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She was kind enough to answer some start-off questions. I'd like anyone here to pose questions to Aibigéal that they would like to see included in the interview. Aibigéal, you could answer the questions in this thread if you wish, or wait until they've all been asked (but I prefer the 1st option!).
Here's some of the questions that Aibigéal has already answered, to get the ball rolling:
Who is Aibigéal?
Well, my real name is Abigail (surprised you, didn't I?) I'm currently a grad student at the University of Notre Dame - and I'm working on two PhDs at once, so that's likely to be the case for some time yet. The family business is a machine shop, so on the weekends I moonlight as a machinist, programmer, floor-sweeper or whatever else needs doing there. I live on a dirt road out in the middle of nowhere, with my parents, younger siblings and the Irish-speakingest chickens in the state of Indiana.
So, what’s your connection to the Irish language?
Umm... that I speak it, and wish I spoke it better? I've never really felt an ethnic affinity to Ireland itself – it turns out my father's people and some of my mother's were Irish, but I never knew that until after I'd started with the language anyway.
It's hard to learn a language without becoming culturally involved with it on some level though, and lately I've started taking more of an interest in Irish history than I ever thought I would. (I wish I could tell you that somebody mentioned the Wild Geese to me one day and I was instantly overcome with interest and curiosity – but the truth of it is, three or four people mentioned the Wild Geese and I gradually became ashamed of not knowing what they were on about. Truth be told, I didn't really start liking it until about four pages into the first book. Now I can't stop!)
Are you involved with other Irish language groups, apart from IrishGaelicTranslator.com?
I'm fairly involved in the Irish department at Notre Dame – particularly if by “involved” you mean “given to stopping by and bugging professors in their offices.” And if there's a seminar where the speaker (or anyone else in the room) might have Irish, I'm there! In fact, I've made myself a little nametag for these occasions that says “Labhair Gaeilge liom!” in the Gaelic script. At this point nobody from the department needs an invitation (in fact I'm actually forbidden to speak English to a couple of them!) but we often have people from the community come in to attend seminars and lectures. Few of them seem to notice (or perhaps recognize) the fáinne, but you wouldn't believe how many of them – older people especially – want to use at least the cúpla focal once they read my tag.
On the Internet, I'm active on a couple of other Irish-language forums (Daltaí, Beo) but not so much as I am here. In the real world, as I said I've been lucky enough to be at a university with an Irish language department, so that's where I get most of my speaking practice. There and in the chicken coop.
Apart from Irish, what other hobbies or interests do you have?
Dá mbuafainn an crannchur náisiúnta... no, wait, that's not right. Dá gcríochnóinn na diabhail tráchtais seo....
With grad school and all, I'm busy enough I shouldn't be let have hobbies at all (even Irish) right now! But to the extent I do have time, I enjoy origami, music (I play the alto flute) and (did I mention?) raising chickens. I do my share of cooking and gardening – the way I was raised those are subsistence skills, but I've heard there are folks who consider them hobbies. If I lived in Ireland (or anywhere else that wasn't dead flat) I imagine I'd be a pretty avid hillwalker; as it is I'm mostly a hedgerow walker.
) But these people actually 