But I wasn’t recommending whiskey, I was calling you by a racial epithet!
::badoom-tish::
What’s your favourite Irish joke?
I thought all Irish spoke in limericks.
It’s hardly racial is it?
What’s the difference between an Irish wedding and an Irish funeral?
One less drunk.
(At the funeral of course teeheeheeh)
No we don’t speak in limericks or Limerick unless we absolutely have to.
It would be considered insulting over here, you Mick.
Well if a Sasanach bastard calls me it it might annoy me but it’s still not a racial epithet.
I had been wondering what Dingy Alley was up to since Fat Actress. 
Then you’re not as drunk as I thought you were. 
Next time England are playing rugby you can cheer the opposition all you like. And, since England have more World Cups and more World Cup finals than all the Celtic nations put together - and we’ll give you France as a make-weight, too - you can suck my dick as an encore.
Malacandra, I thought you were a woman!!
Alas, it seems hundreds of years of subjugation doesn’t make for the best sports teams.
Have you ever met sweet Molly Malone?
Does your mother come from Ireland?
Who really got rid of the snakes? St.Patrick or Brian Boru
Amen to Paddy’s! My missus is going home to see her mum this coming weekend (North County Dublin as well, An Gadaí, but I don’t think in your neck of the woods – she’s a bit south of Swords), and she asked, “Want me to bring back anything for you?” I opened my mouth and she amended, “Besides Paddy’s, of course!”
For some reason, I only drink Powers when I have a cold & want to make a hot whiskey to take to bed with me.
How living is the Irish language? You chose a username in Irish; how familiar are you really with the language, or use it in your life? Is it the kind of thing where you’re expected to be able to take out a few practiced Irish phrases for special occasions, but wouldn’t choose to (or wouldn’t be able to find the words to) talk about sports, gossip about friends, order food at a restaurant or demand a salary raise in Irish?
I used to work with someone from Ireland who went to a bilingual/immersion Gaelic language school all throughout his childhood, and said he was pretty fluent in Irish. To test him, I once found a website that listed all sorts of insults in various languages, and I challenged him to translate not the Irish insults but the (Scots) Gaelic ones. He did pretty well, so I guess he was a success story of the program(me). At the same time, being an ex-pat in NYC, he’s hardly contributing to the reviving of the language in Ireland.
Not to say that should be anyone’s primary concern in life, but I always find it somewhat surprising that even though one of the stated goals of the founders of the Irish State over 80 years ago was to revive the use of Irish in Ireland, there has been at best only moderate gains on this front according to most articles I’ve read. In contrast, the state of Israel was founded more recently, yet has managed to raise generations of native speakers of Hebrew, which has been made a modern, living language again after hundreds of years of being a scholarly language of study.
Only seen Molly’s statue at the end of Grafton St. in Dublin.
My mother does come from Ireland
St. Patrick got rid of the snakes or so he claimed.
How odd. I’ve refuted that particular piece of ignorance several times.
My sympathies - I suppose Argentina kicking Ireland’s sorry backside out of the World Cup was the fault of the Famine. :rolleyes:
I’m from Swords
In parts of the Gaeltacht Irish is a living language. Outside of the Gaeltacht in Dublin and in parts of Northern Ireland Irish is spoken fluently amongst certain groups. In Dublin it would be media types, arty types and Irish republicans mainly who speak the language. The average man or woman on the street would not really be able to speak Irish or would be too embarrassed too. I hear far more Polish, Arabic, French and Chinese spoken in my normal working day than I ever will Irish.
There is a significant and increasing trend for Gaelscoileanna in the Republic of Ireland where children are schooled to age 12 or 13 through the medium of the Irish language. Secondary (High school) education in this sector isn’t as developed but will presumably be in the future when there’s more demand for it. There’s Irish language radio (Raidio Na Gaeltachta, Raidio na Liffe and others) and Irish language television, TG4 where I’d say about 60% of the shows are in the Irish language. This channel annoys me a bit as it tends to subtitle in English as standard. I would prefer if they subtitled in Irish or had the subtitles as an option.
Irish will continue as a minority, hobby language probably for the foreseeable future but it’ll soon be somewhat like Latin in that it will be spoken but not be a typical language of communication.
Personally I’m only barely passable in Irish. I know alot more Irish than most of my peers but would not be too comfortable speaking it with a native speaker. I can translate the Irish name of most places into English. I enjoy some Irish poetry and can sing one or two songs *as gaeilge * (with alot of practice!).
I attended an Irish college in the Gaeltacht for 3 weeks at a time for two summers. Like a summer camp but through Irish, this experience is where most of my fluency came from. When I get more time in the future I’m going to attend adult courses in the Gaeltacht. My dad learned Irish from age 12 and later in life was a fluent speaker and scholar of the language so that gives me hope that I can attain fluency at some stage.
Irish students typically study the Irish language for 13 years yet few outside the Gaeltachtaí or Gaelscoileanna achieve fluency. It is strange but people feel embarrassed to speak Irish probably because they doubt their ability to communicate in it.
Manchan Magan did a tv series on the prevalence or lack thereof of Irish in Ireland recently called No Béarla. He tried to go about his everyday life speaking Irish and found it often nigh-on impossible ot get anything done.
The case of Israel is often cited in contrast to Ireland. However there are one or two major factors that differ between the two countries.
The population of Israel at independence spoke a veritable cornucopia of languages. A lingua franca, an official language had to be found so that people could communicate with their neighbours. Hebrew was chosen for this purpose and because of the obvious social need thrived.
In Ireland, at independence the majority of the population already had a shared language, the English language and so there was no social need as in Israel. Also, areas where Irish predominated that had already lost a huge amount of their population to emigration continued to haemorrhage people for many decades after independence. Education in Irish has been (in my experience) inadequate where no emphasis has been put on speaking the language, communicating in the language. Several of my Irish teachers over the years knew very little Irish and struggled to comprehend it themselves. How were people like this meant to teach the language let alone instill any sense that it was worth speaking?
Rugger isn’t a sport that interests me I’m afeared. I’m from North Dublin not South.
Very cogently replied, I somehow doubt you are actually drunk 
So, if you actually hear more non-English, non-Irish languages than Irish, and the success of Hebrew is due to its establishment as a lingua franca in Israel, isn’t the logical conclusion that in order to revive Irish, Ireland needs to (a) encourage MORE immigration from non-English speaking parts of the world, and (b) find a way to make sure they learn and use Irish before English? :eek:
Well some immigrants do send their kids to Gaelscoilleanna. The perception is that class sizes are smaller and the general education level is better. It can also help in later life if the child wants to get a job in education or in the civil service if they’re fluent in Irish.
I don’t know really know how we could encourage more immigration than we’re having or how we could persuade immigrants to speak Irish instead of English when we won’t ourselves. However I have heard anecdotal evidence that immigrants who move to Gaeltacht areas do learn Irish. My friend was amazed to hear Poles speaking Irish when he was in the Gaeltacht recently.
My maternal grandmother was Irish. Her grandparents (a Lynch and a Walsh) both came over from Ireland and both their fathers had come to America to fight in the civil war (for pay) and then returned to Ireland. I thought it was pretty cool that my Irish great great grandparents were mercenaries.
Anyway, what are some good Irish drinking songs?
Most Irish songs are drinking songs but some that I enjoy are:
Preab San Ól - The Dubliners
Streams of Whiskey - The Pogues (alot of pogues songs work as drinking songs)
Monto - The Dubliners
Whiskey Town - PP Slaggart
Whiskey In The Jar - Any version but especially Thin Lizzy
Boys Are Back In Town - Thin Lizzy
Muirsheen Durkin - Any version
The Moonshiner- Any version
The Wild Rover- Any version
Whiskey you’re the devil- Clancy Bros.
Seven Drunken Nights- Dubliners
Maudlin ones for when you’re really sozzled.
Danny Boy - Johnny Cash’s version for extra pathos/bathos
The Leaving Of Liverpool - Any Version
Fairytale of New York - The Pogues
Machushla- John McCormack
The Sally Gardens - John McCormack