If you give your children Irish names...

[SeanChailleach]

...because it's part of their heritage that you want them to have, do you also teach them some Irish even if you live outside of Ireland?

Nope but I am from NI so didn’t learn (was v political to do so at that time - I do regret it but my skills go as far as blessing myself!) but I wanted the link and we spend quite a bit of time at home (both in NI and Ireland). I did go for easily spellable names though.

Yes just the basics we have these books as well.

www.fattiburke.com/books

'Some Irish' can mean a lot of things. Are we talking the famous "ciúnas bóthar cailín bainne" or is conversational stuff?

Personally if I were to raise an Irish kid outside Ireland I'd want them to have at least a few words of the language. They don't have to be líofa in it. Think part of the determination comes from seeing parents squirm to get perfectly able kids exemptions any way they can

I gave my DD an English name, but she has several friends with Irish names, and says they have no Irish either. I was looking for something like a poster or a teatowel that had some phrases or words, so she'd pick up the words without trying, but I found nothing.

There's plenty of places selling items as Gaeilge, Connect the Dots design does lovely posters of animals in Irish (or used to anyway).

@SeanChailleach

I gave my DD an English name, but she has several friends with Irish names, and says they have no Irish either. I was looking for something like a poster or a teatowel that had some phrases or words, so she'd pick up the words without trying, but I found nothing.

Why don't you just use cúpla focal with her in daily chat?

I do that, and once in a while she'll say "oíche mhaith" or "slán leat", but mostly she just starts talking High Valerian or Belta.

@Garman

There's plenty of places selling items as Gaeilge, Connect the Dots design does lovely posters of animals in Irish (or used to anyway).

I had in mind something more substantial. Cúpla míle focail, nó cúpla céad, ar a laghad. It is noone else interested? All these kids called Tadhg and Orfhlaith and Méabh, to honour their heritage, would you not want them to know the stories and songs and sweet sounds of conversation in the language? Their actual heritage?

I always remember this whenever I hear an irish name

OK well you said post or tea towel, they're hardly going to have much information on them either.

What about books, cartoons, Irish picture books, we have one with My first 1000 Irish Words. Then there's all the old stories etc, very easy to find books of them, and then there's Futa Fata books, and so on.

@SeanChailleach

...because it's part of their heritage that you want them to have, do you also teach them some Irish even if you live outside of Ireland?

I have Romany and Indian heritage and yes I do teach the kids the languages as well as the culture; but that’s because for Romany and Indian-Hindu people language is the gateway for culture. That’s not the same for Irish people and in fact I know many Irish and Scottish people who find it really frustrating when foreigners call themselves ‘Irish’ or ‘Scottish’ because of ancestry and because they know a language ‘nobody’ speaks lol.

My parents are Irish and my son has an Irish name. I'm not teaching him Irish (we're in England). My mum taught me a few phrases but I wouldn't say I knew Irish. She did teach me the history and got me into things like Irish dancing which I think helped a lot more with cultural identity (also Rebel songs!)

I think a language is hard to teach unless they have somewhere to use it and practice it and unfortunately it's not very used but I think it's nice you're making them aware of it.

@Ozanj that is an intriguing insight. You know Irish people who regard other Irish people as foreigners just because they were born elsewhere? It's not a perspective I've encountered.
@Babyfg that's it exactly. I have (somewhat) fluent Irish but the thing with the names for me is, I get my hopes up.

@SeanChailleach you’ve never encountered the perspective that an American with Irish ancestry isn’t actually Irish, and it’s funny/frustrating when they think they are? I would say that’s a fairly common perspective.

@puppalicious when you say ancestry, are you talking parents, grandparents? It's intriguing, especially when you are talking about people who learn the language, play traditional music, dance, and so on. I've seen a few comments like that on mumsnet, but never come across it irl. I imagine maybe people are being polite. Maybe behind my back they're like, would ye look at that big eejit of a plastic paddy there.

Hmmm, Irish parents I would consider you Irish if you considered yourself Irish. Grandparents only, I think it starts to get a bit distant. I would call you “of Irish descent” perhaps rather than Irish although legally of course you could be Irish. For the Americans, I’m thinking more great great great grandparents...

I am Irish and my children have Irish names, but as I was brought up in Northern Ireland we were not taught Irish at school in the same way it is taught in the rest of Ireland. So, unfortunately we do not know enough to teach our children. We do however, teach them about their heritage, the stories and songs we have been taught and the origins and meanings of their names.

I'm Irish and despite my excellent arguments, my children don't have Irish names.

So far, only one of five has shown any deep interest in the language (currently doing really well on Duolingo). We have a really knackered old First 1000 Words in Irish that all of them loved growing up, and they loved singing little Irish songs which I taught them. Two of them did Irish dancing and loved it. I couldn't deal with the level of commitment required to keep at that though.

I think the language has to have some context for it to stick - it's hard to just have a family language and nobody else to speak it with, and even harder if one of the parents doesn't speak it at all and has no real link to Ireland.

I find myself biting my tongue and thinking uncharitable thoughts when Americans tell me they're Irish and have bestowed 'Irish names' on their children - Teaghan, Loghann, Kelsey, Kayla, Makayla, Keaghan, Meaghan, Katelynn, Colleen...

A few decades ago I was working on a children's camp in New Jersey. The kids often used to chat about their backgrounds. One day a little group of them talking like this. They called themselves Puerto Rican, Irish, Italian, Black, and combinations of these. One little girl looked glum. "I'm not any of them. I'm nothing," she said. The girls decided that she must be American, but not Native American, and they weren't sure if being just American was a thing. (She had a Norwegian name).

OP I’m Irish and my kids have Irish names, we have Irish language books, song books and songs and I try to speak Irish with them casually on a daily basis (they are babies and toddlers so not exactly at the responding stage yet).

Duo lingo is great as an App (it’s not perfect but is a good reminder). An Siopa Leabhair is also fantastic and will post to the UK and further!

The reason I was thinking of posters is they are prompts - as you say a language you only use with one or two people is hard to sustain, but if you have friends over and you've a poster that says something relevant, you might read it. Like when you come in, a sign that says "fáilte isteach" and as you leave "Go dtí tú slán". Signs for kids rooms that say "Seomra Sheáin" or whatever, and maybe one of those dials you can point at "fáilte isteach/buail ar an dhoras le do thoil/ I mo chodladh/ ná bac liom/ sa gháirdín/ ar scoil".
I could make this stuff myself but if it's just me, it'd just be me being eccentric. If every Irish home had the same ones, then it becomes a shared thing and there's some chance of the kids (or us) using the words together.

This is actually the reason I moved home from the UK to have my baby, I wanted them to learn irish in school and my Irish is absolutely abysmal 🤣🤣 my home town now has an amazing Irish school and I'm hoping to send my child there, to give them a better chance at learning the language.

For my fellow 'plastic paddies' everywhere.

I think the poster idea is genius, @SeanChailleach.

No, because I don’t speak it. I was raised here. I did ask my mum to teach me at one point but she was a bit rusty, my dad pronounced everything differently (east vs west coasts) and I lost interest.
I do encourage them to learn languages in general and I hope it will be something they’re interested in eventually. They know the Irish phonetics (what I know), aged 5&7.