深夜亚洲福利久久

Sc茅al Gaeilge 贸 Sheachtain na Gaeilge

10 Mar 2025

Jenny Keane, Project Officer at UCC Academy has recently returned to learning to increase her conversational Irish language skills.

Jenny what led you to enhance your Irish language skills?

I struggled with Irish in school and found it really difficult, so I never made much of an effort with it. Now as an adult it feels important to have at least some understanding of my native language.

A couple of years ago myself and my husband went to a wedding in Ballyferriter (Baile an Fheirt茅araigh), which is a Gaeltacht and we were embarrassed to realise we were the only ones out of our friends who didn鈥檛 have fluent, or close enough to fluent, Irish. Of course, by the end of the night we were ordering as Gaeilge!

Since then, I tried Duolingo on and off but decided in the last year to make a proper go of learning the language.

How are you learning your Irish?

I鈥檓 doing a conversational Irish night class in UCC. We don鈥檛 really have homework; we have a few optional exercises to complete but there鈥檚 no pressure.

There鈥檚 a small enough group of us in the class, about 12. It鈥檚 a conversational class so we all got to know each other fairly quickly, since a big part of the class is asking each other 鈥淐onas at谩 t煤?鈥� each week.

Outside of class I listen to podcasts like 鈥淗ow to Gael鈥� and even have a group chat with some friends where we only speak Irish 鈥� which helps keep up the practise between classes!

Do you think  interest in the Irish language is increasing?

Definitely, I feel like I鈥檓 seeing Irish everywhere now 鈥� but maybe that鈥檚 just because I鈥檓 looking for it too! I think artists like Kneecap have really helped push it into the mainstream though 鈥� so hopefully we will have more Irish artists following their example and using the bit of Gaeilge in their music, films etc.

What is your favourite word in Irish and what does it mean?

I think my favourite is piseog. It can mean spell or charm but is most commonly used to describe a superstition 鈥淎h that鈥檚 only a piseog!鈥�.

Go raibh maith agat Jenny. Maith th煤 agus 谩dh m贸r ar do chuid scileanna Gaeilge a fheabhs煤 tuilleadh. T谩thar ag s煤il an bhliain seo chugainn, go gcuirfimid an t-agallamh seo i gcr铆ch go hioml谩n i nGaeilge.

Translation: Thank you Jenny. Well done and good luck further improving your Irish language skills. Hopefully next year, we will complete this interview completely in Irish.