To Seamus Blake’s immigrant parents from Ireland, the language of prosperity was English.
So when they learned of their son’s teenage interest in their native Gaelic, Blake said they asked him: “What good will that do you?”
What it did was turn him into an evangelist of the endangered language and the voice of the only radio show regularly broadcast in Irish Gaelic in the New York area.
“I became kind of a fanatic,” Blake said in his rich Irish accent on a recent Tuesday before setting to work on the weekly broadcast of Mile Failte, the show on WFUV-FM that he has hosted since 1978.
Blake’s show offers an aural portrait of the surprising vitality of a language that UNESCO has deemed “definitely endangered.” Irish Gaelic belongs to a branch of Celtic languages that includes Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Breton and Cornish.
In the last two years, Blake’s Saturday morning show has featured music ranging from Afro-Celtic funk to reggae, as well as storytelling and interviews — all in the language that generations of Irish immigrants like his parents had once considered moribund.
“It has never been a dead language,” Blake said, adding that one of the main goals of his show is to demonstrate how Irish Gaelic is used today. There are also on-air language lessons.
These days, the language appears to be on a rebound. In the past decade, Ireland’s government has ramped up efforts to spur its use as a national language and, in 2007, the Irish language was granted official status in the EU. Media, business and online enterprises have all emerged to cater to Irish speakers.
In another sign of how the language continues to survive and evolve, Facebook, the popular online social network, said it would soon launch an Irish Gaelic version of its site. The translators are debating translations of such terms as “gift shop” and “mobile phone.” Perhaps more importantly, there has been a cultural shift in the way that the language is perceived.
“Twenty or 30 years ago, preserving or using the language outside of Irish-speaking regions was fairly radical and definitely on the fringes of Irish culture,” said Thomas Ihde, a professor at the Institute for Irish-American Studies at Lehman College. “Today, the Irish language is seen as hip and part of mainstream Ireland.”
Recordings of Blake’s shows are in the archives of the institute, part of the City University of New York.
Ihde said it’s no longer unusual for Americans to learn the language. He cited the examples of New Jersey-born Greg O’Braonain, who writes for an Irish soap opera, and New York-born comedian Des Bishop.
Karen Reshkin, a fiddler in Chicago, said she and her husband, a guitarist, began learning the language in 2001 at an Irish cultural center so they could understand the lyrics of Gaelic songs they played.
“The spelling system is actually very methodical,” said Reshkin, who also has an Irish-language blog. “But when you learn it, it’s very intimidating.”
CHARGES: The former president, who maintains his innocence, was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison for a failed coup bid, as well as an assassination plot Far-right former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro is running out of options to avoid prison, after judges on Friday rejected his appeal against a 27-year sentence for a botched coup bid. Bolsonaro lost the 2022 elections and was convicted in September for his efforts to prevent Brazlian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking power after the polls. Prosecutors said the scheme — which included plans to assassinate Lula and a top Brazilian Supreme Court judge — failed only due to a lack of support from military top brass. A panel of Supreme Court judges weighing Bolsonaro’s appeal all voted to uphold
The latest batch from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s e-mails illustrates the extraordinary scope of his contacts with powerful people, ranging from a top Trump adviser to Britain’s ex-prince Andrew. The US House of Representatives is expected to vote this week on trying to force release of evidence gathered on Epstein by law enforcement over the years — including the identities of the men suspected of participating in his alleged sex trafficking ring. However, a slew of e-mails released this week have already opened new windows to the extent of Epstein’s network. These include multiple references to US President Donald
Chinese tech giant Alibaba yesterday denied it helps Beijing target the US, saying that a recent news report was “completely false.” The Financial Times yesterday reported that Alibaba “provides tech support for Chinese military ‘operations’ against [US] targets,” a White House memo provided to the newspaper showed. Alibaba hands customer data, including “IP addresses, WiFi information and payment records,” to Chinese authorities and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the report cited the memo as saying. The Financial Times said it could not independently verify the claims, adding that the White House believes the actions threaten US security. An Alibaba Group spokesperson said “the assertions
LEFT AND RIGHT: Battling anti-incumbent, anticommunist sentiment, Jeanette Jara had a precarious lead over far-right Jose Antonio Kast as they look to the Dec. 14 run Leftist candidate Jeannette Jara and far-right leader Jose Antonio Kast are to go head-to-head in Chile’s presidential runoff after topping Sunday’s first round of voting in an election dominated by fears of violent crime. With 99 percent of the results counted, Jara, a 51-year-old communist running on behalf of an eight-party coalition, won 26.85 percent, compared with 23.93 percent for Kast, the Servel electoral service said. The election was dominated by deep concern over a surge in murders, kidnappings and extortion widely blamed on foreign crime gangs. Kast, 59, has vowed to build walls, fences and trenches along Chile’s border with Bolivia to
RSS