Irish in Modern Literature

Years ago in this column, I mentioned reading a book by Stephen King, where he had one of his characters inject Spanish words and short phrases into his dialogue. It had no bearing on the story, just an added ingredient to make the character more interesting.

It was at that time that I put together a list of Irish words and phrases that I believed we could use in our daily conversations to make ourselves more interesting when conversing in English.

I still encourage this practice. It helps us as students to become more comfortable with using the language, instead of waiting for an opportunity to converse with another speaker or student of Irish.

Maybe now I’m paying more attention to the practice of using other languages in some of the novels I’ve been reading or the practice is actually growing. As many of you know, I’m a huge fan of horror novels, most notably vampire stories. When I first read Dracul by Dacre Stoker, I was shocked and impressed when his vampire utters the Irish phrase “Codladh mo mhac” Sleep my son.

In conversation with Dacre, I asked why he chose to have his vampire speak in Irish and not give the reader the translation. His response was simple, first it was to acknowledge his own and great-grand-uncle Bram Stoker’s Irish roots. Secondly, as a former educator, he wanted the reader to seek out the translation for themselves. With today’s smartphones it is a simple process, that I find myself doing more and more frequently when encountering foreign languages in print.

Last evening sitting outside with Mary and the dogs, I was reading a novel by Preston and Child titled The Cabinet of Dr. Leng, one of a series of novels involving a mysterious FBI agent named Pendergast. The first book, Bloodless, hooked me on this modern Sherlock Holmes type character.

Anyway, without spilling the whole story, it is quite complex, one of our characters ends up in New York City in the past in 1880. There she hires a driver who is an Irishman trying to make his living around the Five-Points area.

His character tends to use his Irish mostly under his breath and once again has no real bearing on the story except to let us know he is Irish. By the way, another character is an FBI agent as well as being a Lakota who was raised on a reservation. He too, uses his Lakota language in much of his dialogue (I told you the story is complex!).

The story involves theft, time travel and characters that Arthur Conan Doyle could only imagine. My summer evenings look to be full!

With that in mind, try to incorporate some of these words and phrases into your own daily conversations. You will find that you will be able to use them easier and more often once you start.

When the Speak Irish Cleveland classes first started, we had a gentleman in the class that was in the automotive industry. His job required him to speak to groups of people and sell his product or services. He told me he began to address his listeners in Irish and that many people would remember him as that Irish fellow, and being remembered in his line of work was very advantageous.

When we use Irish with others, we strengthen our own skills, but we also share our heritage with those that may not even know the language is still vibrant.

Cupla Focal