(in English) Hi, I'm Clare and welcome to my YouTube Channel
If you don't know me, I'm an Irish YouTuber from Irelan
If you do know me, thanks for coming back.
Six years ago, I made a video called "Can Irish People Speak Irish"
And that video has gotten an insane amount of views in the last six months
so I figure that there is an appetite for a second one.
So I talked to a number of people hailing from Northern Ireland about the Irish Language
Bear in mind, this video is being made in the middle of the "phase-out" of Coronavirus restrictions here in Ireland
And that's why this video was done on Zoom.
Please 'like' this video if you like it, and subscribe to the channel.
Also - one last thing before we get into the meat of hte video.
It was a popular request from the last video to make the subtitles optional.
So what I've done is I've added the subtitles as a subtitles track instead of editing them into the video.
So hopefully that makes everyone happy, you can enable the captions if you need the translations
And if you don't, and you want to listen to the Irish and try to understand the Irish, you can do that.
And last but not least, the same intro I gave you int he video 'Can Irish People Speak Irish',
Yes, Ireland has it's own language - it's called Irish (in English)
And in Irish, it's called 'Gaeilge'.
Makes sense? OK, let's go!
(In Irish) Hi
Hi, How are you?
Nice to meet you, Clare!
(In English): 'I've never actually used Zoom before!"
(In English): I went to a Catholic school where it was compulsory to learn Irish for three years before GCSEs (exam)
As far as I know, in most catholic schools around my area... it would have been compulsory to do?
You did your French, some people did Spanish, and my school didn't..
and then you did Irish for like, at least three years, and then you could decide to keep it on.
I went to an Irish-language primary and secondary school
But that was in County Monaghan, in the South
I didn't learn Irish in school, it wasn't available
I didn't really start learning until around two years ago
I did this course from Future Learn
FutureLearn?
Yes, 'FutureLearn'
I grew up in Tyrone and my mother is an Irish teacher
so we spoke a bit of Irish when I was growing up
but as I said, I learned most of my Irish in school
and in Irish language summer school
I went to Irish Summer College in Donegal every year since I was eleven or around then
and I really enjoyed that experience
I had a few words of Irish when I was living in the States
I was living over an Irish pub!
but I didn't have Irish until I came here
I did my GCSE (exam) after three years
and that was about ten years ago
I was born in Belfast but grew up beside Belfast, in East Antrim
Most people in my hometown were unionists, (like), protestants
They was little thought of 'is there a lot of Irish here'
(you know), "this is a British area"
There wasn't a lot of places, when I was young,
to go to school and learn Irish
and at the time, Irish wasn't a school subject in the North
It's a lot better now, but could still improve.
I went to a part-time class in the West of Belfast
It's an excellent place to learn Irish
The classes were free
I thought to myself, why not? Why not learn Irish?
Clare (In English): Fair enough, yeah!
Both my parents were protestant, so I was brought up protestant and they didn't speak Irish
When I was young, I would watch CBBC (Children's BBC)
CITV, RTE and TG4 (Irish Language Station)
And my mother told me, one time,
At the end of the programe 'The Den' they were saying 'Bye Bye' in Irish and I was saying 'Bye Bye' in Irish back
That is too cute!
So the first Irish words I said were 'Bye Bye'
You can pick it up as another subject, but in some schools you can't, there isn't a teacher there
You need to get someone else outside of school, to learn it
(In English): We're got "Scór Na nÓg" , hich is like, a GAA competiton
where you compete for your local GAA club
and do things like solo singing, céilí dancing, novely act
All the singing would be done in Irish, the novelty act would be in Irish and stuff
As far as I know; or at least, what I was introduced to,
that was all there was, Irish-wise, where I lived
and then, apart from that, just doing it in school for three years
It is not to say that the attitude in the South or North,
that one of them is "better"
But they're (just) kind of different
And I think that is the soft touch of the education system
For us in the North, Irish wasn't legislated as a school subject
because of this, we were always ready
ready to learn our national language
Ready to stand up and say ' I'm proud of my language'
And I'm going to learn about our culture, and our history
and terribly important things like that in our society,
and understand them.
I was a member of the Irish language society in college
The other people in the society didn't know that I was a protestant
It was me who came out as a protestant
They had no problem with it
In Belfast, there's lots of opportunity to learn and use Irish
In English: I used to use it a lot
..when I was living in Belfast, but I don't have much opportunity currently
..when I was living in Belfast, but n
Definitely in Belfast, but
in other areas, they don't think about Irish
They don't want to learn it or think it's important
If you don't want to take part in the culture or you aren't interested in the language, I understand that
but I think it's important to be a part of the culture
and the history of the country
Clare: without a doubt!
(in English) It sounds really silly, but I'd say personally, I find myself a wee bit embarrassed that I can't speak it
I mean, yes, I had it in school, and had the option to do it for GCSE (exam)
it was very hard and because it was just doing it in school, there wasn't a lot of things to do outside of it
so you weren't really practicing it as much as you might with anything else
Like, I really wish I could speak it
At the minute, I'm trying to teach myself on this language app and I wish there were more outlets from it.
I know that there's a culture in Belfast and a lot going on there
I hear there's a lot of events happening in Derry too, and there's an Irish college school there now
and the the first batch of students coming out of that programme are heading onto to college
There's a kind of new generation of Irish speakers coming through that system
I think, for sure, that there is a Irish revival happening in the North
Certainly, Belfast is a central place for Irish speakers
I am very optimistic about the future of the Irish language in the North, I have to say.
Things are getting better but
people are (sometimes) strange about it
"Why are you learning Irish, do you want to be a Catholic?"
I was born in Ireland and the United Kingdom
I feel Irish and British
I didn't learn Irish as some sort of (rebellion against) my parents
I don't think - I think it used to be a political thing, but I don't think it is now
I just think there's a bias, (almost),
people think it's not good, and not worth learning
(in English) I feel like if you're coming from an Irish school and you're going to a college in the North
You can bring your own thoughts on Irish to it
and maybe convince everyone else to try and learn it
I feel like that's actually working
Showing people that it's not that hard, and it's just a nice thing to have, you know?
People with Irish - any Irish, a few words or fluent,
It's important that if you have young children, speak irish with those children
because that is the way the language lives on
I hope you liked this video
If you liked it, you might like the original, 'Can Irish People Speak Irish'
or you might like my series of Irish-language videos on my channel
There are a number of ways to support this channel
You can like, subscribe, support me on Patreon, buy me a coffee on ko-fi
or, as discussed earlier in the video, you can sign up to FutureLearn using my link down in the description.
OK, (in Irish) Thank you (in English) for watching this video and see you in the next one.
(in Irish) Bye Bye!