Brid Ní Mhaoilchiaráin - Sean nós singer

iontach maith ar fad! Tá glór álainn aici!

yeah man. seriously.

what happened to us? we suck...

What are the lyrics of the song in English?

learn the language

hard to do if you arent surrounded by speakers and you live in an area that doesnt offer classes. I would love to learn Gaeilge, but, how?

If your going to be pedantic it's Gaeilge!

We too must fade, quiet eventually till the winds carry our storm to a new past. Remember.

Thanks. I think the one of the differences is that there are huge areas of Wales, basically the whole of the western half, where the Welsh has never stopped being the community language. The reason why some areas are say 70% Welsh speaking is simply because 30% of the population there is English. Most speakers are enthusiastic about keeping their language and are keen to use it. I really feel that the threats are external e.g. migration from England rather than indifference from speakers.

So the situation is quite different to Ireland from what I know. We were starting off with a strong base of serveral big counties with 90%+ speakers (which are still the strongholds today). Also in many of the areas which are majority English speaking now, e.g. the mining Valleys of the south east, these all had strong Welsh speaking communities in living memory. So I think Ireland was starting from a weaker position to begin with and it was always going to be a harder task.

Sorry to say.. but it's dead now, and it's never going to be widely spoken ever again. Forcing it down our throats at school is no way to spark enthusiasm either, it has simply made me despise the language and everything about it.