Learning Irish in Manchester with Conradh na Gaeilge

Following last years Irish Language Film Festival which featured "Kings" the film based on the Jimmy Murphy play "Kings of the Kilburn High Road" this year Conradh na Gaeilge Manchain and the Manchester Irish Language Group http://www.milg.org.uk/ have organised an expanded event called Féile Ealaíon/Manchester Irish Language Arts Festival 2009.

On Thursday 17th September at 7.45pm, Gearoid Mac Lochlainn will give a performance of his poetry in Irish and English at The Friends Meeting House, Mount Street Manchester. There are only 40 places available so booking is advisable.

Gearoid was born in 1967, and he is a multi-award winning poet and songwriter who lives in Belfast. He has been poet in residence at Queens University and the University of Ulster. Sruth Teangacha / Stream of Tongues, a bi-lingual collection in Irish Gaelic and English with a performance CD, which won several prizes including the 2002 Michael Hartnett Award, is available from Clo Iar Chonnachta www.cic.ie. He also plays with the Irish language reggae band Bréag.

You can watch him on here: http://video.google.co.uk/videosearch?hl=en&source=hp&q=Gear%C3%B3id+Mac+Lochlainn&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=pB6VSrD6N46hjAeq_K3bDQ&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4#

From 9.30pm that night there will be a Comhrá at The Jolly Angler, Ducie Street, near Piccadilly Station. This event is an informal bilingual get together so all are welcome liofa nó cuplá focal/fluent in Irish or with only a couple of words.

On Saturday 19th September at 10.30am at Cornerhouse Oxford Road there will be a showing of the Irish Language feature length film (subtitled in English) of Cré na Cille directed by Robert Quinn son of Bob Quinn the director of Poitín which was screened at Cornerhouse two years ago.

The film is based on Cré na Cille (Churchyard Clay) (1948) a novel by Máirtín Ó Cadhain, dealing with Caitríona Pháidín, a recently deceased Irish matriarch whose history is revealed through conversations with others lying in the graveyard as each new arrival relates the progress of events above ground. It is unflinchingly honest, very funny, and fiercely eloquent.

Last years guest speaker Dr Eithne Ní Ghallchobhair from Ardara, County Donegal, will be returning this year as our keynote speaker. Eithne's biography is quite impressive. She completed a PhD in NUI, Galway, where she edited an Early-Modern Irish translation of Guy de Chauliac's Chirurgia Magna from Latin. She currently works with the Royal Irish Academy editing the Foclóir Nua-Ghaeilge (Dictionary of Modern Irish).

She is based in Donegal where she is undertaking linguistic fieldwork. Recently she has been appointed a member of the Placenames Commission. She has written two children's books including Dhá Chluas Capaill ar Labhraí Loingseach published by Cló Mhaigh Eo http://www.leabhar.com/ and frequently writes for the on-line magazine http://www.beo.ie/ .

The screening will be followed by a post film discussion.Tickets are available for this event from Cornerhouse Box Office 0161 200 1500.

On Tuesday 22nd September at 9.00pm there will be a showing of the Irish Language (subtitled in English) short film An Leabhar. This is another film directed by Robert Quinn for which he won Best New Director at the Celtic Film and Television Festival 2001. This will be screened at St Kentigerns Social Club, Fallowfield see http://www.milg.org.uk/ for details.

On Wednesday 23rd September at 9.00pm at the Irish World Heritage Centre see http://iwhc.com/ there will be a showing of the Irish Language short film Aqua (subtitled in English). Aqua tells the tale of Nick and Laura, an enterprising young couple, who have an export business plan involving water.

On Thursday 24th September at 6.30pm there will be the launch of the Irish Language Book Club at Manchester Central Library, St Peters Square. The subject of this meeting will be the book Cré na Cille.

Further details will be posted asap but any enquiries can be directed through the contacts on this site.

Classes start again on Wednesday 9th Sept at the Irish World Heritage Centre, Cheetham Hill Manchester, M8 8UF . Click on this link to see where the centre is: http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?G2M?X=384583&Y=400433&A=Y&Z=1

A donation of £2.50 is asked to defray costs as we are a voluntary organisation. Please contact Niall, secretary/rúnaí at ngwmurphy@gmail.com or 07988716102 for further information.

Ranganna (classes) for 2008 are on Wednesdays during school term times from 8.00 - 9.00pm. We do not usually meet during the weeks of half term, Christmas, Easter or during July or August.  We run 3 levels from beginners to almost fluent so you should find a level that suits you. We have a break at 9.00pm when refreshments are available at the bar and then between 9.20 - 10.00 we have Imeachtaí (activities). If you are coming along for the first time please email me in advance to check whether there is a class that night.

If you attend regularly we are asking that you apply for membership of our branch of Conradh na Gaeilge which will cost £2 per annum.

We have had many fascinating presentations over the years with topics such as "How the Irish invented slang" and Insults "as gaeilge" all presented by the indomitable Fear a Tí Éamann Ó Colmáin.

Books and Learning materials:

The different levels all use different teaching materials. Don't worry about what you need come along and we will provide materials. If you decide to come along on a regular basis we may suggest that you buy your own book but you don't have to.

There will be various tutors for the introductory class or "bun rang" and they will using a wide variety of sources and materials. Past tutors have used "Now you're Talking" by the same author as "Turas Teanga". This is now out of print but some copies are avaiable although these are expensive due to the euro to pound exchange rate and the postage and would cost you £19.00 but we could do a buy back deal of £9.50 at the end of the year to pass on to future students.

You can have a look at http://www.litriocht.com/ , or search ebay by all means but don't buy anything until you discuss this with your class tutor.

Other levels use "Turas Teanga" written by Éamonn Ó Dónaill who wrote "Now you're Talking" published by Gill & Macmillan http://www.gillmacmillan.ie/.

Pat Hoswell, chair of CNAG Manchester, has stopped running "Club Sathairn" his Saturday Morning classes.

Our classes are run by Conradh na Gaeilge Manchain. It was on July 31, 1893, at 9 Lower Ó Connell Street, Baile Átha Cliath, that the first formal meeting was held of the organisation to be known as Conradh na Gaeilge. In the years that followed it was called "The Gaelic League" by most of the hundreds of thousands of Irish people who enrolled as members.

When the Gaelic League was founded the Irish revolution began, Padraig Pearse said, twenty years later. Yet, in another sense, the Gaelic League was a continuation of the work and efforts of many scholars and patriots in the years before - the people who have been called "réamhchonraitheoirí."

But there is no doubt now that the founding of Conradh na Gaeilge brought a radical change in those working for the Irish Language. And the ideas which brought about this change were expressed by the man who became the first president of the Gaelic League, and later Uachtarán na hÉireann, Dr. Douglas Hyde. Dr. Hyde was a Sligo Man, son of a Church of Ireland Minister and while still a boy wrote poetry in Irish for the Dublin newspapers. He got a Doctorate of Laws in Trinity College and then devoted himself to writing and lecturing on Irish literature. The work of Conradh na Gaeilge in promoting and some would say saving the Irish Language from extinction should not be underestimated.