Thought I would post the link incase anyone is interested in supporting. I think these guys are doing great work.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/19 ... n-identity

Seán

Great work they're doing to help everyone re-imagine the Irish language and the way we identify with it. They are especially helping young people to see Irish as a living language and to engage with it in a very contemporary way that is meaningful to them.

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Please wait for corrections/ more input from other forum members before acting on advice

I'm a big fan of the group and have pretty much all of their available songs (mostly covers from TG Lurgan), and have posted about them here several times (with lyrics in some cases), but when I went to the link it crashed my Firefox software, so be careful with the link.

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I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

I've only recently learned about them and the work that Lurgan has been doing. I agree that it's wonderful to see the language brought to the younger generation and shown to be a living language with fresh new perspectives. I've been putting together playlists of their songs to listen to while I drive and work. It really helps me to hear the words and learn the language through the music.

I personally am not a fan. They did a good thing with the crowdfunding an album, then I heard nothing but English songs. I'm glad they're returning to Irish. I also disagree with the translations of songs. Call me a crudmudgen, but I'd prefer they create new songs in Irish, instead of translating English ones. The emphasis translations get among the Irish community really upsets me; for Irish to be a living language, it needs its own songs, its own literature, not translations. I know people are writing new things in Irish, but they get little to no attention, from what I've seen, to translations. Eventually, at what point do people stop writing in Irish and just do translations?

That said, if Seo Linn moves away from translations, it'd be great!

I see the translations as a way to reach out to people who might not have considered the language otherwise. But I agree, new material in Irish should get attention too. I think some of it does but would like to see a great deal more. The world is a mighty big place. I believe there is room in it for both translations and original material. I agree, it was a shame that Seo Linn chose to record so much material as Béarla however. I support artists who record in Irish whenever I can.

Táim ar aon intinn leat. I understand the logic of leveraging learners' interest in pop culture to get them to use the language. (I myself used to amuse myself by translating my favourite songs into languages I was learning.) But if there's no pivot to original material, then how much good does this ultimately do? It's like all the excitement over young people reading Harry Potter in Irish translation. That's great as far as it goes, but if they don't go on to read the work of Irish-language authors, then all we're doing is creating more jobs for translators.

I wish I understood better why the Welsh have had so much more success at supporting pop musicians performing original content in their own language. I've heard Welsh dub, Welsh country, Welsh hip hop, Welsh jangle pop, Welsh reggae--you name it. Irish has got an incredibly lively musical scene, but it seems to be partitioned off into covers of traditional songs in Irish and new content in English. The talent is there, so where's the payoff?

Oh, I totally agree with you, and truly don't mind them insofar as they get people interested in Irish. It's when that's all that gets pushed, and said people never move away from the latest translation. And it does lead into a spiral. And it's not often that the translators themselves are native Irish speakers and sometimes they don't even have good, natural Irish, and instead use direct translations/idioms, or something else completely unnatural. It's an issue, and yet these things still get a lot of praise.



I haven't studied Welsh (seriously) or read anything about the Welsh community, but I would be willing to be they have a single community. I believe that a lot of the issue is the lack of a single community for Irish, with many learners never interacting with native speakers, and just flitting to things they know in Irish. Which leads to them only talking about translations, praising translations, etc., while ignoring native works. And there's just, sadly, not enough natives to bring the interest level up so they even often hear about them. Though some of it is also on the publishing companies for pushing translations (which sell...).

I really noticed that in the one translated work I've read (the first Artemis Fowl book). Particularly with the dialogue, I could always hear in my head exactly what the original English must have been. (It didn't help anything that it was a terrible novel to begin with, but that's neither here nor there.)


I don't think any linguistic community is fully united, but the ratio of native speakers to learners is much different in Wales than in Ireland, with the former comfortably in the majority. I still don't think that's a complete answer though.

True, there is no completely unified language community. The issue with Irish, is, though, the difference in the native speakers, which is what you mentioned. I think a big problem comes from that, especially the students. In other languages, learners, especially advanced/serious ones, seem much more interested in discussing the language and interacting with the language on its own terms. Opposite of Irish, where the majority of learners would rather bring their native language into Irish, since they don't particularly care about it, since it's a school subject. Then, if those people do decide to get involved, that's how they interact with it and how they want to stay interacting with it. Especially given the difference between the languages.