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Post by Jason Aiken on Jan 31, 2018 15:52:16 GMT -5
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Post by deuce on Feb 1, 2018 12:26:33 GMT -5
It's the first day of spring by the Irish (and general old Northern European) reckoning. "Midwinter" doesn't fall in February and "Midsummer" doesn't fall in August. Thinking it does makes nonsense of plenty of older texts, including REH's The Black Stone. The new reckoning is a fairly modern innovation and is no more accurate in assigning "correct seasonal times", depending on your latitude, than the old one. The old reckoning was based on the solstices, just like the new one. The "first days" of spring, summer etc are just assigned differently. It's also Saint Brigid's Day in Ireland. Brigid is considered one of the three patron saints--along with Patrick and Columcille/Columba--of Ireland. This is a pretty good article on the festival: www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2018/0201/937521-st-brigids-day/ |
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Post by deuce on Feb 12, 2018 0:56:32 GMT -5
The Morrigan, also known as the Great Goddess and the Phantom Queen, presided over war and was the nemesis of the legendary hero, Cuchullain. Conan swore by her in The Phoenix on the Sword. www.goddess-guide.com/goddess-morrigan.htmlArt by Donato  |
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Post by trescuinge on Mar 16, 2018 20:45:06 GMT -5
Lá fhéile Pádraig sona dhaoibh go léir!
Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all!
Why spend your leisure bereft of pleasure?
Amassing treasure, why scrape and save?
Why look so canny at ev'ry penny?
You'll take no money within the grave
Landlords and gentry with all their plenty
Must still go empty where e'er they're bound
So to my thinking we'd best be drinking
Our glasses clinking and round and round
Is iomaí slí sin do bhíos ag daoine
Ag cruinniú píosaí is ag déanamh stóir
'S a laghad a smaoiníos ar ghiorra a’ tsaoil seo
Go mbeidh siad sínte faoi leac go fóill
Más tiarna tíre, diúc no rí thú
Ní cuirfear pingin leat ‘s tú ‘dul faoin bhfód
Mar sin is dá bhrí sin, níl beart níos críonna
Ná bheith go síoraí ag cur preab san ól.
King Solomon's glory, so famed in story
Was far outshone by the lilies guise
But hard winds harden both field and garden
Pleading for pardon, the lily dies
Life's but a bauble of toil and trouble
The feathered arrow, once shot ne'er found
So lads and lasses, because life passes
Come fill your glasses for another round
Is gearr an saol ‘tá ag an lílí sciamhach
Cé gur buí agus gur geal a ghabháil
Is Solamh críonna ina chulaith riúil
Nach bhfuil baol air in áille dhó
Níl sa tsaol seo ach mar soinneán gaoithe
Ga a scaoiltear nó slám de cheo
Mar sin ‘s dá bhrí sin, níl beart níos críonna
Ná bheith go síoraí ag cur preab san ól.
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Post by trescuinge on Oct 8, 2018 14:42:53 GMT -5
This month is the 202nd anniversary of one of the grimmer incidents in Irish history.
In April, 1816 the Ribbonmen invaded a farmhouse called Wild Goose Lodge on the border of Counties Louth and Monaghan looking to steal guns. The tenant, a Catholic named Lynch, reported the attack to the authorities and three of the invaders were convicted and hanged.
On the night of October 30, 1816 the Ribbonmen returned to Wild Goose Lodge. They surrounded the farmhouse and set it on fire, killing the entire household, 8 people including a 5 month-old baby died trapped in the flames.
The authorities used the attack as an excuse to come down hard on local dissent. In total 18 men, many of them probably innocent, were executed for the crime and their bodies left hanging throughout western Louth as a warning to the populace.
There is a 2016 Irish film based on the event. I haven't seen the movie but the trailer looks interesting:
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Post by deuce on Nov 1, 2018 8:38:52 GMT -5
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Post by trescuinge on Dec 2, 2018 23:02:40 GMT -5
On November 15, 1860 the body of James Murray was found in a mountain hollow near Loch Bheatha in Donegal. He had been beaten to death with a rock. No one was terribly surprised because Murray was a warden for the worst Irish landlord of all time, John George Adair.
Adair was a member of an Ascendancy family from Queens County. He made a fortune speculating in American real estate including the enormous JA Ranch in Texas. Adair took his money to Donegal, bought up a large tract of land, and began building a beautiful castle.
The problem was that his gorgeous estate was littered with the humble homes of his tenants. He wanted the cottages and the tenants out so he could run more profitable and picturesque sheep on his land.
Adair imported sheep and shepherds from Scotland and the locals took an immediate dislike to both the men and the animals. Sheep began disappearing and Adair blamed his tenants. The authorities investigated and found that the Scottish shepherds themselves were probably rustling the sheep. Sheepskins were found near a cabin used by James Murray. A few days later Murray was found dead.
Adair blamed his tenants and despite the pleas of the local clergy and his fellow landlords, moved to evict them all. In April, 1861, he evicted 244 men women and children from his estate.
The incident is recorded by the Donegal band, "Goats Don't Shave," in the song "The Evictions" on their "Rusty Razor" album.
So who killed James Murray? No one was ever charged. A book published in 1870 by Patrick Sarsfield Cassidy claims that a bastard son of Adair himself was the murderer.
Adair died in 1885 while on a trip to the U.S. Announcing his death, the Derry Journal said that ‘Who speaks but good of the dead need never name John George Adair’.
He is buried near another of his Irish estates in Co Laois. The night before he was buried a dead dog was thrown into his open grave by the locals.
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Post by kemp on Dec 5, 2018 14:56:23 GMT -5
Bringing back simple phrases might be the best way to go about it, although I understand that phrases like ‘go raibh maith agat’ would sound very different from 'thank you'. It certainly is very different to English, French, Spanish and the other languages spoken in western Europe these days. Gaelic is part of the older family of languages ( Celtic to use a broad term ) spoken in Atlantic Europe before Germanic and Latin based languages supplemented them to a strong extent. Check out the weather report by this attractive presenter. Irish Language Weather Report - spoken in Gaelic/Gaeilge the Native Irish Language The comments section are amusing with everyone thinking it sounds like other languages, from Dutch,Armenian, Russian, Swedish, even some saying that it sounds like a North American speaking other European languages. I suppose since it is an Indo European language it would share some phonetic resemblance with other branches of the family, but I can hardly follow it. |
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Post by kemp on Dec 6, 2018 1:33:44 GMT -5
Gaelic is part of the older family of languages ( Celtic to use a broad term ) spoken in Atlantic Europe before Germanic and Latin based languages supplemented them to a strong extent. Check out the weather report by this attractive presenter. Irish Language Weather Report - spoken in Gaelic/Gaeilge the Native Irish Language The comments section are amusing with everyone thinking it sounds like other languages, from Dutch,Armenian, Russian, Swedish, even some saying that it sounds like a North American speaking other European languages. I suppose since it is an Indo European language it would share some phonetic resemblance with other branches of the family, but I can hardly follow it. As happens in that weather report with 'Tour de France', it used to be rather amusing to be watching a Gaelic TV programme on Scottish or Grampian television, listening to the presenter going along speaking Gaelic when all of a sudden they'd throw in a phrase or name in English that I recognised - obviously with no Gaelic equivalent. ......  Yeah, it was the only time I understood what was being said, odd English word here and there, and you get the same thing cropping up in other languages. English is probably the closest thing the world has to a common lingua franca. I have no idea about the actual number of Irish that speak Gaelic, read a wiki where it mentioned something like 2% use it as their community language, a further 6% speak it to some degree, and a larger portion that know bits and pieces, some phrases and so on. I suppose Irish Gaelic is holding its own. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2018 2:48:10 GMT -5
Sounds like a beautiful language.
It's disheartening that the native language of Ireland is not more widely spoken. Unfortunately, for the survival of any language it has to become necessary in everyday life for its survival. For now, that language is English.
I think the introduction of any native language at a very young age is very important in the home; even in the melodic form of simple poetry and songs.
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Post by trescuinge on Dec 11, 2018 17:16:13 GMT -5
Sounds like a beautiful language. It's disheartening that the native language of Ireland is not more widely spoken. Unfortunately, for the survival of any language it has to become necessary in everyday life for its survival. A fun little Irish film that speaks to this very subject: |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 12, 2018 2:44:35 GMT -5
Sounds like a beautiful language. It's disheartening that the native language of Ireland is not more widely spoken. Unfortunately, for the survival of any language it has to become necessary in everyday life for its survival. A fun little Irish film that speaks to this very subject: Thanks Trescuinge. Great video, certainly an affective way to spread the Irish language, I think that last mission may prove to be more of a challenge. |
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Post by kemp on Dec 16, 2018 7:12:40 GMT -5
Sounds like a beautiful language. It's disheartening that the native language of Ireland is not more widely spoken. Unfortunately, for the survival of any language it has to become necessary in everyday life for its survival. A fun little Irish film that speaks to this very subject: Has to be easier ways to get people to learn Irish, but whatever works right  |
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Post by kemp on Dec 21, 2018 9:51:21 GMT -5
The problem with learning another language is that in so many cases it is not just a matter of replacing one word for another in a different language.
Irish is completely different to English, and it is not just the language family. There are a number of obstacles to overcome, basic word order being one of them, Irish being 'verb, subject, object' whereas English is 'Subject, Verb, object'.
For instance, Dhún mé an doras would literally translate to “close I the door.”
Adjectives come after the word. We would say 'The red car', but in Irish An car dearg would translate to 'the car red'.
IT gets even more complex if we talk about the fact that in Irish there are no specific words for yes or no, but that you must use a negative or positive form of the appropriate verb, other things like no indefinite article as in the English 'a/an', or two words for 'you' in Irish 'tú and plural sibh.'
The above was just scratching the surface. I can go on about definite articles, genitive cases, use of genders, different way to count people as opposed to things and much more.
There are linguists out there that are good at picking up new languages, but I am too stupid when it comes to those things.
REH's Conan must have been a genius. Myself , I would have been crossing the Hyborian world, stopping people and saying 'parla inglese' or 'sprechen sie Englisch' ( equivalents ).
I suppose in Cimmeria I would have asked ( risky business ) 'an bhfuil Béarla agat'.
Seriously, Irish is so damned different to English.
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Post by deuce on Jan 16, 2019 12:51:23 GMT -5
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