Why Speaking Irish Is Good For You

There are plenty of good reasons to learn to speak Irish – or to improve the cúpla focal you already have. These include conventional ones like accessing your heritage and culture – whether that means being able to read Irish poetry or just understanding the origin of Irish place names. Then there is hedging your long-term bets – studies suggest that speaking a second language helps prevent Alzheimer’s!

But if you need a practical reason, it is this: while around two million people across the island of Ireland speak some Irish, almost nobody anywhere else in the world does, making Irish the perfect secret code when you’re on holidays asbroad!
Evanne Ní Chuilinn, one of the ambassadors from this year’s Seachtain na Gaeilge festival, admits to doing just that.
“I remember taking a holiday with Róisín Ní Thomáin – she’s one of the other ambassadors for Seachtain na Gaeilge and a very good friend of mine – and we were away in Egypt and hought we were getting done over, so we switched to Irish!” she laughs. “It’s great to have a private language when you’re away! I have found it very handy in those situations.”
Of course, the success of Seachtain na Gaeilge could change all that. Last year the Irish language festival included events in places as diverse – and far apart – as America, Cuba and Australia. Given that 2013 is the 120th anniversary of the Irish language revival, it is planned that this year’s festival will be even bigger.
Evanne is fluent in Irish, although she did not grow up in the Gaeltacht.
“I went to a primary school Gaelscoil in Kilkenny. I went to an English-speaking secondary school but I had a really good Irish teacher, which I think is part of the reason I kept my passion for the language. My mam is from Dungarvan near the Ring Gaeltacht, so she has Irish and would have encouraged it. I did an undergraduate in DCU but I did a postgraduate through Irish in Galway.
“I have managed to keep it going,” she adds. “I never lost my love of it and I would hope that other people would be encouraged and know that you don’t have to be from an Irish speaking region to love the language or be proficient in it.”
Practicing on a regular basis is important.
“I don’t speak Irish all day, every day,” Evanne says, “but I try to speak as much as I can and I have certain friends I never speak English with. I know people who would have been in primary school with me, who at 12 years of age had a very good level of fluency but who struggle to put a sentence together now. It is important to speak a language. No matter how many words you have – if you don’t speak them, you’re going to forget them. I think the real message of Seachtain na Gaeilge is to try and use the Irish that you have – because if you do that, you’ll pick up more.
“You need to immerse yourself in it. I would have gone to the Gaeltacht many times throughout my school years and college years. That’s the same with any language. If you’re learning Spanish, you’re going to try and get to Spain.”
In her day-to-day life Evanne is teaching by example.
“I have a year and seven-month old boy and I am trying to encourage him to pick up a few phrases and my fiancé who doesn’t speak Irish is picking up some as well!”

What does Evanne say to those who feel that Irish is a daunting language to learn?
“Before we had our little boy, my fiancé would have been terrified of Irish and had no interest in it. Now that he’s learnt some phrases, he’s started to express an interest. That’s what Seachtain na Gaeilge is all about – it’s not just for people who speak Irish, but for people who are trying to learn, or re-learn the Irish they once had.”
Of course, not all of us can have a baby with a partner who speaks Irish! Luckily, there are lots of options when it comes to learning the language, says Foras na Gaeilge’s, Gearóid McGhibhen.
“Conradh na Gaeilge run an extensive network of classes throughout the country. There are also opportunities through TEG, Teastas Eorpach na Gaeilge – that’s the European Certificate in Irish. Plus there is Gaelchultúr, which provides multi-level language classes. Each organisation will have specific classes to cater for specific language-learning needs. For example, Gaelchultúr provide specialist Irish language courses.”
Foras na Gaeilge promotes and encourages the use of the Irish language across the whole of the island of Ireland. Gearóid himself is passionate about the language.
“It’s a very important part of the cultural fabric of the country, both north and south. Even the English that we speak across the island is reflective of the Irish language,” he says. 
An excellent new resource for anyone wishing to improve his or her Irish language skills is Foras na Gaeilge’s new English-Irish online dictionary, Foclóir (the web address is www.focloir.ie), which was launched by President Michael D. Higgins on the 24th of January and is the first national English-Irish dictionary to be published since 1959.
A team of 70 people have been working on the dictionary since 2000. Indeed, the work is still ongoing, and a printed version is to be published in 2015. Currently the dictionary consists of 1.3 million Irish words.
‘The online dictionary has sound files,” Gearóid explains. “If you type in a word you’ll get the Irish translation and beside that will be a sound file and you can hear the word being said. It’s not only said once. You are given the choice of hearing it said in Munster Irish, Connacht Irish or Ulster Irish.
“I have no idea how many volumes the printed version will be,” he adds. “It is very extensive and it is free online. There are all new words in it as well, words young people would use when they are texting. It’s the language people actually speak in Ireland today.”
That Irish slang and text-speak exists at all is indicative of how our perception of the Irish language has changed.
Twenty years ago it wasn’t cool to be an Irish speaker,” says Evanne. “That’s really changed. I’ve never met anyone who’s said ‘I’d hate to have Irish!’ If people hear me speaking Irish, all they ever say is ‘I really wish I had more Irish’. Nobody regrets learning a language.”

Seachtain na Gaeilge takes place from 4-17 March. See snag.ie for details of events.