Language
The two official languages in The Republic of Ireland are Irish, which is the national language, and English. Irish is a Celtic language, closely related to Scottish Gaelic and Welsh. Ireland was a Gaelicspeaking nation until the 16th century. Today however, The Republic is officially bilingual, but only 32.5% of adults claim to have a knowledge of the language, and only 71 000 speaks it as their daily language. It is the principal language mainly in county Galway and Donegal on the west coast seaboard.
Almost all road signs have place names both in English and Irish, but now and then you may find signs written only in Irish. You can also find that radio and television use both languages.
The traditional Irish greeting Céad míle fáilte means "A hundred thousand welcomes." However, the Irish greet one another with common English phrases such as "Hello" and "How are you?" The most typical Gaelic greeting is Dia dhuit, which means "God be with you." Goodbye is expressed with Slán (roughly "Go safely") or the warmer Slán agus beannacht.
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Useful words in Irish: fáilte - welcome |
Some English-Irish words you will here in Ireland:
Craic - (pronounced crack) fun time and good conversation
Culchie - a city dweller's name for a country person
Fry - fried breakfast (typically sausage, bacon, eggs and pudding)
| Howya - "how are you?" - typical greeting Jackeen - a culchie's name for a Dubliner Chipper - fish and chip shop Da - father Deadly - very cool Dear - expensive Eejit - idiot Brutal - terrible Gas - funny Grand - fine, nice Bold - naughty Guard - policeman Holliers - holidays! Knackered - very tired Lashing - raining hard The Local - the nearest pub Ma - mother Pictures - movies Rashers - pieces of bacon Wrecked - tired |
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Literature
If Ireland is famous for anything else than "the trobles" in the North, it must be the many writers from the country. They have raised s everal Nobel Prize Winners, like Samuel Beckett, G.B. Shaw and W. B. Yeats. But the most famous Irish writer is probably James Joyce. You can find one of the only writers museum in the world in Dublin. And in the pubs where these writers used to go, you can see pictures of them. The Irish writers are known for beeing ironic. Like a faomus Irishman said when he heard his enemies were sick: It's serious, I hope?
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James Joyce (1882 - 1941) He was born in Dublin, but spent most of his life in Europa. He used Dublin as the setting for all his major works like Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses |
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The Children of Lir
Once upon a time there lived a handsome Monarch called King Lir. His beautiful Queen and four hearty children loved him dearly and they were blessed with happiness. All was well until one sad day, the Queen fell ill and shortly afterwards, died. Sadness descended upon the castle as the children pined for thei r beloved mother and the King sank further and further into gloom. He decided he would have to remedy the situation and take another wife. He met and married Aoife, who was to become his second wife after a short courtship. Aoife soon became jealous of the King's children because of his powerful love for them. Determined to get rid of them, she invoked the help of an evil druid who taught her how to cast a spell, which could only be broken by the sound of a church bell.
| One day as the children played by the lakeside, Aoife pulled a magic wand from her robe and cast her terrible spell. In a flash, the children disappeared to be replaced by four beautiful white swans. "Oh what have you done to us?" came a frightened little girl's voice from one of the swans. "I have cast a spell and turned you into swans. Now your father will be mine and mine alone! You will spend the rest of your lives on the lake." The swans huddled together and cried softly. Later in the evening, when his children failed to return home, the King went to look for them by the lake. "Father father" the swans cried out, swimming towards him "Aoife has cast a terrible spell over us and turned us into swans." The King stroked their feathers sadly and vowed to break the spell. He returned to the c astle and begged Aoife to return his children but she steadfastly refused. In an instant, he realised the true nature of her character and banished her forever from his kingdom. |  |
One day as the children played by the lakeside, Aoife pulled a
magic wand from her robe and cast her terrible spell. In a flash, the children disappeared
to be replaced by four beautiful white swans. "Oh what have you done to us?"
came a frightened little girl's voice from one of the swans. "I have cast a spell and
turned you into swans. Now your father will be mine and mine alone! You will spend the
rest of your lives on the lake." The swans huddled together and cried softly. Later
in the evening, when his children failed to return home, the King went to look for them by
the lake. "Father father" the swans cried out, swimming towards him "Aoife
has cast a terrible spell over us and turned us into swans." The King stroked their
feathers sadly and vowed to break the spell. He returned to the c astle and begged Aoife
to return his children but she steadfastly refused. In an instant, he realised the true
nature of her character and banished
her forever from his kingdom.
A reward was offered to anyone who could break the spell but as
the weeks tur ned into months, it became clear that nobody knew how. Day after day, the
King would visit his children by the lake and spend hours chatting to them until one day,
he didn't show up. The swans knew that something was wrong and flew to the castle, which
th ey found shrouded in a cloud of grief. The King, their beloved father had died
suddenly. The poor swans retreated to the lake and cried long into the night.
The following day they set off to join the funeral cortege, walking in a row behind the long line of mourners. As the funeral prosession wound its way towards the Castle Church, a bell from the Church tower rang out through the crisp air. Before the astonished eyes of the mourners, the swans changed into children and began to grow old beneath the mid- day sun. They were frightened and held each other closely. A druid emerged from the crowd and told them not to be afraid. He sprinkled holy water as they stumbled to the ground, passing peacefully away to the next world. That night, as the King's subjects slept soundly in their beds, they dreamt they saw four swans flying overhead to the heavens to join King Lir and his beautiful Queen forever.
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