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# the-irish-for - Sunday 18 August, 2019
The Irish For: How a familiar tale can help young bookworms become bilingual
Translating well-known books to Irish could be the best way to get pre-teen bookworms learning Irish.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 11 August, 2019
The Irish For: Teaching toddlers Gaeilge through the art of storytelling
Story-time is a great way to teach preschoolers píosa Gaeilge, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 4 August, 2019
The Irish For: Bank holidays and Lú, the god of August
In Irish, August is Lúnasa, named in honour of the ancient god Lú, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 21 July, 2019
The Irish For: An astronaut is a star-sailor, a comet is a paintbrush star
The calling to travel beyond the Earth owes itself to mythology as well as science, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 14 July, 2019
The Irish For: The perception that Irish is intimately linked to Catholicism is too widely held
Some languages are intimately associated with religions but not Gaeilge, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 7 July, 2019
The Irish For: There's a bit of alchemy involved in translating Harry Potter into Irish
Book series translated from one language to another can lead to complications as the plot thickens, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 30 June, 2019
The Irish For: If you can’t say anything nice about someone, tar isteach
If you’re going to insult someone, do it properly, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Friday 28 June, 2019
John Cleese versus the Irish language: Don't mention the 'bh' war
Cleese said that Irish names look like deliberate attempts to mislead innocent people but this is not the case, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 23 June, 2019
The Irish For: Cockwombles and the decline of British insults
The Brexit process should be a golden age for satirists and comedians, but unfortunately, something else has happened, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 16 June, 2019
The Irish For: A Bloomsday Breakfast with extra Subh Milis on Father’s Day 2019
In some ways, it is serendipitous that these two events should happen on the same Sunday, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 9 June, 2019
The Irish For: Cans, Tans and Summer Plans
Samhradh comes with a sense of disappointment, rarely delivering on its promises of sunshine and gaiety, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 26 May, 2019
The Irish For: Don’t Be Such A Gorilla-Whale-Daughter-In-Law
To translate the meaning of Bridezilla effectively we need to pop the bonnet of the word and look at the moving parts, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 19 May, 2019
The Irish For: Let's settle the 'crack' versus 'craic' debate by looking at the evidence
The word appears to originate before 1900 in parts of Ireland where spoken Irish was high and literacy was low, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 12 May, 2019
The Irish For: Hiberno English is a feature not a bug
Sometimes Béarla and Gaeilge are presented as being in conflict in Ireland, but they’re both part of our cultural heritage, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 5 May, 2019
The Irish For: Did the Irish language influence the names of Gollum and the orcs in the Lord of the Rings?
J. R. R. Tolkien once tried to learn Irish in Galway but he dismissed the language as suffering from “fundamental unreason,” writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 28 April, 2019
The Irish For: How Beyoncé is helping to get fadas in formation
Thanks to Queen Bé, April 2019 has been an interesting month for accessorised letters, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 21 April, 2019
The Irish For: Why do we remember things from TV and what does that mean for learning languages?
‘Thousands of Irish people know their rights if they’re arrested in America but not if they’re arrested in Ireland… and nobody would know what mitosis was if it wasn’t for Sabrina,’ writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 31 March, 2019
The Irish For: The Irish language version of Wikipedia is going strong
Sure enough, one of the longest, best laid-out and most carefully edited pages in An Vicipéid is the page on Star Trek, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 24 March, 2019
The Irish for: Irish is the first language of the constitution. Here's some legal terminology as Gaeilge
Bannaí means bail and is not to be confused with banaí which means a womaniser, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 17 March, 2019
The Irish For: The word Tory comes from the Irish word tóraí meaning a bandit or outlaw
If you’re doing your Irish oral exam next week – you’ll need to know how to say ‘confidence and supply agreement’ and ‘frictionless border’, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 10 March, 2019
The Irish For: Some older words don't exist in English - clochscríbhinn means an inscription on stone
George Orwell said that history was a palimpsest – a chalkboard which could be scraped clean and reinscribed, exactly as often as necessary, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 3 March, 2019
The Irish For: While Europe was stuck in the Dark Ages - Ireland's Brehon laws were relatively enlightened
Satire (Áer) was taken as seriously as physical assault in old Ireland and a range of satirical offences were deemed to warrant compensation, including ‘coining a nickname that sticks’, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 24 February, 2019
The Irish For: What does old Irish tell us about life in ancient Ireland?
Did the knights of the Fianna use their frithbacáin (handbrake) to do doughnuts, and other boy racer tricks, in the medieval equivalent of an industrial estate? wonders Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 17 February, 2019
The Irish For: What do these popular boys' names mean - and what can we learn from them?
Social trends are reflected in different names, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha, whose first name means “like an oak tree”.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 27 January, 2019
The Irish For: Gender, LGBT and transitioning
Aerach means gay in both the modern sense as well as the original meaning of happy and carefree writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 20 January, 2019
The Irish For: How many colours can you remember?
Different languages across the world look at the spectrum and make different calls on where certain colours begin and end, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 13 January, 2019
The Irish For: Brexit and the rise of Hiberno-English
With the United Kingdom set to leave the European Union this year, it’s time for Hiberno English to become the official language of the EU, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 6 January, 2019
The Irish For: Forget the January blues - let's talk about birds
The fact that the Irish words for duck and lake sound similar gives an alliterative flourish to a seanfhocal about not sweating the small stuff: Ní troimide an loch an lacha – the lake is not heavier for having a duck on it, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Monday 24 December, 2018
The Irish For... All the most important Christmas words (including Fairytale of New York as Gaeilge)
Hó hó hó! Darach Ó Séaghdha has a selection box of Irish words for Christmas.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 16 December, 2018
The Irish For: The word deatach, meaning smoke, also refers to the family huddled together around the fire
As one of the first human inventions fire is often used as a metaphor for human civilisation and its downsides, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Saturday 15 December, 2018
# the-irish-for - Sunday 9 December, 2018
The Irish For: All the characters you know - good, bad or total craic vortex
Darach Ó Séaghdha has a typecast character for every letter in the alphabet – the funny one, the vulgar one, the one with notions or the one who sucks all the craic clean out of the room.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 2 December, 2018
The Irish For: As the nights are closing in - curl up by the fire and learn some winter words
Codladh Geimhridh literally means ‘winter sleep’ and is the Irish for hibernation. Sometimes that feels like a viable option in the Land of Eternal Winter (Hibernia), writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 25 November, 2018
The Irish For... it's fun to drink uisce beatha in a síbín - but watch out for the poison drop
If the Irish phrase for a hangover doesn’t put you off drink nothing will – ‘braon nimhe sa ceann’ means ‘a poison drop to the head’, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 18 November, 2018
The Irish For...The role of dogs in legends, proverbs and the Brehon laws
Dogs took centre stage in Irish mythology, stories and proverbs, just like they dominate our social media feeds today, writes Darach Ó Séaghdha
# the-irish-for - Sunday 11 November, 2018
The Irish For... Seal snot: The literal translations of sea creatures are brilliant
The Irish term for a jellyfish translates literally as seal snot. If this floats your boat you might also enjoy mathair shúigh – suckmother – for squid.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 28 October, 2018
The Irish For... Some spooky Irish words to get you in the mood for Samhain
Darach Ó Séaghdha talks us through the meaning of some spooky words like Cendail, a collective noun for the heads of one’s decapitated enemies.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 21 October, 2018
The Irish For... How the Vikings influenced the Irish language
Darach Ó Séaghdha talks us through the meaning behind some words that get their origin from Medieval Ireland’s interaction with Scandanavia.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 14 October, 2018
The Irish For... A drunken swaggerer and a place abounding in dogs
Darach O Séaghdha talks us through some of the marvelous definitions in the venerable Dinneen dictionary.
# the-irish-for - Sunday 7 October, 2018
The Irish For... You'll find some of the most beautiful autumnal words as Gaeilge
Darach Ó Séaghdha brings us all the wonderful Irish words for things like the harvest moon, conkers, and the rustling sound made by trees.
Your say
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Poll: Do you support Ryanair pilots in their strike against the company?
THE HIGH COURT will rule today on whether Ryanair can prevent pilots based in Ireland from taking part in a two-day strike later this week.
A number of pilots represented by the trade union Fórsa will strike for 48 hours from midnight on Thursday 22 August, and could engage in further strikes on future dates.
It comes after 94% of directly-employed pilots working for the company, who are members of the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association (IALPA), backed industrial action in a long-running dispute over pay, working conditions and related issues.
The association is seeking pay levels it believes are common and competitive in the commercial airline sector, but the company has argued that there is no valid trade dispute between the parties.
The strike is also threatening to disrupt the travel plans of hundreds of Irish passengers.
So today we’re wondering: Do you support Ryanair pilots in their strike against the company?
Poll Results:
No (4421)
Yes (2138)
I don't know/No opinion (454)
Share your story: voices@thejournal.ie
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