Apparently it was Seachtaine na Gaeilge last week. That is the week in which the people of Ireland pretend the hour of Irish each morning in National School wasn't just the most hellish thing ever and that we enjoyed it, learnin' bout the culture, excuse me, cultúr.
Anyway despite the fact that I speak French, Italian, bits of Spanish and am looking into learning Russian over the summer I really do not have much Irish.
I mean really this is it:
An bhfuil céad agam dul amach go dtí an leithreas?
This pretty much our go-to phrase when asked to speak a bit of Irish. It means, wait for it:
Can I go to the toilet?
Yep, that's right ask an Irish person to give you a sampla of their "native" tongue and they'll ask you if they can go for a ... Basically because this was the most widespread way of teaching Irish in National Schools, asking four year olds, who don't have best control over the bladder situation anyway, to turn to a strange language in order to be relieved. I suppose it avoided the courseness of:
Jayse miss I'm dying for a piss let us out wouldya?
Is maith liom cáca milis.
I like cake.
An infinitely more useful expression I'm sure you'll agree.
And now some vocabulary:
Cailín.
Girl.
I would have put a pic of myself up but in spite of my kinda red hair I don't make for a good study of the Irish colleen. It's a smirking thing.
Bóthar.
Road.
Above an example of a typical Irish road. The lepru-thingies are evidently resting.
Ciúnas.
Quiet.
Usually pronounced cu-NASSS and followed by muttered curses by red-faced science teachers. Or CU-Nassss by stressed out English ones.
Bainne.Milk.
Pronounced ban-je in our family, for some reason.
Andthat'sit. The height of my Irish knowledge and to be honest it's all gained from
this Carlsberg ad.
(all pics via weheartit.)