Irish-Americans, do you speak Irish?

Question

There's an old corny chat line.
Guy: excuse me , Do you have any Irish in you?
Girl: no
Guy: would you like some?

Today is St Patrick's day and anyone with a drop of green in them is celebrating. In Ireland the language nearly died out, the young saw it as a language of the poor and it was largely replaced with English. However in recent years it's made a comeback.

But what of the millions of people around the world of Irish descent, how much of your ancestral language do you know?

Lliam · Accepted Answer

I'm of over 80% Irish Catholic ancestry. Both my paternal and maternal sides of the family arrived in the U. S. around 1850. My paternal great, great, great grandparents and their 10 children bought farm land in western Wisconsin and there are still a whole bunch of them there farming very successfully. I met a second cousin there who still had a brogue.

I know a few Irish words and phrases like dia dhuit, go raibh maith agat, sláinte, céad míle fáilte, ceilidh. LOL And my pronunciation is terrible. Beyond that, I have zero Gaelic language skills, although I can put on a bit of a brogue.

I've had two lengthy visits to the Republic of Ireland and can understand thick accents pretty well.

For about 15 years, up to 2020 when everyone got scared of covid, I played half hour sets of Irish rebel and pub songs at a large, annual ceilidh that had several other bands, musicians and even Irish dancers.
I sing and play guitar. I'd cobble together a band each year composed of accordion, mandolin and/or Irish banjo, penny whistle, harmony vocals and sometimes an additional guitar. I put on a bit of an accent to make my narrative and songs authentic.🤣

Wraith_Cemetery · Accepted Answer

" the young saw it as a language of the poor "

That is NOT what happened at all. That's belittling the suffering of the Irish underneath the British Empire. The language was beaten out of us Irish to the point of totally destroying it. Whenever they used their true Gaelic names or their surnames in front of the British soldiers, they were beaten and tortured. Whenever they spoke a word of Gaelic they were beaten and tortured by the despicable Black and Tans.

Now the youth are so brainwashed and colonized they no longer want to learn it. Although that is changing. There is a new resurgence in the learning the language and keeping it alive.

DonkeyDan · Answer

To be fair even when some of them are speaking Ebglish it can be pretty difficult to understand them, let alone Irish 🤣

MrOracle · Answer

Like most Americans, I have a bit of Irish ancestry, but the closest I can do is sing (badly) the first verse of Danny Boy (in English). I can't claim to be any kind of good Irishman (I don't drink alcohol, so right there, I don't qualify).

jshm2 · Answer

Yes it's an old corny chat line.  But the answer to "would you like some?" is usually "yeah but none of shitty Guinness, Uisce Beatha if anything..." usually shuts the guys right up.

Dargil · Answer

I heard some Irish Gaelic spoken in Boston as a kid.

skytatoe · Answer

Not much of a comeback, everybody still hates studying gaelic in school, and they just speak it occasionally for the craic.

ohshee · Answer

I am irish-american and something else whatever my dad's side is And this is a good one I would try it but my luck is my dad's side is Elmer Fudd and it would come out sounding like him

Anonymous · Answer

Some. I took it for GCSE. I just struggled to get on to it. My older sister is a real Gael.

Avicenna · Answer

Few people even in Ireland speak it, what makes you think anyone in the US does (except maybe someone who likes studying rarely-spoken minority languages)?

FunkyMonkee · Answer

Well, how many "African Americans" can speak African? A good many of them still can't speak English! "You want to axe me a quextion?"

bean2k21 · Answer

I don't know but I speak the language of love, which means kissing. Would you mind if I started a conversation with your thighs?

DeepPassionateLover · Answer

They barely started speaking it in Ireland, its not at all even close to common

matchrestore · Answer

I have a bit of irish blood, but I do not know any Irish.

Miristheiss · Answer

I studied it for a year but it was too hard to pick up so I gave up on it.

ChiTown33 · Answer

Well I'm told I have a lot of Irish in my family tree but I don't see it. I don't really even like alcohol.

bulletbob555 · Answer

No one ever asks me if I'm Irish which I am half. I get asked about being American Indian A lot. I've had a conversation like your example a couple of times

DARKCLOUD1945X · Answer

Galich [hope I spelled right] is what it is called not Irish.

Cubus · Answer

I doubt. Not even many Irish people in Ireland speak it, as they were forced to speak English for centuries

zagor · Answer

I wouldn't call what they speak in Ireland English... Worst accent to understand I've ever heard.

Iron_Man · Answer

No they don’t you really seem to love America when are you coming

TurkishDİxon3419 · Answer

I'm really sorry that your language has been forgotten.

Irish-Americans, do you speak Irish?

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Irish-Americans, do you speak Irish?

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