🚀 go-pugleaf

Sure and wouldn't it be nice to have a bit of the Gaelic on you when you
go to Ireland? But don't feel like you have know even any at all, at all.
The people who would most likely to carry on conversations in Gaelic are
either quite sophisticated (they went out of their way to learn the lan-
guage) or quite unsophisticated (they couldn't help learning it, being
peasants and all). So unless you go out of your way and cultivate an ac-
quaintance with some of these people, you'll get along just fine in Eng-
lish. That business about Gaelic being the official language may still
be practically maintained in matters like currency, stamps, and road
signs, but there's no chance of Gaelic becoming lingua franca among even
a sizeable minority of the Irish.

All of the above is not meant to denigrate Irish (which is what the Irish
call their Gaelic - at least that's the English for what they call it).
At times I think it would be great gas to live in Dingle with a native
speaker and learn Irish because I had to. The trouble with trying to learn
it before you go there is that you'd have to pick a dialect to learn
from four quite distinct ones. And getting the right pronunciation is im-
possible from a book. On the other hand, with a bit of book-learning, you
could read Flann O'Brien or Seamus Mac Grianna, which would make the ef-
fort worthwhile.

So ... pick up as much as you're inclined to, but don't feel like you'll
need it to get along. (Of course, when you're whizzing down the road try-
ing to find Galway and all the road signs are trying to direct you to 
some place called Gaillimh ...)

John Respess
respess@ngp.UTEXAS.EDU