Interview with Caffler

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Originally from County Kerry, Caffler started out speaking a mix of Irish and English at home. He has now come back to learn the language again. 16th December 2006.

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Joined forum: 26th May 2005

Who is Caffler?

My given name is Mícheál. I'm 54 years of age, Irish, and grew up in Kerry and Down. I served my time as a ship's joiner and studied classical guitar. I live at present in the Netherlands with my wife, Catharina.

So, what's your connection to the Irish language? Are you involved with other Irish language groups, apart from IrishGaelicTranslator.com?

The first few years of my life were spent in the Iveragh Peninsula, in Kerry, and although we didn't live in the official Gaeltacht, I grew up speaking both Irish and English until I was six and we moved to England and the Irish spoken in our house grew less. shortly after that my mother died and my father and myself went to live in the six counties but we had as good as stopped speaking Irish by then agus ní fuirist fuineadh i bhfad ón min and I lost what Irish I had.

I made numerous attempts to learn it again but without success, mostly due to the necessity to learn other languages. a couple of years ago I decided to give it another crack and this time I've managed to stick with it. I have tried to get involved with a couple of groups here but because of my work schedule it's very difficult to attend regularly.

What has been your path of learning Irish?

Basically I got hold of a couple of books, Teach Yourself Irish, Learning Irish, and some children's books. the pronunciation I can still more or less remember although it sometimes takes me a while to recognise a word, as I never learned to read Irish to a high degree when I was a child. I've since obtained Ó Dónaill's and de Bhaldraithe's dictionaries which I would regard as a must for anyone making a serious attempt at learning Irish.

Do you see your Irish skills improving in the future?

Well I don't think they can get much worse.

I want to start learning Irish. Where do I begin??

I would suggest that if you have no knowledge of Irish at all then taking lessons, in a group, or individually, is probably the best way. Otherwise get hold of as many books as you can, actually even if you attend classes you should still get as many different books as you can afford.

Do you have any tips for people interested in learning Irish?

Try and listen to as much Irish as you can, there are a lot of resources on the web where you can listen to Irish radio or watch Irish television. To learn any language takes perseverance and hard work so don't get discouraged no matter how many mistakes you make. It will get easier, I think.

What other languages do you speak?

I did six years of French at school, three years of Latin, and two years of Greek, and a term of Old English. don't remember why we did the Old English and I remember nothing of it now, from the Greek I remember only the conjugation of the active present of the verb to loose, or something like that, don't remember much more from the Latin either. but i can still read the Greek alphabet so it wasn't a total waste.

I never really became proficient in French until I moved to Luxemburg for a year and got a chance to use it in real life conversations.

I speak pretty good Dutch and I also have German, having learned it during the five years I lived in Germany.

The German and French are both pretty rusty these days, although I can still understand a fair bit when I read or listen to French or German. But this is the problem with languages in general, without constant practice you tend to forget them. And this is the area I have the most problem in with Irish, I have very limited opportunities to converse in it so most of my active practice tends to be in writing.

I do try to read books in Irish but they are not readily available in Holland so they have to be purchased in Ireland when I'm there or over the internet, and over the internet the postage costs can sometimes equal the value of the book.

Apart from Irish, what other hobbies or interests do you like?

Apart from languages in general, I’m the R.A. of the local Hash House Harriers, so I go "running" at least once a week and I’m also a traditional musician and although I don't play live very much anymore. However these days I do write music for plays, videos, exhibitions and recently for a film, unfortunately I don't make a great deal of money out of it so I work for the Nederlandse Spoorwegen. Paddy on the railway, going Dutch. I am also an avid fan of both whisky and whiskey, and usually have a fair selection in my cupboard.

What is your musical background?

I play guitar, bouzouki, things with frets and strings in general, I also play keyboards, and I’m thinking of getting a hurdy gurdy.

We always had music in our house mostly Irish, but the other two sorts as well, both country and western. my ma was a fine singer and most of her family had a notion about music, my father on the other hand couldn't really sing but he was a fair enough dancer. his brother, my uncle, was some class of a junior champion in Kerry back in the forties.

I was taught the melodeon when I was eight, but my playing was cat, couldn’t hold the thing. Later I attended a school where it was more or less compulsory to learn a musical instrument. I started out on trumpet but that wasn’t a great success, so I took up the contrabass, but that was too big to be lugging around so eventually I settled on the guitar, and studied classical guitar for a couple of years at the Belfast School of Music. after that played in bands and ended up as bass guitarist in a few scratch blues and jazz bands in London.

I got back into the auld diddlee-dee stuff about twelve years ago. and about six years ago I acquired a computer and discovered the world of synthesis and sampling and home recording, and have since built a small studio here.

You can listen to some of my music here:

Do you have any memories of your childhood in Kerry?

Well I remember my first day at school, the master came in, called me up to the front of the class and said to me, Cad is ainm duit?

Now my father had read a brave few of the old Gaelic stories and books to me so I was too cute to be caught out by this so quick as you like I answered, My name is James O’Donnell. Mícheáilín Mhícheál Mhíchílín óg Ó Caoinleasa is ainm duitse, he roared and hit me with an oar. Times had changed since the old books were written it seemed.