To Seamus Blake’s immigrant parents from Ireland, the language of prosperity was English.
So when they learned of their son’s teenage interest in their native Gaelic, Blake said they asked him: “What good will that do you?”
What it did was turn him into an evangelist of the endangered language and the voice of the only radio show regularly broadcast in Irish Gaelic in the New York area.
“I became kind of a fanatic,” Blake said in his rich Irish accent on a recent Tuesday before setting to work on the weekly broadcast of Mile Failte, the show on WFUV-FM that he has hosted since 1978.
Blake’s show offers an aural portrait of the surprising vitality of a language that UNESCO has deemed “definitely endangered.” Irish Gaelic belongs to a branch of Celtic languages that includes Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Breton and Cornish.
In the last two years, Blake’s Saturday morning show has featured music ranging from Afro-Celtic funk to reggae, as well as storytelling and interviews — all in the language that generations of Irish immigrants like his parents had once considered moribund.
“It has never been a dead language,” Blake said, adding that one of the main goals of his show is to demonstrate how Irish Gaelic is used today. There are also on-air language lessons.
These days, the language appears to be on a rebound. In the past decade, Ireland’s government has ramped up efforts to spur its use as a national language and, in 2007, the Irish language was granted official status in the EU. Media, business and online enterprises have all emerged to cater to Irish speakers.
In another sign of how the language continues to survive and evolve, Facebook, the popular online social network, said it would soon launch an Irish Gaelic version of its site. The translators are debating translations of such terms as “gift shop” and “mobile phone.” Perhaps more importantly, there has been a cultural shift in the way that the language is perceived.
“Twenty or 30 years ago, preserving or using the language outside of Irish-speaking regions was fairly radical and definitely on the fringes of Irish culture,” said Thomas Ihde, a professor at the Institute for Irish-American Studies at Lehman College. “Today, the Irish language is seen as hip and part of mainstream Ireland.”
Recordings of Blake’s shows are in the archives of the institute, part of the City University of New York.
Ihde said it’s no longer unusual for Americans to learn the language. He cited the examples of New Jersey-born Greg O’Braonain, who writes for an Irish soap opera, and New York-born comedian Des Bishop.
Karen Reshkin, a fiddler in Chicago, said she and her husband, a guitarist, began learning the language in 2001 at an Irish cultural center so they could understand the lyrics of Gaelic songs they played.
“The spelling system is actually very methodical,” said Reshkin, who also has an Irish-language blog. “But when you learn it, it’s very intimidating.”
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
One of Japan’s biggest pop stars and best-known TV hosts, Masahiro Nakai, yesterday announced his retirement over sexual misconduct allegations, reports said, in the latest scandal to rock Japan’s entertainment industry. Nakai’s announcement came after now-defunct boy band empire Johnny & Associates admitted in 2023 that its late founder, Johnny Kitagawa, for decades sexually assaulted teenage boys and young men. Nakai was a member of the now-disbanded SMAP — part of Johnny & Associates’s lucrative stable — that swept the charts in Japan and across Asia during the band’s nearly 30 years of fame. Reports emerged last month that Nakai, 52, who since
EYEING A SOLUTION: In unusually critical remarks about Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump said he was ‘destroying Russia by not making a deal’ US President Donald Trump on Wednesday stepped up the pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to make a peace deal with Ukraine, threatening tougher economic measures if Moscow does not agree to end the war. Trump’s warning in a social media post came as the Republican seeks a quick solution to a grinding conflict that he had promised to end before even starting his second term. “If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
RSS