Irish Translation Forum

Great! I can now go to celticlyrics.net to finally figure out what the heck some of these great songs are about I've been listening to all these years. Aint the internet grand???? You guys are simply the best, makes me so happy I have such a heritage! My father's side is from Tyrone, my grandmother's is sort of mystery -she had a phrase "I'm half a far downer, half Cavan racer...so either her mother or father were from Cavan, & I was told when I was on the Irish geneology site that a far downer probably meant someone from Donegal. (or could have been someone far down, as in Cork) Irish census records having been all destroyed for pulp, the only remnant for the 1840 census is for Killashandra Parish, & it couldn't be, just wouldn't be my luck that the Annie Knowles listed in those records is MY Annie Knowles ( the parish church I wrote to back in 1990 completely blew off my request & 20 punts I sent along. I am sure they are inundated by hundreds and hundreds of requests from searching Yanks all the time, so I understand.... but truly, I am so proud of being of Irish descent.

And no, LOL, I don't think the family that is left will be all that thrilled to see me show up on their doorstep one day. My dad did get to go over - the ancestors now alive all descendants from the girls, so they didn't even carry the family name and truly knew next to nothing about our great great grandfather who left the farm to make his fortune in America. We have one surviving letter, & it seems the other brothers did go back & forth between Ireland & here, but they must have died young or never married, as the girls were the ones who inherited the place. My father was so good to them, always sending them stuff, fishing rods, clothes, books, even money & cigarettes, for one of our relatives was in Long Kesh for 7 years during the troubles back in the 1970's & the family did need help in order to make the trip to Belfast. When my dad died, I wrote to them....& never heard back. Not a thing. That would have broken his heart to know. They probably think I want to steal the darn farm, as I am the only living survivor with the old family name. LOL

yanno???? could I ask another silly question, my name is Falluin and was told the name meant "of the ruler"...can anyone corroborate that????

LOL...we tell everyone we must have been really really CLOSE to the O'Neills, the great Hugh, as for Irish Catholics to have been able to hold onto their lands with the brits grabbing and taking all they wanted during the transplantation and Cromwell...we must have been one fearsome clan!!! I think I mentioned I did our geneology search and we do have a Catherine O'Neill as my great great grandfather's mother or grandmother, I forget now..... now wouldn't that be a kicker if I am distant distantly related to the great Hugh??? LOL.... we always called ourselves the Irish Mafia of the North.

okay, went to a learn gaelic site online.... here is my take on how to pronounce the words

Sé an trua ghear nach mise, nach mise bean Pháidín
Say (or shay, I can't figure out that whole broad consonant, short consonant thing, it's a long vowel with the fada on top, so does that make it a broad consonant? I have no clue)

Say (shay) ahn troo-a gaa (like the a in mass) knock mish ban (again, that a as in mass ) Pay deen

am I close????

Shayn TROO-uh yar nakh MISH-eh nakh MISH-eh
Shayn TROO-uh yar nakh MISH-eh ban PAH-jeen
Shayn TROO-uh yar nakh MISH-eh nakh MISH-eh
Iss uh van uh tah EGG-eh vay KAL-cheh

A "broad" consonant is one that's next to an a, an o or a u. A "slender" consonant is one that's next to an e or an i.

Redwolf

ahhhhh jeeze, I wasn't even close!!!!!!!!!! Thank you so much for helping me ..... I found a couple of websites that give pronunciations of standard Irish phrases like dia dhuit ar maidin, good morning, but I really coudn't even make out how the heck she was pronouncing that word dhuit... know there is a ch sound in there, but it just didn't sound like it at all..... I think I will have to try to order a CD to actually hear Gaelic and get my ears acclimatized to the sounds....it sure is lilting though, isn't it??? It just sort of flows and floats. YOU are a real peach!!!! brightest blessings and Go raibh maith agat!!!!

bozie wrote:ahhhhh jeeze, I wasn't even close!!!!!!!!!! Thank you so much for helping me ..... I found a couple of websites that give pronunciations of standard Irish phrases like dia dhuit ar maidin, good morning, but I really coudn't even make out how the heck she was pronouncing that word dhuit... know there is a ch sound in there, but it just didn't sound like it at all..... I think I will have to try to order a CD to actually hear Gaelic and get my ears acclimatized to the sounds....it sure is lilting though, isn't it??? It just sort of flows and floats. YOU are a real peach!!!! brightest blessings and Go raibh maith agat!!!!

What you're hearing as "ch" is probably the slender "t" at the end. It IS rather like "ch" in some dialects, whereas in others it's more of a "ts" sound.

Redwolf

I love that saying you have there, Broken Irish is better than clever English..... Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years of English oppression could not take our language from us... what is the percentage of the population that can speak Gaelic fluently? Are all children taught Gaelic now in the schools, both North and South????? Probably just in the South huh????

bozie wrote:When my dad died, I wrote to them....& never heard back. Not a thing.

I know it's unlikely but it's possible your letter went lost. Or you might not have had the full correct address.

bozie wrote:Are all children taught Gaelic now in the schools, both North and South????? Probably just in the South huh????

Irish is compulsory in schools in the South but it isn't on the Curriculum in the North. Fortunately however, the number of Irish-medium schools is growing all over the country, so it is on the up.

fatchops75 wrote:

bozie wrote:Are all children taught Gaelic now in the schools, both North and South????? Probably just in the South huh????

Irish is compulsory in schools in the South but it isn't on the Curriculum in the North. Fortunately however, the number of Irish-medium schools is growing all over the country, so it is on the up.

Not sure if that's a good thing or not

If it was taught a bit better with teachers who enjoyed it