Endgame in Ireland

I was clicking around on YouTube tonight when I stumbled upon "Endgame in Ireland", a four-part documentary about the Peace Process in Northern Ireland. The documentary had been on PBS years ago. My dad had taped it and passed it on to me to watch. Taped it. As in, VHS tapes. Remember those, kids?

I haven't seen it 15 years but I remember it for being a fantastic documentary and for providing a very balanced view on the issue. My dad credits that to the fact that it was produced by both BBC and RTE. You probably know the BBC, but RTE (Raidió Teilifís Éireann) is the national broadcaster of Ireland. (Psst, want to listen to spoken Irish? And I mean more than the few words I might yell at you when we're out together. Follow this link and click the 'RnaG Beo' in the top menu bar. Yes, it does kind of sound like you're listening to a record in reverse. But I digress... like always.)

At any rate, I couldn't watch "Endgame in Ireland" tonight because it was too late and I still have to work tomorrow but I think that's my weekend plans sorted. If you are interested in watching the series yourself - which I highly recommend if you have an interest in contemporary Irish history - then you can find them by following the links below:

Episode One

Episode Two

Episode Three

Episode Four

Once you've watched these, you might understand better why I was so flabbergasted when in the wake of the Brexit vote, Ian Paisley, Jr encouraged his constituents to apply for an Irish passport if they were eligible for it. His father must be absolutely writhing in the afterlife.

While I'm on the topic of documentaries on Irish history, Netflix (well, the Canada one, at least) recently added "Tales of Irish Castles".

It deals with history a little further back than the recent Troubles, but also worth checking out. If you watch it and find yourself with an urge to buy and refurbish an Irish castle of your own, it is not my fault.

And can I stay in your guest chambers next time I'm back?

Going to My Happy Place

There have been some stressful things happening to people I love lately, and then those stupid Facebook memories (which I love) reminded me of someone who died too young. It's been a rough few weeks.

Let's talk about what's making me happy.

This was released on the weekend:

That appearance at the end?!? WHAT?!? Last I heard, Marvel didn't have movie rights for that character!!?!?! Mind. Blown.

Vancouver hosted its first Rugby Sevens tournament. By all accounts, it was a success. Plus, it meant that Brian O'Driscoll was in Vancouver. I love that man. I seriously considered heading to Vancouver for the weekend to see if I could spot him. 

In B.O.D. we trust!

The man was a legend on the Irish Rugby team.

I didn't go to Vancouver, however, because stressful things happening to people I love.

I know awesome people who are doing awesome things. Cely and her sister are raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (I linked to the Canada page because they also do Team-in-Training) with an epic bike ride. My cousin, David, is raising money for Mencap by running a marathon. And yes, I did just shamelessly link to both of their fundraising pages. When it comes to good people doing good things, I have pretty much no shame.

I went to see The Bills on Friday night with my stepmom. It was their CD release party for Victoria as well as a fundraiser for UVic's Continuing Studies division. The funds raised are going towards sponsoring a refugee family from Syria. I love the Bills and it was a fantastic evening of entertainment. 

This is one of their older songs but I enjoyed the new music they played on Friday. I can't wait to get my hands on the CD. I've been humming What Trouble Is since Friday night. (Sticking with the old songs,they closed the night with Bamfield's John Vanden. It gave me shivers to hear it live. P.S. John Vanden was a real person.)

St. Patrick's Day is this tomorrow. You'll probably find a few posts floating about that tell you how to say 'Happy St. Patrick's Day' or to order a pint of Guinness. But what you really need to know is in this video:

I'll be watching it and practicing my insults as I bake my Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes with Bailey's Cream Cheese icing tonight!

The YouTube Rabbit Hole

While falling down the YouTube Rabbit Hole a few nights back, I recalled TG Lurgan - the Irish school that translates pop songs into Irish. (I posted about them once.) When I visited their page, I found two new songs that I've pretty much been dancing to non-stop. Somehow, being in Irish just makes them even better.

Uptown Funk

Shake It Off

Happy Wednesday!

A PSA on the Irish Language

I have told the story before about my dad reading "The Tiger Who to Tea" to me when I was a young child. Except the only version we had of it was in Irish, so my dad would read it out loud and then translate it for me. Over the years, the book went missing. I tried to find a copy last time I was back in Ireland but it was out of print. 

That was pretty much the extent of any Irish my dad spoke to us as children. I knew how to say 'Merry Christmas' on the phone to my granny, and could name all 32 counties as Gaeilge (in Irish) after my cousins taught me during a trip back when I was 16. As it stands today, I know just enough Irish to sound impressive to someone who doesn't speak any Irish.

I understand why my dad didn't speak more Irish with us - it's not needed to get around Ireland and it serves pretty much zero purpose outside of Ireland - but sometimes I lament that there hadn't been more of a reason for us to learn it. (Say, for example, the English hadn't ruled Ireland and pushed the speakers to outlaying areas, making English the main language of business and trade and relegating Irish to something the uneducated country people spoke, thereby allowing Irish to continue to be the first language of the people of Ireland so then my brothers and I would have had to learn it to converse with my cousins. I'm just spit-balling ideas here.)

I lament because Irish is an endangered language. It's classified as 'definitely endangered' which is to simply state that it's not spoken by children in the home. While Irish is a compulsory course in Irish education and is a requirement to get into university, there are very few children who are actual native speakers of Irish. That is, they speak Irish before they speak English in their day-to-day life. Out of the 1.7 people classified as 'speaking Irish', less than 100,000 use it on a daily basis outside of school.

The push to revive the Irish language isn't any thing new. The Gaelic League (Conradh na Gaeilge) was founded in 1893 with the mandate to promote the Irish language both in Ireland and abroad. Over a hundred years of trying to save the language and it's still definitely endangered. Ain't that a kick in the teeth?

But it's not all doom and gloom. In November 2009, the Irish government published its 20 year plan for increasing the number of fluent and/or native Irish speakers. One of those points was to increase the number of Irish immersion schools (called Irish-medium schools in Ireland). There are now 177 Irish-medium primary schools in Ireland and parents line up to get on the waiting list. As for the number of speakers using Irish outside of school on a daily basis? It has been steadily climbing since the turn of the 21st century. Search the 'as Gaeilge' tag on any social media and you'll find a thriving community.

Why did I feel the need to post this? Because the road to hell, good intentions, all that jazz. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink, if you need another analogy. You have to engage the kids and make them want to learn. What better way to do that than to make it fun? I came across the following video on YouTube recently and laughed until I cried when I realised what they were doing. If you learned a second language in school, I'm sure the pictures will feel familiar.

Kudos to the teacher (it seems to be one teacher from the looks of it) who came up with Gaelgory as a project with his class. The are all manner of videos and even though my Irish is limited to greetings, basic information and insults, I spent a good chunk of time going down that rabbit hole. There's even a video about cooking pancakes in Irish led by a dinosaur. (I think he's Gaelgory but I'm not totally sure.)

It always makes me happy to see Irish being used outside of textbooks (although this is kind of textbook-ish) and formal situations. It gives me hope that perhaps Irish will move out of the endangered language category. Because as Pádraig Pearse once said: 

“Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam."
(A country without a language is a country without a soul.)

Happy Friday!

I had no intention of blogging today but there a few things I want to blog about but I won't be getting back on until Monday at the earliest. Crazy, awesome busy weekends are great in theory until you realise that you're going to be a five different events in 36 hours and won't be coming home during that time either. But that's what summer is for, right?

1. Groups in Canada are seriously considering a bid to host the World Cup 2026.

I found out about this today thanks to Toronto Girl West. It's amazing that I didn't scream in the office as I read it. I'm more excited about this than the Olympics coming and we're just talking about the fact that Canada is thinking about putting a bid in.

If Canada does put in a bid, I probably will vomit.

2. My cousin posted a video of an Irish (as Gaeilge) version of Lorde's Royals. It's from an Irish-language school in the Connemara region of Ireland and I discovered that they do a lot of these videos where they translate popular songs into Irish and have recorded videos for a few of them. You can find them on YouTube under TG Lurgan (the school) and Seo Linn (a group made up of some of the teachers, they're the older ones you see in the videos). Just because I can, I'm posting my two favourites.

Original song here

Original song here

It always makes me happy to see Irish being used in a way that is relevant to the younger population in Ireland. It's been a hard battle to save the language when very people actually grow up speaking it, and class room lessons so often leave the student wanting to claw their own eyes out. This is a fun way to get the younger generation interested in the language. I'll step off my soap box now.

(For the record, I speak just enough Irish to sound impressive to someone who doesn't speak Irish. In other words, I blow Canadian minds with my five sentences.)

3. While I'm a post-all-the-videos! roll, I'm going to see Only Lover Left Alive tonight.

A vampire love story with Tom Hiddleston? Yes, please!

And now I'm off for a weekend of Tom Hiddleston, baby showers, girls nights, family brunches, and (hopefully) German soccer victories.