Category: Irish

We’re pleased to play online host for six new Irish voices on the Taisce Bheo na nGael/Stòras Beò nan Gàidheal project run by the UHI Language Sciences Institute, with support from CIALL. These recordings were all co-ordinated by Brian Ó Curnáin of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

Jimí and Pádraig discuss and recount anecdotes about their ancestors and their life in the upland small arable areas of Cois Fharraige, west Co. Galway. The first to come to the area was Micil Chearra, and his wife Peigí Ní Dhonnchú from Baile na mBrobhach. They went to live in Clochar (na) Lára on a holding owned by a landlord by the name of Common. They were expelled from their holding, due to a falling out with the Blakes over hare hunting and the little black hound of Micil Uí Chearra. The story of the fairy hare remained in family lore. Jimí remembers Séamas Mhicil, his grandfather. He had a story about a man from Glenicmurrin who got lost in mist on the hills but came to the Cearra home in Clochar Locha, and was grateful to have made it there safely. Both relate incidents involving the poitín distilling. Jimí explains the supernatural origin of the saying ‘I’ll make you change your smile, like Máirtín Mhaitiú did to the ghost.’ Jimí heard his grandmother talking about milking the milk cow and saying prayers that Jimí acquired from her. And he says three of them, including finally the renowned An Mharainn Phádraig.

The Word-linked transcript is available here: https://multidict.net/cs/12092

In Muireann Ní Churnáin agus Brian Ó Curnáin (1) Muireann tells us about her current school life in fifth year at Coláiste an Eachréidh, Athenry, Co. Galway: the school subjects and her academic interests: history and art. She has great praise for the school staff. She talks to her brother Brian about their life in Ros Muc, in the west of Co.Galway, and the move to the Galltacht (English speaking area) in the east of the county, and how she quickly learned English. She also changed her Irish so that she would be better understood in Gaelscoil Riada. It was after the move that she was able to learn ballet in a ballet school in Galway city. She really likes ballet and would like to practice professionally as a teacher. She tells about her travels, especially about her visit to the USA.

The Word-linked transcript is available here: https://multidict.net/cs/12090

In Muireann Ní Churnáin agus Brian Ó Curnáin (2) Muireann tells about the family ski holidays: the hard and easy pistes, the beauty of the mountains and the surroundings, ski accidents and dangers of skiing, as well as safety in groups, and the craziness of the après-ski and even an interesting comparison to ballet. Muireann and Brian went to visit their brother, Dara, when he was working and skiing in Val d’Isère in France fo a season, but Muireann thinks that such a long stay would be too much for her. Brian then turns the conversation to school life and study. Muireann thinks that students now have many advantages because of the information revolution. She then discusses various problems that teenagers are thought to have in their lives. She is very interested in live music, in the likes of Tyle the Creator and Brockhampton. Brian and Muireann follow the rappers Kneecap, although Muireann is not impressed by the drug culture she thinks they are associated with. Both of them discuss the Irish Revival in the context of music fashion and the media.

The Word-linked transcript is available here: https://multidict.net/cs/12091

With Dara Ó Curnáin, Seán Concanonn describes his childhood, his working life, his relations and life in Montiagh (South), Claregalway, Co. Galway. He discusses sports: hurling and football. He describes dairy farming, raising piglets, farm horses, thatching, and of course sowing and spraying spuds! Chicken eggs and young roosters were brought to Galway and sold to shopkeepers. Pigs were killed and eaten at home. Seán also describes the high rates of emigration during his youth in the 1950s and its toll on hurling teams. He spent a short spell working in England with his brother and a while in hospital in Galway with a diagnosis of tuberculosis.

The Word-linked transcript is available here: https://multidict.net/cs/12089