ireland.
“It’s identified with those who used the bomb and bullet and with the Republic that gave refuge to those who used violence.”
When I pointed out the fact that British opposition to the Irish language predates the Troubles and goes as far back as the Middle Ages, Councillor Stirling said that “we can’t analyse the past but it’s a fact that a nation that would conquer another nation would attempt to supplant the culture that was there before.
“The thing people don’t understand is that we oppose a United Ireland because we feel we would be mistreated the same way as Protestants in the South were with draconian laws, I don’t believe the South is a democracy or has ever been a democracy, it’s been run by the people who came out of Maynooth.
“If there had been a United Ireland there would have been an attempt to supplant the culture and religion of the community here.”
He then asked me where I was from and when I told him I was from Dublin he said “if I were from Dublin I’d be tremendously worried about the influx of immigrants there.
“If you bring in a sufficient number of people you dilute the culture that’s there already.
“I’d prefer the purity of Irish nationalism or republicanism to what is coming.
“I was in Connolly station recently and saw three coloureds smoking even though there was sign saying no smoking.”
When I pointed out that many Irish people break no-smoking rules he said “I know if I was in another country I would obey the laws of that country.”
He also said that “we’ve a terrible problem (in the North) with people from far off places driving cars without tax or insurance.”
He then told me the reason he wanted to enlighten me about his views on immigration; “That’s just to show that I’m not a bigot.”

End game in Iraq

Barack Obama will have lots of problems to deal with when he takes office in America. The biggest foreign issue is Iraq, but this will in fact be one of the simpler ones to extricate the US from.
The end game in Iraq is approaching and could be over in two years.
The reason for this relates to the most powerful group in Iraq. It's not the US, Al Queda, the insurgents or Iran, it's the Shia population who make up 60% of the population.
The politicians they've elected want the US troops out by 2011 and Obama couldn't do much about that even if he wanted to keep them in Iraq in the long term.
The insurgents in Iraq have killed and seriously injured thousands of US troops since 2003, and they only had the active support of the Sunni community, 20% of the total population.
If the Shia rose up against the occupation the US troops would be driven out in no time.
George Bush had a straightforward plan when he launched his invasion, the US was going to appoint a government (http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0122-06.htm) and they were going to rubber stamp a new constitution described as a 'capitalist's dream' by the Economist (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4417759.stm), which would allow the privatisation of all state companies, including the state oil company.
Then he was hoping that the Iraqis would vote for his yes-men, like Iyad Allawi, in elections after the constitution was enacted.
But when the Shia religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, said the plan wasn't acceptable, the US had to accept what he said.
You would have to be pretty daft to think the Iraqi people would accept this sham arrangement, especially when you recall how George Bush I stabbed the Shia population in the back after the first Gulf War when he allowed Saddam Hussein to kill thousands of them after he urged them to overthrow the dictator.
You would have to be a complete lunatic, like George Bush II, to launch an invasion on the belief that the Iraqi people would accept a US installed constitution and a permanent occupation.
With the Iraqi government wanting the US soldiers out by 2011 Obama will probably let on that he has done a deal with them to bring the boys home, but it won't be his choice, it will be the choice of the Iraqi people.

An vótálfadh muidne ar son Taoiseach Afracach-Éireannach?

Tá ardmholadh tuilte ag muintir Mheiriceá anois go bhfuil Uachtarán Afracach-Méiriceánach tofa acu. Ceist atá agam ná an vótáladh muidne ar son Taoiseach Afracach-Éireannach*, ie, duine Éireannach le sinsir ón Afraic?
Dá n-aontóinn le polasaithe an duine agus páirtí s'acu tá's agam go gcaitheann vóta ar a son nó ar a shon, gan amhras ar bith.
Ní fheicimse fáth nach vótálfainn mar sin agus is amhlaidh a bheadh sé le ceannaire baineann nó ceannaire ó aon chúlra eile.

Sílim gurb é an t-aon leithscéal a bheadh ag daoine ciníochacha le cur in éadan duine Éireannach ó chúlra Afracach ná sa go cás go bhfuair tuistí s'acu tearmann anseo go bréagach, bheidís ag cur an milleán ar an bpáiste i leith peacaí na sinsear.

(*Níl an gineadach ar 'Taoiseach Afracach-Éireannach' ar eolas agam, 'ar son Taoisigh Afracaigh-Éireannaigh'?)