Monolingual Irish Speaker
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- čas přidán 18. 11. 2011
- A video of a monolingual Irish speaker Seán Ó hEinirí (John Henry), who passed away in 1998. You won't see many of these anymore. This video is from a documentary called 'In Search of the Trojan War' from 1985.
Dr. Seamus Ó Cathain from UCD in the video.
Information on the documentary: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Searc...
Information on the Irish language: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_la...
Thank you to everyone who has visited this video. I have no idea why it went viral, and I'm sure most of you are here by random chance so allow me to put it into perspective for those of you who are unfamiliar with Ireland and its history. The Irish language (Gaeilge) is the native language of Ireland, and up until the early 1800's was the majority spoken language of the island. As time passed - English was slowly adopted as the working language of the country.
What John Henry represents is the last of a dying breed. Back in the day, it wasn't uncommon to come across a person who spoke only Irish. But as time passed, such a person became less and less common. Under British rule, Irish was prohibited in schools. The Irish famine which saw a million people die and a further million emigrate hit the Irish speaking regions of the country very hard. Irish migrants during this time saw the English language as a means for gaining work abroad in America and England, so they taught it to their children. All this combined had a large impact to the number of Irish speakers and Irish speaking communities.
Within a generation, Irish was relegated to some sparsely populated communities from the south to the north-western coast where it still to this day operates as a community language.
I hope this puts this video into more context and explains why John Henry's life and death was a poignant moment in Irish history. I suppose it reflects a story that has been shared many times over around the world, where an indigenous language has been replaced by the language of its coloniser. It is not unique to Ireland.
A few points to note:
* Every child in the Republic learns the Irish language in school, but due to poor teaching methods (too little emphasis on conversation) - competency is poor.
* There are schools (gaelscoileanna) where subjects are taught through the Irish language, which results in higher competency of the language. These schools however only makeup a small percentage of the total number of schools. They exist in both the north and the south and are in high demand.
* There are communities (An Ghaeltacht) - where the Irish language is still the main language of the community.
Thank you all for watching.
CZcams sometimes sends presents
I'm from Basque country and I can relate in what you say. My grandpa could barely speak spanish but was obliged to do so.
Basque was prohibited after the spanish civil war and lots of people lost the languaje. After that ikastolas (the same as gaelscoileanna) were created and so the competency aumented, but there are also a low percentaje
Theese stories are indeed a cultural treasure
Really interesting and sad, but it's good to hear that it isn't gone.
Irish is a dead language get ready to be replaced by the Anglos
@@austinmontgomery117 it's not a dead language, and it should be protected. no language deserves to be "replaced"
"His only audience is the tape recorder, a sure sign that the tradition is nearing it's end" my heart is breaking
When i heard that i felt a bit flat tbh...i hope gaelic doesn't die out soon. Especially with a lack of focus/funding due to coronavirus and Brexit.
Indeed. It's something I suppose that this video now has had over 1.7million views.
Yeah.
Chuaigh na teanga amach, agus ní hàbhair linn. ní laibhrimíd as gaeilge inniú, mar ní féidir linn féach an teanga beagnach márbh os comhar.
Apologies for any bad Irish, just thought up what I know and tried to make a point.
@Mike haha go raibh maith agat, mo chara :)
Sure that's a sad line to be ending this video with, but hopefully it's powerful enough to bring this topic back to our attention
when its more impressive to only speak one language than two
edit: guys this was not meant to start a shouting match
mainly because geographically, they nearly in the epicenter of the anglosphere and the guy never learn it for economical or personal reason which makes it even more unlikely
when it's more impressive to speak ones native language than a foreign one
@@mrnarason 'Geographically, nearly in the centre of the anglosphere' yah right, swim 20km from the southeast to the euroasian continent then we'll see how far your english language works.
@@travelleryu A lot of people on the european continent speak speak as a second language, I'd get me pretty far. I know right hard to believe.
@@mrnarason i assume he is making a joke with regards to the french
Wales is pushing for the Welsh language to be part of the curriculum which I think is outstanding. I think it would be fabulous if Ireland and Scotland made their languages mandatory. No country should ever lose its mother tongue. And the Gaelic languages are so lovely!
The irish language is mandatory in school so we learn it until we are around 17-18 and leave school. In official ireland all state documents are translated into Irish and signs are in Irish etc. But unfortunately it most parts of the country it’s not used on daily basis. I love the language and was fluent in it when I left school but let it lapse a bit as there was nowhere to practice it. I’ve been relearning it recently. There’s a lot of new interest in the language recently which is great.
Mar a deir
paraic mac piarais tir gang teanga tir gang ainm
A lot of people joke about spending years having to learn Irish but only remembering "may I go to the toilet?" There's even a video of a group of soccer/football fans chanting that when in mainland Europe for a championship.
Welsh is compulsory in Welsh schools to the age of sixteen and has been for a while.
Welsh has always been part of the curriculum
Seán Ó hEinirí who lived in Cill Ghallagáin (1915-98). He's thought to be the last one who never learned English. But his knowledge of the local tradition was unmatched.
My great Uncle didn’t have a word of English. He was from a place called Camus. I must check when he died, but their are still people in that area who would only have a few words they learned off telly and radio.
@@namename-zu8uk theres a time and place
Thats cap cuz a lot of people in my village dont know english at all
It would be nice to find someone who speaks only Shelta...
@Joey Robertsonson no
An Irishman who speaks only Irish. Holy shit.
Was the norm before the British Empire utterly brutalized the nation.
jode the English language was spoken in Ireland from about the twelfth century. Irish was the dominant language until the mid sixteenth century, but declined from that point until it revived with the Gaelic league in the late 19th century when Ireland was still very much part of the British Empire. The British never made the use of Irish illegal and in fact its use was recorded on the 1911 Census form.
@@Denis-tg6jw it is much more fun to blame foreigners for everything though
@@travelleryu learn Irish then, or just say nothing
CelticCross90 may I clarify one point? When I said "poor teaching in Irish schools". I meant the poor teaching of the Irish language in Irish schools. Forgive me for that poorly worded statement and the confusion it caused.
Watching this made me cry actually. Imagine what he must have felt, having younger people come to him to record his stories in his language so they would live on. Coming to him over and over for more stories. I hope it gave him hope and fulfillment.
My great grandmother Grace Gallagher from Co. Cork spoke no English till arriving in New York in the mid 1850's. Working as a domestic servant in a fine house there, and meeting Patrick and married in 1866.She learned a bit of English , but spoke only Irish to her husband. We have a photo of her taken in 1916 in a place of honor in our home.
I’m from Cork haha
Wow! My great grandmother wasn't even born in 1916!
Absolutely fascinating. Thank you for sharing
My great grandmother also came in 1850 from Roscommon but there is not hint from her children that she spoke only Irish. Of course shw as 12 and may have either already spoken english or learned it and never said a word to her kids about speaking irish. Immigrants often put the past behind themn
Unusual for someone from Cork not to speak any English.
I grew up in a Welsh speaking family and spoke only Welsh until I was about 5. My education continued in Welsh until I was 11 and then bilingual education until I was 16. It was a lovely time, all the family gatherings were in the Welsh language with barely a word of English heard. I really miss those days.
Said the guy called "Aussie Sam." [Honestly intriguing though.]
don't you worry, I'm from the Balkan and we're largely bilingual as well (apart from the local Slavic dialects we all basically know to heart). English has found its way to dominate over the entire world (at least in territory if not in population). partly because the world really needs a uniform language so that we can understand each other, partly because, well, it's the language of the world's most prolific colonists, isn't it?
@@milanstevic8424 Coming from England's first colony I would have to agree ;-)
At the beginning of the 20th century around 90% of Welsh were native Welsh speakers, it's now around 20%, sad to see this culture fade. Welsh survives as an original language of the British mainland (including much of what is now England and Scotland), before even the Romans got there, let alone the English. The history is incredible, but many English speakers want to get rid of it. Just cultural vandalism. I hope there won't come a day when the only Welsh you'll be able to hear is a recording in a museum.
@@aussiesam01 I also wish that the word balkanization doesn't become all that's left of the Balkan peninsula just as much. But somebody wants to keep it balkanized badly, almost to the point where someone's geopolitical strategy has to be forever cemented in a lower-cased word, and then tatooed on our foreheads.
Oh we would get along just nicely. I've heard amazing stories of Irishmen and Serbians drinking together. Maybe it's the Celtic origins, who knows, but oh boy are we holding a grudge against anything English.
And yet here we are, speaking English, as if Latin from before wasn't bad enough, further subdued into cultural self-annihilation.
My own language is full of borrowed words from Turkish. At this point I'm happy we still have a country to call it our own. Stay strong.
@@milanstevic8424 You hit in the nail on the head and, as you say, even if the language was spread in a malignant way it has provided a medium to communicate across many cultures
This sounds so different from the Gaelic spoken by L2 learners, even Irish ones. The accent doesn't immediately strike me as "Irish", and the total lack of English loanwords is refreshing.
It's easy to miss, but there actually is an English loanword in the story! The last sentence of his story is: "Steipeáil* Mártan isteach uirthi" - 'steipeáil' is borrowed from the English 'step'. Off the top of my head, in another of his story he used the English word 'saucepan' as well (in that case for the lack of an exact Irish equivalent).
To my ears, it sounds almost like Russian in places, crossed with Icelandic
@@Joiner113 Kinda the same to me - just I would put it the other way around: Scandinavian affect (the melody), and a bit Slavic - the lilt
This is the Irish accent :) The others are the more mixed ones, with more English and other accents.
@@timomastosalo I disagree
"A sure sign the tradition is nearing its end." That killed me. Its the same here in Hawaii. 'Olelo Hawai'i was banned in schools. My grandma told me stories of how they beat kids if they spoke Hawaiian. Now its hardly here.
It will come back! There’s lots of languages programs and it’s on Duolingo now. Don’t lose hope ❤️ Hawaiian is such a beautiful language, let’s hope it flourishes!
Ukrainians can definitely relate
In 19th century Ireland, the English state schools would punish Irish children for speaking Irish by making them wear a tally stick. Every time they spoke Irish a notch would be made on the stick and after a time they would be punished as many times as there was a notch on the stick, which the Irish called bata scóir; score stick.
Don't give up. It was the same here in Aotearoa/ New Zealand when l was a child, now you hear Māori words in use everywhere. Even middle aged white folk on the TV. As a middle aged white woman l can confirm, it's lovely to hear and l'm glad my ancestors didn't succeed in wiping it out.
@@nikiTricoteuse Pathetic ‘white’ guilt. Are Irish New Zealanders included in your guilt trip?
Real Irishman. Refused to speak English his whole life to preserve the Irish language. That is amazing and it makes me happy that people fight to preserve their culture.
It was more likely just the case that growing up in a remote Irish speaking community and likely having received little formal education he had no exposure to the English language growing up and little incentive to speak it
@@imperatorscotorum6334 interesting
Lmao, people don’t “resist” languages. It’s simply a factor of environment. Not every Irishman was urban living in cities. Even if you wanted to preserve a language, if you were surrounded by another, you’d become bilingual as you’d have to communicate somehow
Bilingual people are shown to have better cognitive skills, focus and memory. Practically his loss
@@FakenameStevens source?
I’m not even irish but the Irish culture needs to be preserved, it sounds beautiful
@Google User Bruh, do you really think preserving culture means ethnonationalism? Because then you probably have a few screws loose
@Google User there are millions of Irish descendants in North America & Britain.
They literally helped build nations and were grateful for the opportunity and did not expect them countries to abandon their roots.
Yet here you are with this hypothetical view of the indigenous population being racist as they might want to preserve their ancient culture in the future.
It was the Irish who brought civilization back to Britain and parts of Western Europe after the Dark Age when the Roman Empire collapsed. Research it.
I have some great Eastern European friends who call Ireland home and they cherish it and have a deep love for our culture.
Ireland is a melting pot of Celts, Vikings, Normans, Basques, Angola Saxon over millennia, I think you are grossly miseducated.
I suspect your mind has been franchised to the cultural Marxist ideology, you haven't got an iota of respect.
I hope you one day see the light 🙏
@Google User Fuck off.
@@shanemolloy6873 I wouldn't call it "cultural marxist", it's closer to "neoliberal"
@Google User Indigenous people's cultures must be respected and preserved globally irrespective of mult-ethnic demographics.
The only caveat is where aspects of those cultures involve normalized abusive practices such as forced/child marriage, genital mutilation, ethnic or religious persecution etc cultures sadly found in a number of non western or non Christian heritage countries.
Just as fascinating as the Ancient/Byzantine Greeks that still live in southern Italy, and speak a more ancient version of the language.
Do them exist? As venetian I heard ab Greek words in southern languages but never heard ab ancient greek
@@pietroromagnolo6166 grecanico in calabria, grico in salento, mantangono peculiarità non presenti nel greco moderno
@@pietroromagnolo6166 Yes, there are remaining Greek villages that speak variants of the Dorian, Messinian, etc. Forms of ancient Greek.
Xuanizatzio ah okk interessante, infatti un mio prof salernitano ne aveva parlato che nella loro città parlavano una lingua, nella città confinante a sud avevano vocaboli greci ma non pensavo così tanto
@@pietroromagnolo6166 attento salento, non salerno! purtroppo temo che il tuo prof abbia ragione, non so quanto diffuso sia ancora l'uso di queste parlate. dai video che si trovano sembra che il grecanico mantenga una certa maggior vitalità rispetto al grico e che entrambi siano cmq mutuamente intelleggibili con il greco moderno
Besides the special relationship the Irish and my tribe the Choctaw share. I’ve always said the Irish are such an example of how to resist colonization and maintain their identity throughout such long colonization as they’ve endured.
Yakoke!
@@AnGhaeilge Ome! Tá fáilte romhat! ( I hope that is correct I had to use google.) Means a lot that you replied in my language. Indigenous people globally have to stick together and recognize each other's struggles. Dia dhaoibh
@@alanbrott3159 It is correct! :) I learned some Chahta a few months back, so I know a few basics. Lots of love to my friends from turtle island.
My deepest thanks to your ancestors for helping mine. The Great Hunger is still very much part of us and the act of solidarity by the Choctaw is an important reminder of goodness.
Much love and many thanks for what your people did for mine 💚☘️
I now why this vid went viral: It's completely real, authentic, unpretentious as well as being moving and reminding us all of how much we must never forget our past. Thanks for showing us.
I see the same type of idea with us Native Americans here in the states. Our elders' first language usually wasn't English, and these stories are passed down through oral tradition as well. It really touches my heart to see elders across the globe speaking their language and sharing stories passed down
Lots of love to turtle island!
the cultural aggression of some ethnic groups is killing us
I was like, "holy shit his name is fucking Bird he's for real!!"
@@user-oe5wm9nc5s lol Yeah!
@@alejandrocivitanovae8320 It's nothing to with agression. People need to speak the langauge of the majority so they can communicate or get a job. The number of living languages will inevitably decrease over time.
There is a big difference in sound from someone who lives in a genuine Irish speaking area (Gaeltacht), and someone who grew up in a city and learned it through an Irish medium school. He has a more authentic sound - as would many others living in the area.
A Sheain,
Would you know where one could get access to these fantastic interviews with John? It would be great to learn these stories as gaeilge apart from them being a great learning resource.
Go raibh míle maith agat.
Seán
I hear tale, that, for some reason, our children are supposed to be black Muslims. Over my dead body!
I believe this goes for pretty much every language in existence. English is the best example just in the UK alone there are 3 countries that speak English but have different accents, pronunciation and dialect. Jump over the pond to N.America and the same thing is going on and not just between Canada and the US but between the individual provinces and states contained within their borders aswell. ✌
@@amodernalchemist432 Maybe, you are thinking about Old English and modern English. Funny thing is that any man who would speak Old English would be confused as homosexual. Lol. I believe that it is known as Olde English.
@Rián Go to the gay club! I like the ladies!
Brings a tear to me eye hearing our native language spoken like that. I wish I had kept on my conversational skills after my grandparents died. 😢
Ya, the true pronounciation of Irish. It's extremely depressing and sad that it will be lost. There's no point in speaking a language whose pronounciation has been lost to time. Using English phonetics does not do the language justice.
It's never too late, "cùpla focal (pronounced-coopla fuckal, a few words. ❤️ An Gaeilge
This is exactly the kind of video that CZcams was designed for.
And so rarely used for
underrated comment. I was just thinking how nice it would have been to have had CZcams even just in the 90s when my Grandparents were alive. No one ever need to forget the sound of their loved ones anymore. I missed the boat.
I think it was actually designed more for "home videos", not professional documentary style content. But it works well for both.
In the Isle of Man lives Robert McCondrill. He speaks English, but he is also the last man to speak Manx. He is determined to not let it die out, although when interviewed recently, he said for all the good it was doing he might as well be talking to himself.
that is truly sad ,the youth of today dont know what they are missing out on.
No way, is he really the last manx speaker? Always thought manx was still used a lot
Hope they have recorded his stories too.
@@viciouslady1340 Good morning visciouslady. It's a joke. Last man? Talking to himself?
@@AI-tc8fv @A I Really sorry... it's a joke...last man? Talking to himself?
It is a tragedy to see unique languages disappear in absolute indifference.
The Irish language had government support..... real sad thing is something like Coptic or mayan.
Languages come and go. It is no tragedy at all.
@@davidbarry8035 Come on man, so does human life. People want beautiful things to live on, no need to be such a nihilist.
@@davidbarry8035 Yes it is. But it is inexplicably ignorant to just let a language die.
It's like letting a cancer patient rot away because they're gonna die anyway. Like, why bring them to a hospital when you can just let them be.
@@davidbarry8035 culture disappearing isn't a tragedy?
I can see the way my Grandfather used to tell stories in the way this man does. It would take him ages to describe just a small part of the story, but he was so descriptive and eloquent, you would never get bored of listening.
That was the way stories were recited before peoples attention spans got fucked by modern technology
His storytelling is so melodic it’s almost hypnotic. Truly a beautiful language
being a Scottish Gaelic speaker I had a stroke trying to understand this
I don't blame you I can't even understand it as a regular Irish speaker. His dialect is isolated and hard.
Ha ha so true. I have a grasp of Dublin Irish and this dialect killed me.
It's the true Gaelic pronunciation.
120mm Smoothbore nah it’s more Influenced by Norse and English.
@@abloodorange5233 Modern day pronunciation are effected by English, that's the true Gaelic pronunciation of "Irish" words.
This language, spoken like this, makes sense of the Irish accent. It sounds so good. Like its speaking to my cellular memory.
Masses of us ought to move back there and not let the culture die out. All I have left is my freckles and my Grandpa's name.
Katherine Chapman Chapman is English 😕
@@LadyIarConnacht I don't think that would be a good idea, you guys have lived and grown up as Americans and only have some small parts of Irish gentics left - That wouldn't be "returning the Irish to Ireland" that would be "Flooding Ireland with Americans"
I've felt that. It's the collective genetical memory. Thousands are talking to you from times past and you sometimes can't even find a logic in that. All you can is feel it.
@@LadyIarConnacht Ireland do needs the help od all of her lost children today, trust me. Although I'm a Jewish man, and not ethnic Irish, I can't feel nothing but pain regarding the current situation in Ireland.
The fading of these traditions is an incomparable tragedy. As these storytellers leave us, the recordings kept by archives and scholars will become more and more important.
Never forget that the violence of colonialism doesn't just kill people, but entire ways of life. Whole cultures wiped off the face of the Earth.
Not easily, though. Not in cultures that value their past. Sadly, though, with the youngest among us not valuing traditions those recordings will fade into greater obscurity over time.
Storytellers leaving without being able to pass their stories to a living Teller breaks my heart. And Irish is such a beautiful language, but it deserves deliveries like John's.
Quite interesting.
This is a real Irish speaker. I can speak Irish but I learned in Dublin. Dublin/Leinster Irish is textbook Irish. There's no dialect in Leinster. That guy is as OG at it gets... Deadly to hear it, sounds beautiful.
Respect for you also you know to speak Irish language unlike the Irish friend of mine. From the indian subcontinent (Pakistan, also brutalized by the British Empire.)
@@travelleryu piss off mate, pakistan was born in 1947.
@@bitzannbobz Even the queen of england a foreigner hahaha India and Pakistan has 6000 year old history we had a culture when you didn't have a language
@barnoftheyard Created by British gerrymandering. Same tactic they used in Ireland Cyprus Sri Lanka and Myanmar.
@@travelleryu the empire was evberything outside britain dude
I'm very grateful to you that you have put this on CZcams, otherwise this storyteller would have gone largely unnoticed. Professor O Cathain published a bilingual book and tape of a collection of some of the shorter stories told by John O Henry called Stories of Sea and Shore, which is now available on-line. The story he is telling here is a much longer one, obviously in the great tradition of hero stories. It's called 'Martin of the Bright Salmon', which is now in the Archive of the Irish Folklore Commission, though unfortunately it's not readily available to the public. The other important story he told was Loinnir Mhac Leabhar na Leann. Of course, John O Henry wasn't the only storyteller in this part of Ireland, but sadly he was the last of his kind. Go raibh maith agat, a chara.
How impressive. Thank God they recorded that “just in time” before it would become lost forever!
There’s a sing-song quality to the intonation that reminds me of Swedish.
That's only because he's reciting a tale.
Hurdi gurdi!
or maybe faroese
Aye that reminded me of Swedish as well.
Pratar du Svenska?
@@finnoneal432 Nej det gör jag inte
Big thanks to Dr. Seamus Ó Cathain for preserving Seán Ó hEinirí's stories to the best of his ability.
He reminds me so much of my grandfather -- he was also a storyteller. In U.S. language revitalization, I've heard it said that a language does not die -- it goes to sleep. It can be woken back up. I think we're seeing that now with Gaelige and I hope it continues!
I had a friend whose grandad was from Nova Scotia. His family from Ireland. He was born around 1900. Not sure when he came to the U.S., but he could speak Gaelic. He died in the mid 90s. I wish we had recorded him. He was a great character.
Nova Scotia is in the US now? ;)
He must have been a bit lonely, as the rest of them speak Scots Gaelic, as different as German and Dutch
@@brianmathews2926 He meant many people born in Nova Scotia later emigrated to the U.S. especially to New England, to work in factories (like my family). Your comment doesn't seem to understand this history.
@MAGNI My family was from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. They were Northern Irish (Donegal /Protestant like many granted land/ships passage) but Irish through and through - not Scottish. (Though I'm not sure which form they spoke Donegal even today speaks mainly Irish). There were also Irish Catholics/English Catholics in the Maritimes (my family intermarried on one side). The first St .Patrick's Day parades in the Americas were celebrated in New Brunswick, by Protestant Irish, at times in conjunction with Catholic Irish communities, to celebrate Ireland.
@Taiwanlight That's amazing about Romanians in Spain. As I understand it, Visigoths (from the area today called Romania), with alternating Roman encouragement and antagonism, moved to Iberia to become its ruling elite not that far from two millennia ago. They faded from history in the 8th century, I was told. So any surviving affinity between the two modern tongues is just about mind-blowing.
When a language dies so does the troves of knowledge and wisdom that is carried with it.
Not really
That's the sad truth, brother. Unfortunately, languages will disappear and it's inevitable. I'm a Javanese, and Javanese language actually has a lot of native speakers, even more than Russian if I'm not mistaken. It's so apparent for me that the loss of "standardized" Javanese language has so many effects in so many aspects of life. Sadly, I don't know how to stop it.
"When an old man dies a library burns"
@@fluidthought42 yes true and sad
@@j-69 Yeah? Then please would you care to read out the hieroglyphics and tell me how the pyramids were built?
Weird how natural and pleasant Irish really sounds. I don’t like the sound of modern Irish at all, but that gentleman had a lovely accent and made the language sound majestic.
To be fair, he *was* reciting poetry -- in a very artificial, stylized fashion. That being said, I also adore his accent. It doesn't sound terribly different from the modern Conamara accent I'm familiar with, though.
@@samuelbarham8483 reciting poetry is not artificial. He spoke Irish with the indigenous intonation not English ones. Modern Irish is spoken with an English Irish accent. This man never learned English and spoke the Irish of long ago not just in terms of dialect or it being “old” but speaking the Irish language how it’s supposed to be spoken.
Ooh I think you're both correct! Poetry does, or at least used to, even in English, have 'artificial' and unnatural (in terms of conversational speech) prosody, could say affected speech, but perfectly appropriate for the spoken material, but also, whichever way Seán speaks, it is completely unadulterated from English, and that is not something that can be said.for modern modern Irish.
(Btw I'm in favour of Irish existing with English prosody over Irish not existing at all.)
Wtf is wrong with modern Irish?
Irish is a very beautiful and surely an underrated language. I am learning it right now, táim ag foghlaim Gaeilge faoi láthair. Beannachtaí ón Rúis, a chairde! 🇷🇺❤️🇮🇪
Bruv it's you again. I remember how you commented under the Irish Gaelic video by Langfocus.
Good! I'm not even from Ireland but it's a shame that so many regional languages in Europe are in danger of disappearing. We need more people to be able to speak Irish and pass it on to their children. There's an Irish course in Duolingo for those who don't know!
@@clubb2724 yeah it’s me. Irish is the most exotic language that I’ve ever encountered but it is still worthy to learn and it’s a truly poetic language.
@@ministr2302 indeed celtic languages are very intriguing
Deas! Tá mé ag foghlaim Gaeilge freisin, agus is Seiceach mé! Is teanga an-álainn í.
Tabhair aire, a chara! ❤🇨🇿
Man, imagine being the last of the people who speaks a language that few understand. It would be lonely.
At least 500,000 people would understand him perfectly. He would not have understood the majority of the rest of the population of Ireland as they don’t speak Irish or Gaelic.
Plenty of people understand him, it's just that they can also speak English, which he can't.
@@COM70 Actually they can't ....many native irish speakers have commented they can barely understand his dialect.
My ex is from Kerry he left Kerry at 17 he's now 70 and his grandkids can't understand what he says his accent is so broad still
@@cuanfenton9132 Always hated ye when ye were on the aural in the Leaving 🤣
My cousin in the US just posted this......my family come from this village, and I spent many summers in the pub with those men....it is still an AMA point place, beautiful and wild, and the Irish language continues to flourish.
My grandmother took in teachers and priests to teach them colloquial Irish.....while she was knitting Aaron sweaters....I am so lucky to have these memories.
I remember how excited I was when I learned Ireland had it's own unique language. It just keeps getting better the more I look into it. I'm an American of Irish heritage, and it's a wonderful thing learning where my family originated. Thank you for sharing this!
The sounds nothing like the Irish spoken by bilinguals today. He's kept the real Irish pronunciation instead of the English accent which has ruined the Irish spoken today
The word brogue referring to accent originally referred to those with a broken English accent speaking Irish. Later it transferred to those speaking English with an Irish accent, a sad irony there.
He has a west coast accent. Obviously someone from Dublin isn't going to have the same accent as he has. His accent is no more real than a Dublin man who grew up speaking Irish. Even before the English was spoken in Ireland different regions would have had different accents. Pronunciation changes from region to region, don't be disingenuous by saying his regions dialect is real while others are fake
It's Connaught Irish.
@@michaelmichael8314 love the way you say The English haha class
Shame on British Empire
Gotta love the algorithm sometimes for reccomending things like this. Glad to see such a piece of cultural history being preserved like this
Me: "I'll need subtitles for this"
Subtitles: "Love shuffle choke before the comeback we different snow I can see particle ball in the ground get all shaky TV"
🤣 I thought it was an old saying I don’t understand
Interviewer: "What was it that impelled you to learn those stories, John?"
John: "Adam worship. We are the Remagen. We shall reign with Gina ball, and shave the goalies. For Piazza HDL, tomorrow bitter Santa gave mossad wigwam, and Shango, the Nevada Lucian, all greedy weed."
We met a monolingual Gaelic speaker once in the Aran Islands, a lovely old lady. One of the best presents life has given me ❤️
From a Scots Gàidhlig speaker who's had many a conversation with some Irish family, this is almost impossible for me. His accent is probably the thickest I've ever heard!
Scotland = collaborated with the British Empire
Ireland = fought against the war criminal British Empire
jode nowhere near as black and white as that, nowhere at all
@@travelleryu You've got a bug up your butt that's bugging you and I think it's some type of English species.
jode are you a fucking idiot?
@@travelleryu you do realise that we're polling at 54% for independence?
Absolutely precious. Maith thú Seán and thank you so much.
What a treasure of a man. We need people like him to keep the culture alive. Thanks for posting :)
Not gonna lie, this video showed up on my recommends and I read the title hilariously incorrectly; MONGOLIAN Irish speaker. It still intrigued me nonetheless, so I gave it a watch.
Like someone else already said, the quote "His only audience is the tape recorder, a sure sign that the tradition is nearing it's end" really hit like a brick.
I laughed aloud because of your mistake!
He speaks irish without an english/irish accent. Sounds like the real stuff
Pretty sure he has an Irish accent since he's Irish you pleb
@@PiousMoltar you couldn't figure out what they meant? Just had to be nasty?
I guess he meant he doesn't have a modern Irish accent?
But what he has is a REAL Irish accent, not tarnished by English.
But even then, back when all of Ireland only spoke Irish, there would have been different accents all over the country. That's just how it works. And the only way you can have "no accent" is if you don't speak...
@@penyarol83 There isn't just one Irish accent though. There are many different accents across the island. Furthermore, as Gaeilge has three main dialects and each dialect will have different accents in different areas.
It sounds gross.
The narrator makes this sounds like not the 9 o'clock news
I love the cadence in his storytelling. It just sounds like he's telling you something you need to know.
It sounds like a mix of Russian and Arabic. This is why diversity and different cultures/traditions are beautiful and need to get protected. I'd hate to live in a world where we all mix together and sacrifice our traditional values in favour of suppressing everything that is considered not in line with the world...
@Google User Truth hurts doesn't it
It's older than Russian, only basque is older
@@eamonlyons9933 there are some controversial opinions about how old is basque really. I'm from Galicia (Spain) and loves Irish modulation. cadence, never heard before, but seems familiar, an accent like galician language (or spanish talked by north people) maybe portuguese (french even), but not english absolutely.
@@justsomeguy4087 some cant handle the truth...I teach my niece and nephews our North East African language ( writing as well) and practice traditions at home......and take summer trips.
I have no clue how this sounds anything like Arabic to you. It sounds like a weird Russo-Caucaso-Scando thing.
Amazing how there were many Celtic peoples at some point, France even Spain had a lot of Celtic and Celtiberian cultures, in the end only the ones in the British Isles remained and even now their languages are disappearing, quite sad.
Bretagne!
Bohemia - the "main part" of the Czech Republic has its name derived from the Celtic tribe Boii. :)
Spain's north region (Galicia and Asturias specially) got heavily occupied by the Celtics in ancient times
I’m a quarter welsh and it’s not dying here!
Cymru am byth!
Brittany is basically a stronghold for the Celts who fled the Anglo Saxons; essentially they are British either way.
Everyone: LEARN ENGLISH
Him: NE!
Cúrsaí socheacnamaíochta: Foghlaim Béarla a sheanfhear
Eisean: ná foghlaimím!
I think the proper Irish is “Feck off”.
Fun fact: there is no irish word for yes or no. The only way he'd be able to express negation would be "I will not".
@@astaphe9186 not that simple, a lot of the time it's "Did not" or "am not", either way it's juts echoing the verb in the question
@@fearmor3855 Learn't
My grandmother was Irish, though lived in England most of her life. As far as I know she didn't speak Gaelic. I was born in Ireland but left when I was two years old, and grew up in England. Even with these tenuous connections, and some very dear Irish friends, this video touched me deeply.
"his only audience is the tape recorder a sure sign the tradition is reaching its end" ain't that the truth. The Celts never wrote down their history or myths, not because they were illiterate but because they believed by writing it they would become lazy and their memory weak I think they had a point
Well, it didn't happen for the Greeks, though!
@@ilariabarnett8700 no it didn't but the Greeks were supaceeded by a culture similar to their own (roman) which accorded them a degree of respect. The Celts and their culture were distroyed by the romans a process continued by the germanic peoples (anglo saxons, Frank's etc) it. all depends on who writes the history
Wish someone broke tradition and written it down.
@@markstedman8186 the Romans aspired to be like the Greeks. Greeks had medical, mathematical and philosophical knowledge that they lacked. Celts were seen as valiant warriors by the Romans but that's where it ended. Look in "De Bello Gallico" ... The Celts were doomed in the moment they clashed with a more technological advanced culture. It is the history of our specie.
Ironically, his audience has grown exponentially thanks to the internet.
I'm French and live in Paris. I'm tired of this city. I want to tell stories and live by the shore
Je suis de Marseille, je vous comprends.
@@noemie6804 dans l'enfer des villes
J'y ai passé du temps, jadis. J'ai rapidement remarqué qu'au bout de quelque semaine, tous mes nouveaux amis n'étaient pas d'origine parisienne. Il me semblait donc que les seuls joyeux esprits là étaient ceux qui savaient qu'ils avaient quelque part à retourner quand ils en avaient assez.
I lived in Paris for 10 years, full of White big vans, dog shit and cigarette butts... Gone are the romantic days that were captured in Robert Doisneau's famous photos...
And ya got all sorts of refugees living in public areas there dontcha I would want to leave as well.
I am grateful for the opportunity to hear this ancient language. Twelve years after posting, it is still reaching new people and keeping his memory alive.
I've seen this video so many times. I was born in the late 90s but I wish so much I had been there to hear those stories. There's a beauty and a light in them.
This man, this video and those audio recordings are absolute treasures.
This docuseries is absolutely one of the all time best I've ever seen. I remember this scene quite well.
I'm Lithuanian and this video makes me proud we preserved our language after so many ordeals, my son speaks it too, even though we live not in Lithuania.
There were some southern preachers who spoke English, but they had the same sing songy lilt to their voices. I never knew where that came from until now.
MAGNI all of Ireland bar the Dublin area has sing song accents. Cork and Limerick flies up and down, Belfast flies up at the end, galway is less as those three but still sing song. In fact the Irish call a working class Dublin accent a “flat Dublin accent” because not flying all over the place is strange haha
That is a spurious connection.
The Irish are very good talkers and poets. I can only imagine what magic is in their language. Same for all Gaelic tongues.
The old man reminds me of my own grandfather who was born in the west of Galway in 1904. He passed away in 2006 at the age of 102. Never spoke a word of English.
so that makes him the last monolingual irish speaker
He did live in the back arse of nowhere so that would explain that lol my old man used to bring me back there during the summer holidays and I’d stay for a month. My grandmother had 5 clocks in the living room where I slept on the couch. The sound of those clocks will haunt me forever. They lived around 8k of the main road, which was actually a dirt road up until the mid 90s.
@@SystemScan101 very fascinating! what was his name do you know?
My youtube recommendations are like walking on the beach and seeing what the sea has left on the shore.
Are we just not gonna talk about how CZcams decided to recommend this 9 years later I-
No we wont. We all accepted the fact that CZcams works strangely
The CZcams gods provide WHAT we need WHEN we need it! Have faith young padawan.
Once every blue moon, the algorithm does work- and does in fact recommend videos we like
So what? British Empire left my country 70 years ago but we still have border conflicts thanks to them.
jode did you mean to reply to this
The world is such an interesting place with all its different peoples, their cultures, languages and beliefs. I am happy to hear Gaelic for the first time. Peace unto Mr. Henry, his people and all the people of all the world. Thank you for posting this video.
What is not made clear is this is from a bbc programme on the Ilyiad. The heroic tradition of the indo-europeans is astonishing, but basically is “ good man kills bad man”. Or “man kills monster with (magic) weapon”. He was just going through the beautiful nature descriptions in these stories as in the iliad.
This is every English speaking Irishman on a Friday night after a couple of pints.
'English-speaking Irishman'
So Englishman...
Pale Pilgrim A large majority of Irish nationals only speak English. So, call these Irish English at your peril.
@@summerrr1 Well it's what they are in an ethnic sense and the historical Irish would have agreed more strongly than anybody.
You can call yourself whatever you want politically, but Bulgarians and North Macedonians are still South Slavs despite one taking the name of Turkic nomadic warriors (Bulgars) and the other naming themselves after ancient Greeks (Macedonians).
Pale Pilgrim no it isn’t what they are in an ethnic sense most Irish are of Celtic/Norman heritage like most of wales ,west Scotland and Cornwall the English are of mostly Anglo Saxon heritage.
Alright you clearly don’t understand what an ethnic group is first and foremost. You’re talking about race, strict biological descent and that is genetics.
These are not the same concepts at all, the people of Ireland are descended from many groups and there was heavy, heavy English settlement in Ireland over the past few centuries in both the Pale and Ulster (both by far the most densely populated parts of the island to this day).
There was an entire distinct ethnic group in Ireland known as the ‘Anglo-Irish’ pretty much entirely of English descent that numbered in the hundreds of thousands.
In college 10 years ago I (a US citizen) met an exchange student my age from Ireland. I lamented to him that in high school I had to take Spanish classes when I wanted to “learn something cool” like Gaelic. He lamented to me that in high school he had to take Gaelic classes but wished they had “offered something more useful” like Spanish. I still think that was such a funny and real exchange. Grass ain’t always greener, and everyone around the world is all the same.
I'm an American of Ulster Irish descent. I'm learning to speak Irish, because I feel like it's a beautiful language of my ancestors, and I both want to protect it, and to connect to them.
It's not worth it. I get trying to learn about your heritage but learning Irish will never be helpful
are you sure youre not a british ulster scot? common misconception
the language almost sounds like the shoreline with the rising and falling
Tbh the world needs more monolingual Irish
And less British Empire apologists.
@@travelleryu one of these days mo chara, one of these days
@@kyzendelaguia1063 Sorry Im Pakistani and I can't understand your comment
@@kyzendelaguia1063 also what does 'chara' mean? It was also used in the thanks email when I recently donated to Sinn Fein
jode it means my dear. This translation is provide for you by a Brit, by way of saying please don't turn this fascinating video into an excuse for raking over the horrible past. Ireland and Britain are neighbours and God willing will be good neighbours
Our beautiful heritage, may it continue a bit longer ! I thank the man who memorized the old stories as so few were written down on paper.
Thanks for posting this. It's touching to see. Especially from the home county.
The Irish gov and Dublin University did so much good in recording the songs and stories in other languages too. The last recordings of Manx only exist because the President of Ireland wanted to record it.
Being from Wales but only learning the Welsh language, I'm amazed at how different this sounds to Welsh. Welsh has Ch and LL sounds which are guttural and prominent in use but there are not many (any?) here. Given the geographical proximity, and knowing that there are some shared words between the two languages (mor for sea, for instance), I'd expected something different in the sound. Love to hear this and learn.
My general understanding is that Welsh is far more distantly related to Irish than Irish and Scots Gaelic. Irish Gaelic spread into Scotland, so the two are closely related. Welsh and Irish had long been separated.
yeah, welsh/cymraeg is a britonnic language, Irish is a Goidelic language, they're both Celtic languages, but different branches
The welsh is different people entirely. They are very unique in Europe.
«More» means «sea» in Russian too, interesting.
It still amazes me how much diversity, drama and history can fit into this group of not very tropical islands of yours. Cheers from Moscow!
"Not very tropical" - you certainly got that right. It's wet and cold in Ireland.
Про разнообразие, драму и историю тех народов, которые уничтожила ваша проклятая Россия ты не хочешь рассказать?
Fascinating! So heartwarming. Thank you so much for sharing this treasure!
Wow, thank you for this. I'm a mixed race New Zealander but have more Irish ancestry than anything else. I just started learning Irish on Duolingo. I realise Duolingo isn't perfect, but with over a million people learning at least the basics of Irish on there, that is surely encouraging :)
You’re doing your part, no matter how small, to make sure this language never disappears! Thank you ❤️
Do you know how your ancestors landed in New Zealand? Such interesting history behind how immigrants from Ireland went to certain countries
Beautiful language and a truly beautiful thing to see there are still monolingual Irish speakers
My granny spent her childhood in Mayo and she could only speak irish (she learned english in school). Now she can't remember a word of irish and only speaks english. I always thought that was strange.
Not to mention sad, as that's the trend nationwide.
thank you for preserving this.
My Mum's from the Isle of Barra and didn't speak English until she was seven.
In the film (the "fillem"?) "Whiskey Galore", the woman who plays Duncan McRae's mother, so my Mum tells me, could not speak a word of English.
I've been meaning to learn Gàidhlig for years… mebbe now's the time.
Thanks for the reminder.
_Alba gu bràth!_
❤️
Can't wait to see you all again in a year when this is on our recommended.
Thank you Seán Ó Heinirí for your tales and words. Ten summers of recordings, wow. That's huge for Irish Gaelic
That man speaks in" rhythm", Wow. reminds me of the rhythm in gallic music. While traveling in Villages in Guatemala, I observed women in the center of a town doing laundry and conversing in their native language. They spoke to each other about matters, and it sounded as if there were singing." Catchical" is what was spoken in that town...
I still have the "In Search of the Trojan War" series on VHS. A marvellous work. I have never forgotten scenes such as this, and the Armenian bards who could sing and play for hours.
As a welsh speaker its crazy to hear something that sounds so similar to welsh and shares some words but yet so diffrent and foreign to me too
I love the rhythm of this man’s voice.
He has such a beautiful voice ! I hope this dialect lives on !!! ❤
It's not a dialect. It's an ancient language, and it actually does have several different dialects depending on which Gaeltacht the speaker is from.
Just as English has different dialects.
Please don't be insulting!
This helps to show us how it was to live in this stunningly bountiful area in the west of Ireland, This old man speaks in the same language as my dear departed father and mother, who told us thousands of stories of times long ago and more recent that happened in their lives, it is to our family great regret that we did not record our parents when they were alive yet we have the memories which are golden treasures
My mother was born in Mayo.... her Mother had the most wonderful stories and would go on for hours in her rocking chair with all the grand kids huddled around her, it was a special time in my life. I still hear her voice and wild laugh in my head.
My name is literally Seamus Rune Galligan. I'm an ancestrally Irish American kid. This guy is exactly as bad ass as I hoped he would be, and seeing this gives me a weird feeling; it's not only a connection with my past but also an inspiration, like he's bringing me a vision of what it meant to be a man in his place and time. Irish sounds like an extremely poetic language. I love the sounds and the content of the stories. If somebody put these recordings content to tape in a way that properly preserved the sounds and poetic qualities of the language and combined it with a good, listenable translation, I would listen to them before bed every night.
Americans are Americans and Irish are Irish. Your nationality is civic not racial. You can't be Irish-American unless you have both an Irish passport and an American passport. You're just American. maybe if you leanred gaelic, you;d be accepted, but you will never be Irish unless you simply are.
@@JackHernandezGentlemanJack Jaysus. Do you know what a slender r is bra?
@@JackHernandezGentlemanJackPerhaps but where is the shame in wanting to familiarise oneself with one’s ancestry? I’m Australian and my family has lived here since about 1820, but all of my ancestry is from England, Ireland and Scotland as well as Norway. I might not have any modern connection to those places but I nonetheless come to videos like these to learn more of my ancestry
Amazing footage - thank you
this video is a treasure!! and congatulations to the people who did this documentary !!!
That's a beautiful language. I never heard it before. It needs to be preserved.
I'm not an Irish, never been to Ireland. Hell, never met any Irish person in person. My only connection to Ireland was through the writings of James Joyce and JM Synge and Oscar Wilde. But that was enough. Enough for me to fall in love with this beautiful people and culture. God bless Ireland🇮🇪...
It's a beautiful language really. The spacing of the words with the way its spoken makes it almost a melody