I’m getting ready to teach my first Irish language class through the Celtic Wisdom School, though I’ve taught Irish for about 25 years now at Harvard and a few times at Boston College – and so I’m grappling with the question:
Why would anyone want to learn Irish?
When I was falling in love with Irish many years ago now, I was told by well-meaning people that learning Irish was pretty much a waste of time. It’s not going to help you get a job, they said (though it did!), and it won’t make you rich (though it did if you count moments of pure wonder and delight), and it’s not like learning Spanish or Mandarin or a language you can speak with millions of people (though as it happens I’ve sung in Irish for probably thousands of people at this stage).
Even so –
I believe with all my heart that it’s worth learning. So here, for you, dear Reader, are some reasons why I believe you might wish to learn Irish:
It’s inspiring.
Songs, stories, proverbs, triads and traditional sayings – reading these things in the original Irish is deeply moving and inspiring. The proverbs in particular are honestly worth learning the language for! Here’s an example I think of often:
Is gaire cabhrú Dé ná an doras: “God’s help is closer than the door.”
It’s definitely OK to remove “God” from that proverb if you wish, but DO keep the meaning: the help we need is right here, close to hand, and there’s no need to go out to get it. That proverb has reminded me a thousand times that my answer lies within – as long as I remember to go looking for it. And I’d never have that wisdom if I hadn’t done the very impractical thing of learning Irish.
It’s good for your brain.
Irish has a very different structure in almost every conceivable way from English (and from the Romance languages, too). It’s a Verb-Subject-Object language unlike English which is a Subject-Verb-Object language. While in English we say, “The man (subject) sees (verb) the dog (object),” in Irish we say Feiceann (verb) an fear (subject) an madadh (object). Irish also has a case system like Latin and a system of initial mutations that mark it out as a true Celtic language. That and so many other unique features make learning Irish a true adventure, and more potent than the daily crossword in terms of keeping us sharp!
It’s good for Ireland, the Irish, and Irish itself.
The Irish language, like many languages all over the world, can use a hand. When we vote with our time and dollars by learning Irish and buying books and resources in Irish, we are helping to keep this magnificent language alive.
It opens the door to a warm and beautiful world.
Learning Irish opens doors to a world of kindness, intimacy, humor, and beauty. People think, speak, and write in Irish through a very different lens than we do in English. I love to tell my Folklore students that the Irish language preface in a bilingual book contains so much warmth and affection as compared to the more or less straight up and down scholarly English language preface. The preface is often called Buíochas – Gratitude. Here’s an example:
…thar aon duine nó aon dream eile, tá mé buíoch de Phádraig Eoghain Phádraig Mac an Luain a d’inis na scéalta seo domh, agus dá dheartháir Conall agus dá dheirfiúr Maire, triúr go raibh sé de phribhléid agam oiread sin oícheanna íontacha chois teallaigh a chaitheamh ina gcuideachta ar na Cruacha. Tá an triúr seo anois ar shlí na fírinne – ar dheis láimh Dé agus I gcomhluadar Phádraig agus Cholm Cille go raibh siad.
—Séamus Ó Catháin, Lá Fhéile Pádraig 1985
…Beyond any other person or group, I am grateful to Páidraig Eoghain Pádraig Mac an Luain who told these stories to me, and to his brother Conall and to his sister Máire, three in whose company it was a privilege for me to spend so many wonderful evenings by the fire in the Blue Stack Mountains. These three are now “on the way of truth” (passed on) – may they be on the right hand of God and in the company of saints Patrick and Colm Cille.
— Séamus Ó Catháin, Saint Patrick’s Day 1985
These people are not simply “informants” for Séamus: they are friends. The world of the Irish language is one in which people come first and Fáilte – welcome – is primary. That’s the world I choose to live in, and you may wish to come inside that world, too.
It’s FUN, precisely because you don’t HAVE to do it.
No one has to learn Irish, it’s true. It’s entirely optional. And yet – what better reason to do anything than because you want to, you choose to, and you’ve decided to make learning it important to you? And when we learn together, we have great fun in great company. There’s a lot of laughter, some singing, many head-scratching moments, and a delight in the discoveries. It’s never boring! And being a little flummoxed and then figuring it out? Well, that makes you feel truly ALIVE.
Has all of this made you wish to learn Irish? If so – GOOD!
My new class, Welcome Home to Irish, starts up in a few weeks on 3 October and YOU are most welcome to join us. Click the course title to get more info, and if you join my mailing list, I’ll send you a special code for a savings on the tuition.
(Feel free to write to me at kate@katechadbourne.com to get that code just to be sure you’re in time; it stops working on Saturday the 23rd).
We are going to have a lovely time, and it would be all the lovelier to have you with us!
Photo by David Cashbaugh on Unsplash
