Unlocking Ireland - thread uimhir a seacht!

[LifeInAHamsterWheel]

A shiny new thread for us all to talk pure shite whilst we wait for lockdown to end

Ah poor Prince Philip has died. :(

May he rest in peace.

RIP to Prince Philip.

Are potatoes easy to grow? I'd live to try them.. probably won't get around to it but love the idea of freshly grown potatoes at our table

He was around so long. It is the end of an era. When the Queen dies, I will officially feel old, she was there my whole life

Potatoes are super easy to grow. Now is the perfect time of year for planting main crop spuds. They'll be ready in 20 weeks.
Here's a good article.
Give every child a large pot and a spud and see who's grown the most come September.

www.irishexaminer.com/property/homeandoutdoors/arid-30822994.html

I hope the Queen doesn't go downhill after this. I don't have much time for the Royals but she's given her life to the job.

Checking my emails here and I see an email from the Teaching Council (all teachers in Ireland must register with these) begging all available teachers to sign up for emergency sub work. Interesting, that quango never does any work unless it has to . Schools must be really struggling to staff classrooms for Monday.

I don't really care about what the Royals do, but just as figureheads, they have been around so long, it will really be a change when both of them die. God Charles as King. Hopefully he won't be too bad

It's a difficult time for any family to lose a member, whatever age, whatever social status.

It must be very sad for the Queen. Didn't realise he was so involved in the WWF.

Ah long yeah I know we can get the blight resistant varieties. Just don't like them much!

BBC just called Micheál Michael. That kind of thing really annoys me.

@Apileofballyhoo

BBC just called Micheál Michael. That kind of thing really annoys me.

Oh same here. It's not that hard of a name, do your research! The pretence that Irish names are soooo hard on MN drives me bananas.

I once had an English colleague who couldn't/wouldn't pronounce my name properly as it was "too hard". I took to mispronouncing hers too... think saying Catherine as cat-her-iyne...and she learned to get mine right in about a week. Funny that.

Well I never heard them call Michel Barnier Michael Barney-er, so I feel it's a particular lack of respect for Ireland.

Me-hall isn't even hard to say.

I can never remember which way round the e and a go when I write it. And BBC people are more likely to have learned French in school.
But I'd have thought they would have some way of flagging any word that might trip them up. (Like Eugenie and August in royal items).

Funnily enough it's Michael I had trouble with spelling, the ae doesn't make sense there.

[quote TheLongRider]Potatoes are super easy to grow. Now is the perfect time of year for planting main crop spuds. They'll be ready in 20 weeks.
Here's a good article.
Give every child a large pot and a spud and see who's grown the most come September.

www.irishexaminer.com/property/homeandoutdoors/arid-30822994.html[/quote]
Very interesting! Thanks @TheLongRider

I wouldn't get offended about that at all. Micheál is the Irish version of Michael.

My name has a different version in Spanish and French. When I worked in Spain, they called me the Spanish version of my name, which is very different to my original version. I answered to it all the time, as I knew it was easier for them to say.

I bet that Micheál would not care less.

And it's a lot better than "me-hole" which I have heard a lot of people calling him in Ireland recently :)

Irish words are very difficult for anyone that is not Irish, in fairness. I remember the last large meetup I went to before Covid, it was a book club in Dublin. There was a South African man there, a Polish woman, and a Pakistani man. They all told me that they had such problems with Irish. Because Irish is everywhere, town signs, announcements on buses, trains etc, they need to know it. They told me that they found it very difficult, that "it looks nothing like it sounds like".

I always make an effort to say and spell people's names correctly, can't imagine why you wouldn't. I wouldn't get offended if people can't manage mine though unless they're a highly paid journalist and pronouncing things properly is part of their job.

@Apileofballyhoo Micheál is the Irish version of Michael, so they are very similiar versions of the same name. So is he really wrong?

I have an uncle Micheál, and people call him Michael a lot, and then Micky and Mick.

My mother, who now has lived in England for most her life claims she can't pronounce certain Irish names!! I just don't get it..

OK so some might not be obvious when you read them, but if you get told it's Micheál not Micheal (and it's set out phonetically) surely it's not that hard?

OK so there are some names that are pronounce differently depending where in Ireland you are so that's confusing but it's not all name.

Saying all that there's plenty of names irish people can't produce so it's not personal!!

@BloodyInternetFood

My mother, who now has lived in England for most her life claims she can't pronounce certain Irish names!! I just don't get it..

OK so some might not be obvious when you read them, but if you get told it's Micheál not Micheal (and it's set out phonetically) surely it's not that hard?

OK so there are some names that are pronounce differently depending where in Ireland you are so that's confusing but it's not all name.

Saying all that there's plenty of names irish people can't produce so it's not personal!!

In many European languages, the letters have a similiar sound.

Irish has completely different rules, so I completely understand how it is hard for people.

For example, Niamh to us looks like Neeve.

To other people, it looks like Niam.

Fáilte to us looks like Fawlcha.

To other people it looks failt.

It is very different. People have to learn the rules of Irish before they can understand it.

@BloodyInternetFood

My mother, who now has lived in England for most her life claims she can't pronounce certain Irish names!! I just don't get it..

OK so some might not be obvious when you read them, but if you get told it's Micheál not Micheal (and it's set out phonetically) surely it's not that hard?

OK so there are some names that are pronounce differently depending where in Ireland you are so that's confusing but it's not all name.

Saying all that there's plenty of names irish people can't produce so it's not personal!!

It's not hard at all - sure look at the Queen, she managed to learn an Irish sentence off for her visit - and messing up a bit here and there is ok as long as an attempt is made. I don't accept that Mee-hawl is too hard for a well paid presenter to say, or too obscure for a research team to find out. If they can learn to say Polish/Nigerian/Chinese names etc they can handle the odd Irish name.

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