Can you help me with the irish translation. Reel refers to the irish step dance. Gur raibh mhaith agat.

Gur is not a word that I recognize, nor is it typical of any Irish spelling that I've seen in my studies. What you have seems to be a variation of "go raibh maith agat" which translates to "thank you."

I'm a bit too new at the language to give you a literal word-for-word translation. Others, far more adept than I will most likely respond with a more detailed explanation.

Le meas,

James

Dia duit, a Ann

After posting my above response I got to thinking. The more I thought the more this thing really bugged me. Initially, I answered from work so--I came home and dug out the focloir and am more confused than before! (incidentally, there should be a fada over the "o" in focloir but my machine isn't cutting and pasting like it should!)

Gur is a form of "go" which is used with past tense of regular verbs but it can also be a dependent affirmative form of "is".

I believe Raibh is the present subjunctive of "bi" which means "to be" or "to exist".

mhaith is a lenited form of "maith" meaning "good" or "well". What isn't clear to me is why maith is lenited.

Agat is a prepositional pronoun meaning "to you."

Putting all of that together I get:

"He was always good to you."

The pronunciation I find a bit difficult, but apparently, you already have that from your music. Having gotten one thing completely wrong, thusfar, I'll leave the pronunciation to some of the real scholars that frequent this site.

Hope this helps. If this doesn't fit the context of the overall song/line let me know. I'll get back in the books and see what else I can find.

Le meas,

James

Dear Ann,
I can only presume that your original request was for the Irish word for the dance/musical term 'reel'.

There are two words 'as Gaeilge' for 'reel'.
One, funnily enough is 'ríl' (pron. just like the English word).
The other is 'cor' (pronounced like it looks) which means 'turn, etc' which is what a 'reel'is all about.

Hope this is of some use.

Is mise le meas,
Creag 'Fintan' Batty

Boy do I feel stupid!!!! Where was my BRAIN?!?!?!

Dia dhuit

Thanks for your replies. I guess I phrased my request a little vague. I was trying to see if there was a translation for the " The Reel Thing ".
My daughter's attends a dance school by this name and her teacher was thinking of changing it to the Irish version if possible.
I spoke to my brother-in-law who lives in Ireland and he came up with "An Coir Reel". I know the word for thing is rud , An Cor Rud, or An Ril Rud, its just does'nt sound right to me. Maybe you loose "thing" in the translation.

Your observations would be greatly appreciated. My computer is not set up for fadas either.

Is mise le meas
Ann Watson.

Ann, a chara,

You can also use "ní" for thing. For example, "a thing of beauty" = "ní álainn"

Le meas,
Larry

Dia duit Ann,
"Cóir" or "ceart" can be used interchangeably for "correct" and "real". "fíor" also means "real"
So, a translation of "The Reel thing" could be
"An Cor Cóir"
"An Cor fíor"
"An Cor ceart"

Your observation that perhaps you should lose "thing" in the translation is correct as "An Cor rud" and "An Ríl rud" just don't sound right. If you want to maintain a play on words, as exists in the English title of the dance school, then I would recommend
"An Cor Cóir" as being the best option. "Cor' and "cóir" differ slightly in pronounciation in that the "o" is long and the final "r" is palatalised".
" An Ríl cóir" also sounds good as the pronounciation of "ríl" is so like it is in English that the phrase flashes the two languages at us in this word.

So, take your pick.
I hope this helps,
Seosaí