Can any Irish speakers help with a translation, please?

[itssquidstella]

I need to write a leaving card for a colleague who is a proud Irish Gaelic speaker, and I'd love to write the message in Irish.

It should say:

Dear Mr McClory (Mac Labhraí but vocative!),

Thank you so much for all the support you have given us this year. You have been an amazing head of house and we will miss you!

Best wishes,
Northgate (this can stay in English if not possible to translate sensibly)

Would be really grateful for some help!

Whoever said is fearr Gaeilge bhriste ná Béarla cliste was talking out of their arse

Yeah, looking at it, it definitely doesn't look right.

🤣

I'm sure there used to be an Irish teacher on here but can't remember who it is.

Sorry, don't know what the correct term for head of house is either. Ñever had one in Irish or English...

Coláisti Lurgan's house prefects are cinnirí tí.

Ceann tí (head of household) maybe, but don't know if it's quite right, I think a different shade of meaning maybe?

Well, ‘housemaster’ isn’t exactly an Irish concept. I mean, I doubt the Coiste Téarmaí has thought about it a lot…

Yes it's essentially a boarding school housemaster!

He's the only real life person I know who speaks Irish so I have no one else to ask!

So putting it all together

A Philib, a chara,

Buíochas ó chroí duit as an tacaíocht a thug tú dúinn i mbliana.

Bhí tú go h-iontach mar máistir tí agus cronófar go mór thú!

Le gach dea-ghuí

Geata Thuaidh

Is he a native speaker?

mar mháistir perhaps? With a sneaky séimhiú?

Or indeed

Can someone direct me to Gaelic spelling and pronunciation and the history of it?

@crosstalk here you go

You could check out bitesize Irish @crosstalk.
We usually call the language Irish (in English). There's also Scottish Gaelic which is sometimes just referred to as Gaelic.

I swear I looked there and couldn’t find it! Maybe it was the hyphen…

I was going to suggest ‘fear an tí’ along the lines of the redoubtable Gaeltacht ‘bean an tí’ but it felt weird…

I have recently become obsessed with new Irish coinages like influencer (toincaire) and body-shaming (náiriú faoin gcoirp). And ‘end-of career animal’, (ainmhí ré caite) which is boggling in any language.

ainmhí ré caite that is very dark

Isn’t it?

I cant help at all, but just wanted to say what a lovely language.

I cant make heads nor tails of it written, but as a fluent welsh speaker long live the ancient Celtic languages!!

Sorry, influencer is ‘tioncaire’ — predictive text isn’t getting on with Irish.

The fear an tí is the bean an tí's other half.

Ceann tí it is so@JaneJeffer
The word multi-tasks

I would say something like

A Philib, a chara,

Buíochas ó chroí duit as an cuidiú agus an tacaíocht a thug tú dúinn i mbliana.

Bhí tú go h-iontach mar cheann tí agus aireoimid uainn go mór thú.

Le gach dea-ghuí

Very verry much open to correction please

We had a very nice one called Gearóid who tactfully pretended not to see us when we were bushing in about 1987 in Baile Bhiocáire. Maith an fear, a Ghearóid!

Sound man Gearóid😂

Forgot to say Northgate translates as Geata thuaidh as @JaneJeffer said, but I think you might need to put An before it. So An Geata Thuaidh. This is The North Gate really, but the 'the' part is needed in Irish for a name in a way it isn't in English.
I think.