My brother and I are going to be in Ireland from June 3-13. We'd like to catch Mass in Irish while we're there. We're going to be in Shannon, Cashel (Tipperary), and Galway/Inishmore.

I was thinking of making sure we were on Inishmore on the 10th of June, which will be a Sunday, but before I knock myself out will the priest be saying in Irish?

Are there any Irish language organizations that have a listing online of churches with Irish language Masses?

thoughts?

a

http://www.catholicireland.net/parishes/masstimes.php?ChurchID=501

Bain triail as seo.

Oh I'm intensely jealous of yourself and your brother a Antaine.

Beir bua agus beannacht

it's our joint graduation gift =)

Go raibh míle maith agat, a Nnnt

When you are in Cashel call into Cashel Folk Village. Its a small museum just off the Main Street. Well worth a look and its run by Martin Dwyer. You will probably pass through Holycross (15 minutes drive from Cashel) which has a renovated 12th century Abbey where you can get Mass in English but again its well worth the visit and is open all day every day.
Regards.
Tom.

Abair ceann ar mo shon!

Inis Mór is as Irish as it gets... Once the local's spot the yanks they'll no doubt drop the Gaeilge agus lean leis an mBéarla.. So make sure you answer anything they say to you in English as Gaeilge!!

Will you not be venturing outside of the west??

No, we're visiting with family in Shannon and Cashel. I need to do a bit of hands-on family tree research as well. It will be my second trip, on the first we took a bus tour and did the "touristy" things, but we just stopped in Cashel about a half-hour and the closest we got to the Aran Islands was to look at them from the Cliffs of Moher.

My brother made a return trip by himself, staying with the same family we're going to stay with this time, but also got to see Inishmore and was at Newgrange on the solstice. He was there when National Geographic was taking pictures for their spread on the Celts.

Unfortunately, I won't get to see Newgrange or Dingle since we'd waste too much time traveling in opposite directions (we only have 8 functional days, losing one going out and one coming back). They will have to wait for the next trip.

A Antaine,

If you stay the night on Inis Mor, don't stay at An Crugan. The facilities were nice enough but the owners live in a locked off area of the house and they are rather impersonal. The woman seemed downright not to like us until I said I cared about Irish and was studying it, she relented somewhat on her cold exterior then. Note that this wasn't as bad as the B and B in Clifden. I suppose if you did stay there, no other places available etc. she might like you if you start out speaking Gaeilge as I know you would anyway.

Beir bua agus beannacht

we'll prolly stay wherever paddy stayed the last time

If you would like to hear the mass in Irish, I have 2 occasions of it in podcasts at
www.philo-celtic.blogspot.com
These were in New York.

This year's starts here:
http://philo-celtic.blogspot.com/2007/03/aifreann-naomh-pdraig-2007-cuid-haon.ht ml

Last year's starts here:
http://philo-celtic.blogspot.com/2006/03/aifreann-naomh-pdraig-cuid-haon.html

There is a superb chapel in An Spideal on the coast road toward the ferry for Inis Mor. My wife and I went in just to have a look around and it was quite nice. It's quaint but everything we saw..Bibles, Missals, Tapestries...all was as gaeilge. We were not there over a Sunday so we did not attend Mass. However, I was stationed in Africa for the better part of a year and was able to catch Mass as gaeilge on RTE over the internet. Given my location (far from home) and other factors, it was a wonderful experience/escape from the day to day rigors.

I highly recommend you investigate!

If you find yourself on Inis Mor, there is another chapel on the main road toward Dun Aonghus. It's small but apparently serves the bulk (if not all) of the island. Beyond driving by in a cart pulled by a tired old horse, I have no further knowledge on this particular church.

Le meas,

James

Mór an trua sin.

Baile an Chaistil i gcontae aontroma & Giant's causeway is quite impressive..

I live right on the louth/meath border so newgrange is just an assesroar up the road, i think it gets too much attention for what it is. Éire has better things hiding away...

I lived in An Spideal back in '02 and attended that church many times. You'd have to check with someone in town on the language, though, because it wasn't in Irish every week. Also, at that time, the priest was being shared with other parishes, so he was only in Spiddal once a month or so. I hope you have luck finding a mass--you can usually find it every day, so if you can find an Irish-speaking town, you can probably find a mass.