#irish language literature

[soracities]

Bright-black rain filling the silent pools between the thunder bursts, he imagined the bulging sky exploding, the rain bucketing down on the gravel outside the Porch. The end of the World, maybe.

Eoghan Ó Tuairisc, i am lewy (An Lomnochtán), trans. Micheál Ó hAodha

[mariemariemaria]

"The Blackbird of Belfast Lough" is a 9th century Irish poem written in the complex metre know as snám súad, literally ‘the swimming of the sages’, or ‘poetic floating’.

It has been translated into English many times, here by Seamus Heaney and Ciaran Carson. Which translation do you prefer?

[robynshellhole]

Is that-

Is that a g fada? Printing error???

[gailyinthedark]

Sorry but this is probably the coolest thing I've ever read.

(source)

[llyfrenfys]

See, I personally find this quest to find pagan/pre-Christian elements in Welsh/Irish literature quite unnerving - I don't know about anyone else.

There's something to be said about genuinely discovering pre-Christian elements in a narrative or story and that being where evidence and study has led you. But I see some people on this fruitless quest to find pagan elements in very Christian texts and sometimes it feels like if no pagan elements can be found, people start making stuff up out of whole cloth - and that can be very dangerous for already not-well known texts in minoritised languages!

There's already so much misinformation out there about Irish/Welsh texts and literature in general - so it hurts to see people carelessly adding to the misinformation either out of ignorance or lack of respect for the source material.

I promise you the source material being Christian doesn't ruin it - you can in fact, enjoy these myths without making them into something they're not!

[have-you-read-this-short-fiction]

[gayeilgeoir]

Gramatical gender in Irish is so interesting.

For the most part, the same terms are used for men and women, nouns are the same, the only different thing is the definitive article.

In most gendered languages, male is the default (Eg: my friends in Spanish for a group containing 9 women and 1 man uses the masculine version of the word friend) but Irish doesn’t really work that way.

Nothing about a noun also doesn’t tell you it’s gender, you just kinda have to know.

[thebellekeys]

Irish Language (Gaeilge)

Níl aon tinteán mar do thinteán féin. There's no fireside like your own.

– Irish proverb

[czgif]

Jiřina Bohdalová and Jiří Bartoška in The Canterville Ghost (Strašidlo cantervillské) 1989, TV, dir. Vít Olmer IMDB

[strawb3rryqueer]

Thosaigh mé ag léamh "Heartstopper" as Gaeilge, agus is breá liom é!! Ní raibh mé ag faire nó ag léamh "Heartstopper" i mBéarla

[selkies-world]

This book is due for release in Spring 2025. Here is my question for readers (located anywhere).

It's set in Glasgow in 2028, and at least half of the dialogue is written in Scots & there is a good heaping of Scottish and Irish slang throughout it. Do yous want a glossary at the back, to translate the Scottish slang & Scots terms & Irish slang into plain English? I've never seen this offered for any other languages or cultures, but I try to make my books as accessible as possible, so I figured I'd offer.

This poll is open to everyone - no judgement on whether or not yous think you'll be able to understand written Scots.

PLEASE REBLOG FOR HIGHER SAMPLE SIZE

Here is a sample of an exchange between 2 characters in my book:

A: "What are you doing here?”

B: “Thought I’d pop by, just t’ see how everythin’s goin’. See if he wan’ed the walls repain’ed or the floor ripped up, or –”

A: “I meant where’ve you been? What have you been up to?”

B: “Oh, that version of ‘what are you doin’ here’. Not a lot, unless you count college houndin’ my ass and my dorm bein’ on the verge of bein’ a health hazard since Star discovered a new brand o’ cleanin’ products at this new store we found, but then she accident’lly made a new variation o’ mustard gas again on Monday, so we’re stayin’ at Tommy’s ‘til the dungeon master says we can go back withou’ dyin’ or somethin'. Also, Charlie-Cat said one o’ us needed t’ gae you a break, an’ he left this mornin’ so won’t be back for anoth’r week, an’ Tommy’s workin’ ‘til la’e tonigh’, so.”

A: “I’m still processing the ‘again’ part of Star making a new mustard gas. How’d she manage to do it by accident a second time?”

B: "Third. A’ this poin’, I don’t even know, t’ be hones’.”

A: “You said Charlie sent you?”

B: “Oh, yeah. He said t’ babysit Danny for you so you can go ge’ some rest. I mean, I’m pre’y sure he mean’ so tha’ you can go eat somethin’ other than fas’ food an’ get some new clothes an’ get a shower – seriously, you really need tha’ shower. A’ this poin’, I’m surprised Danny hasnae woken up jus’ t’ complain abou’ the stink in ‘ere, seriously, I smelle’ onions as soon as I opened th’ door, how he hasnae smelle’ it lyin’ here nex’ t’ you for weeks is – hah!”

Here is another sample of an exchange between 1 of those characters and another not featured in the first:

A: "You feelin' any better?"

B: "Yeah, I needed the kip."

A: "See, sometimes I can forget that you're from Edinburgh, then you go an' say shit like that and I have to remember."

[soracities]

His whole life broken into smithereens behind his eyelids. Safe and sound in his mother's warmth, in a boat swimming, the incredible depth of the dark River beneath him, the depth of voices, one voice after another revealing itself their faces blurred, faceless forms revealing themselves in the forest, a story with no words, like a great book being read far away and beyond his hearing...

Eoghan Ó Tuairisc, i am lewy (An Lomnochtán), trans. Micheál Ó hAodha

[outstanding-quotes]

You think you’re fitting language onto the world in a certain way, like a child fitting the right-shaped toy into the right-shaped slot. But at times you realize that’s a false picture too. Language doesn’t fit onto reality like a toy fitting into a slot. Reality is actually one thing and language something else.

Sally Rooney, Intermezzo

[robynshellhole]

Yo Séadna kinda stupid as a person. He gets to wish for three things and he wishes for things not near him to be cursed so that nobody else can use them. It's truly a story of a dumbass getting fucked over by the devil because of his greed and also his desperation.

[mathsandcomedydotcom]

New Video: ‘The hospital is closed.’ in Ulster Irish:

In this video, I introduce the ‘dialects’ of Irish Gaelic, or the ‘canamháint��’, or, in Modern Irish Gaelic: ‘canúintí’.

The official dialect of Modern Irish is ‘An Caighdeán Oifigiúil’ (2017) or ‘the official standard’. This official standard is regulated and periodically updated by the Irish parliament or Oireachtas.

In this video, I introduce the word for ‘closed’ which in official Irish is: ‘dúnta’.

Thus, in official Irish, we would say:

‘Tá an tospidéal inár gcontae dúnta.’

However, in the ‘Ulster Dialect’ or: ‘Canamháint Ulaidh’, or, modernised: ‘Canúint Ulaidh’, we would say:

‘Atá an t-ospuidéal inár gconndae druidte.’

In a modernised Ulster dialect, we would say:

‘Tá an tospidéal inár gcondae druidte.’

As I say in the above video, the dialect of Irish that I prefer is Connaught Irish, because this is the style that Father Eugene O’ Growney uses in his Simple Lessons in Irish (1894). This is the slightly older style of Irish that I like to employ, myself. However, whenever this style diverges from modern style, I give the Caighdeán Oifigiúil (2017) rendering as well.

[arcane-vagabond]

how anon took your response to their analysis on the term "Gaelic"

STEPH. 💀