Cody here:
Thanks to my Irish language course, I had the opportunity to spend this weekend in the Gaeltacht vilage of Ballyferriter in County Kerry. Ballyferriter is pretty much on the tip of Dingle Peninsula and, as such, is located in nearly the most beautiful (go hálainn) place on Earth.
If you are confused as to what a gaeltacht is, or about the confusing words in the parenthesis, please let me explain. A gaeltacht is a community where the Irish language is still regularly spoken. Despite the best efforts of politicians and educators, most Irish people are not actually fluent in Irish. Knowledge of the language varies greatly, and many people, especially in larger cities like Dublin only know a loose smattering of the language. There are a handful of villages, mostly located along the western coast, where the language is still fairly strong. In many ways, these places are the last remaining enclaves of an endangered culture.
Rather than let this turn into a diatribe against British colonialism, I'm going to focus on the positives of my actual experience in and around Ballyferriter.
Because we left Cork somewhat late in the day, we didn't actually arrive in Ballyferriter until after dark. And, out in the Irish countryside with a new moon, dark (dorchas), means nearly pitch black (dubh), so we couldn't really see anything except the house we were staying in (the school actually owns and operates the house for trips like this).
When we got in, I could already tell my weekend was off to a promising start. We were immediately led into a comfortable games room/library (leabharlann) complete with a turf fire. After a brief orientation, we were led into a small dining room for an evening tea (tae), complete with biscuits and sandwiches. It was simple, but perfectly so. I had the chance to start getting to know some of the people on the trip (a wonderfully diverse bunch) and generally become a little more accustomed with the house.
After we ate, a guest speaker from the area came to talk to us a little bit about the way of life on the peninsula. He stressed the danger the Irish language was in, but also seemed hopeful for the future as the way the language is taught is being reconsidered. For whatever reason, he did stress that people like Donald Trump are not a sign for hope in the future.
Mild aside, Trump owes every American abroad an apology for all the questions and pointed remarks we have to deal with on his behalf.
After the speaker, we ventured out to the village itself and sat at a pub for a few hours just to have a chance to get to know everyone in the group (it was made of students from a few difference sections of the course). We made a pretty quite night of it, though, and were back in the house with plenty of time to be rested for the next day.
It was in the morning (maidin) when we finally actually got to see Ballyferriter.
Thanks to my Irish language course, I had the opportunity to spend this weekend in the Gaeltacht vilage of Ballyferriter in County Kerry. Ballyferriter is pretty much on the tip of Dingle Peninsula and, as such, is located in nearly the most beautiful (go hálainn) place on Earth.
If you are confused as to what a gaeltacht is, or about the confusing words in the parenthesis, please let me explain. A gaeltacht is a community where the Irish language is still regularly spoken. Despite the best efforts of politicians and educators, most Irish people are not actually fluent in Irish. Knowledge of the language varies greatly, and many people, especially in larger cities like Dublin only know a loose smattering of the language. There are a handful of villages, mostly located along the western coast, where the language is still fairly strong. In many ways, these places are the last remaining enclaves of an endangered culture.
Rather than let this turn into a diatribe against British colonialism, I'm going to focus on the positives of my actual experience in and around Ballyferriter.
Because we left Cork somewhat late in the day, we didn't actually arrive in Ballyferriter until after dark. And, out in the Irish countryside with a new moon, dark (dorchas), means nearly pitch black (dubh), so we couldn't really see anything except the house we were staying in (the school actually owns and operates the house for trips like this).
When we got in, I could already tell my weekend was off to a promising start. We were immediately led into a comfortable games room/library (leabharlann) complete with a turf fire. After a brief orientation, we were led into a small dining room for an evening tea (tae), complete with biscuits and sandwiches. It was simple, but perfectly so. I had the chance to start getting to know some of the people on the trip (a wonderfully diverse bunch) and generally become a little more accustomed with the house.
After we ate, a guest speaker from the area came to talk to us a little bit about the way of life on the peninsula. He stressed the danger the Irish language was in, but also seemed hopeful for the future as the way the language is taught is being reconsidered. For whatever reason, he did stress that people like Donald Trump are not a sign for hope in the future.
Mild aside, Trump owes every American abroad an apology for all the questions and pointed remarks we have to deal with on his behalf.
After the speaker, we ventured out to the village itself and sat at a pub for a few hours just to have a chance to get to know everyone in the group (it was made of students from a few difference sections of the course). We made a pretty quite night of it, though, and were back in the house with plenty of time to be rested for the next day.
It was in the morning (maidin) when we finally actually got to see Ballyferriter.
We spent the majority of the day visiting some of the most notable sites of the Dingle Peninsula. Everyone's breath was taken by the views. The Peninsula is made up of mountains, rugged hills, rocky cliffs, and the occasional beach. It is a largely agricultural area, and it is pretty scantily populated outside of tourist season when it fills up with holiday travelers. There is also a strange preponderance of pottery shops and signs reminding you that, yes, that one Tom Cruise movie with the bad accents was shot here. After travelling around the peninsula for the morning we returned to the house for lunch. Again, the meal was pretty simple, but we where all hungry enough after the day out to eat just about anything. After lunch we had plenty of time to wander about on our own. On the recommendation of our host, we walked down to Béal Bán (white beach). |
Following the trip to the beach, we walked down to the West Kerry Brewery, a small brewery/pub about a mile from Ballyferriter. As you might guess from the accompanying picture, they had a cat. It was a very quiet place. This sort of left my wondering how any business makes enough money to stay afloat in places like Ballyferriter. The brewery/pub was very nice and could have easily held a lot of people, but there were about 7 people (and two cats) in it for the whole time we were there. |
Fast forwarding a bit, Sunday morning we attended mass at the Ballyferriter church. This was a particularly unique experience because the mass was held in Irish.
It quickly became apparent just how little Irish I knew when I only understood the "ands" and "God."
All told, for an immersion weekend there wasn't all that much immersion. That stated, it did make me all the more excited to keep working on Irish.
Now, however, I have to work on my Irish homework (to describe Donald Trump as Gaelige).
I certainly didn't get the vocabulary for that in Ballyferriter.
It quickly became apparent just how little Irish I knew when I only understood the "ands" and "God."
All told, for an immersion weekend there wasn't all that much immersion. That stated, it did make me all the more excited to keep working on Irish.
Now, however, I have to work on my Irish homework (to describe Donald Trump as Gaelige).
I certainly didn't get the vocabulary for that in Ballyferriter.