Clochard B & B

Spires Garden, Galway City 091 521533 Pat and Helena originally from Donegal - Irish is spoken.

Ashford Manor

7 College Road ,Galway City 091 563941 Corinne and Tom pride themselves on being a bilingual Irish speaking household.

If anyone knows of other Irish speaking B & B's in the Galltacht please post them here.

Is there a yearly directory for Irish speaking businesses and establishments? I have seen other types of annual community directories. One example for the USA that I use is our Latin Mass directory. I attend the old Latin Mass, and it is priceless in locating places when traveling. If there isn't such a directory (paper or online), it would be a good thing to gather together and sell for a modest price. This would be a great boon to Irish business and usage of the Irish language. Another one would be signs on shopfronts which say "Tá Gaeilge Againn" or such like. We see "Se Habla Español" here is California all the time, and it works for drawing in those people.

I think this is a great idea. Prone to abuse of course but nevertheless worth a try. Over and over again. Year after year!

I have good news today. Our offspring sent us off to Galway for St Val's night.

We took the opportunity to go to "Bialann Bholuisce" for dinner. Bialann Bholuisce or Boluisce Restaurant is in the village of An Spidéal on the Cois Fharraige (Fhairrge?) Road.

We spoke Irish. The staff spoke Irish. The people at the tables on all sides of us spoke Irish. Among them was a family with children of between 8 and 12 years of age. It was a delight to hear the children change the language to suit themselves but there was no faking it. They were true native speakers. I could not believe it.

A stop for petrol on the way back brought us into an Irish-speaking filling station and shop. Again all the customers, three or four different groups, were chatting in Irish and while the two members of staff were speaking English to "strangers" the moment they heard a syllable of Irish they switched and spoke fluent Irish.

I had been led to believe by all the "statistics" that the language was all but gone as a public community language.

I was wrong. There is something happening. New pride? Foreigners coming in speaking their own languages loudly and proudly (sorry!!) A belated realisation that no one else is going to save the Gaeltacht ach muintir na Gaeltachta féin. Is there a different language spoken during the winter and early spring that is smothered in the English chatter of visitors seeking to "hear" Irish during the summer invasion. Mass tourism! Killing the very culture that it seeks to experience.

Oh yes. .. and the dinner was well worth travelling for also: nice food, nice ambience, good wine, good company ... What more could you want. Go raibh maith agaibh a chlann ó.

Gotta put the money where the mouth is, literally. The factor ranking high on Irish falling out of use is economic. Supporting the Irish language businesses directly through purchases and doing business with them in Irish makes the change you want to see. It's also redistributing wealth on your own. You put money in their pocket, which hopefully they spend locally; you put the tax money in on their local level, which (hopefully!) comes back to them in some form of Irish service.

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Foreigners coming in speaking their own languages loudly and proudly (sorry!!)

Yes! I was very impressed with the Polish presence in Dublin. I went to St. Audoen’s there and saw no shame in their language. I also heard, but might be wrong, that they are more than willing to do the Irish too. I also can't get over Tura Artura speaking Irish up north. Whatever you think of his diction, he's speaking Irish and bringing a new aspect to the culture.

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Mass tourism! Killing the very culture that it seeks to experience.

Yes, I actually felt bad visiting Isis Mór. All the men trying to give you a pony & trap ride. Can I blame them? Do I want to eek a living out off of seaweed?

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What more could you want.

Nothing. ... craic agus comhrá ... sounds like a nice evening.

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I had been led to believe by all the "statistics" that the language was all but gone as a public community language.

I was wrong. There is something happening.

I liked reading your post, but I don't think you're being genuine here. Irish is widely spoken in An Spidéal, as both personal experience (yours, mine, others) and those evil "statistics" indicate.

And I seem to recall YOU stating that: "the involuntary speaking of Irish is becoming a thing of the past". Care to explain that?

Easily explained: Gaeltacht people have a choice of language now: Irish or English and I was surprised to find them choosing Irish. In earlier generations those who could speak English had the higher status and those who knew no English and spoke only Irish were deemed backward. There was no choice of language for the "involuntary speakers of Irish". Now that everyone knows English those who speak Irish as well have the higher status.

I think the excellent service provided by Raidio na Gaeltachta and TG4 on limited resources and the schools in Galway must be having an effect as well as the enhanced status afforded by the Language Act and the European Union recognition. I had not expected to hear so much Irish spoken by so many.

As for my "not being genuine" I am only voicing a layman's opinion. I don't think that this website is to be confined to those with academic training. If what I post here does not come up to your rigorous standards just skip to some one else's posts. I just tell it as I see it without consulting s...is..s or authorities.

Oíche mhaith agaibh.

I was surprised at how visible (audible?) Irish was in Dingle in the height of the tourist season last summer. Following the various controversies down there, I had been led to believe that it was dead on its feet. There was lots of Irish being spoken in shops, cafés etc and I was always answered in Irish by locals when I spoke it.

I booked the same house in Dun Chaoin as last year and did all the necessary business through Irish. The bean an tí was full of local stories and news over the phone into the bargain. Despite there being a (very nice) scottish barman in Krugers, it was all Irish around the pool table and amongst the locals, young and old.

Can't wait to go back.

I don't know if it's still the case, but the larger B&B directories from Bord Fáilte in the '80s & '90s used to put a "G" symbol next to accommodations where Irish was spoken.

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There was no choice of language for the "involuntary speakers of Irish". Now that everyone knows English those who speak Irish as well have the higher status.

Yeah, funny twist of fate. English isn't so special anymore and so bound up with the English nation since everyone in the world knows it, more or less.

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I don't know if it's still the case, but the larger B&B directories from Bord Fáilte in the '80s & '90s used to put a "G" symbol next to accommodations where Irish was spoken.

This is good too. Whether it is a dedicated resources, or a "G" in a general resource, as long as the information is there for people to seek out Irish language business.

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Gaeltacht people have a choice of language now: Irish or English and I was surprised to find them choosing Irish. In earlier generations those who could speak English had the higher status and those who knew no English and spoke only Irish were deemed backward.

In other words, are you saying that in previous generations most Gaeltacht people were too far removed from the 'centres of anglicisation' and higher education? That becoming fluent in English while remaining in the Gaeltacht wasn't possible for most?

It's certainly something that came up during the Gaeltacht Commission of 1926. People complaining about the limited educational opportunities. The lack of development etc.

But at the same time, the monoglot population was tiny. Even then. Less than 0.5% nationally and less than 10% in the areas designated as Gaeltacht in 1926.

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As for my "not being genuine" I am only voicing a layman's opinion. I don't think that this website is to be confined to those with academic training. If what I post here does not come up to your rigorous standards just skip to some one else's posts.

I think you've misunderstood me. I just find it funny that you use an anecdote from An Spidéal as evidence that "something is happening". A new dawn etc. It's a bunch of Irish speakers in a restaurant in a well known Gaeltacht community! Exactly what one would expect, surely?

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I was surprised at how visible (audible?) Irish was in Dingle in the height of the tourist season last summer.

I heard Irish quite a few times in the lineup at Garvey's Supervalu.

My employers in Dún Chaoin (2008) spoke Irish to one another all the time (except when they argued on a couple of occasions---they'd switch to English to shout and swear). Though neither are native speakers, their now-adult children are, having been raised with Irish only from the start. The mother spoke of how the 'town folk' [Dingle] in the 80s often looked down on the wild Irish speakers to the west. Dún Chaoin, Baile na nGall etc. And how her kids did their best not to let strangers know that they used the language at home. IIRC, she said the attitude is better now, but she wasn't hopeful when it came to the long term survival of Irish as a community language.

One of my favourite related moments in west Kerry was meeting an Irish speaking family from Cavan, which included two teenage daughters who spoke it amongst themselves and with their parents.

(Message edited by Danny2007 on February 19, 2010)

"Exactly what one would expect, surely?"

No, sadly...if one goes on the reports alone, one is lead to believe that even the Gaeltacht is basically English speaking now, with children outside of Gaelscoileanna eager to shed Gaeilge and those inside butchering it to death (not my personal opinion).

It's good to hear stories like this...more than the businesses, I'm happy to hear about a restaurant full of Gaeilgeoir patrons and young children fluent and using.

Reports are usually pretty bleak, and statistics that indicate otherwise so ridiculously optomistic one could find one's self hard pressed to find believable "good news" when it comes to Irish...

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I just find it funny that you use an anecdote from An Spidéal as evidence that "something is happening". A new dawn etc. It's a bunch of Irish speakers in a restaurant in a well known Gaeltacht community! Exactly what one would expect, surely?

Hmmn! How well do you know us Irish? I think I told this yarn before. Twenty years ago when working in a Gaeltacht area I found myself in the local pub late in the evening listening to all -- ALL -- the locals chatting away in English. I knew most if not all of them were speaking Irish at home and they certainly spoke Irish to me. Better Irish than I could dream of. I asked one of my "informants" Why? His reply:"náire".

Consider any minority group trying to make the transition to acceptance by the majority -- the Travellers for example -- they must first change how they speak unless they want to clear the pub of all other customers. Were Irish-speakers ever in such a situation? If in a social situation one of them wanted to make an impression on the beautiful daughter of the Big House would they do better speaking Irish or English.

Hearing everybody in a posh restaurant speaking Irish was an amazing experience. For me.

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No, sadly...if one goes on the reports alone, one is lead to believe that even the Gaeltacht is basically English speaking now, with children outside of Gaelscoileanna eager to shed Gaeilge and those inside butchering it to death

I can't agree with this. In my own experience, I always heard Irish in areas where "the statistics" showed that a high percentage of residents spoke it habitually.
And it was never just in one area. Usually three or four. The local shop, outside the RC church, down by the pier, and/or local men in the field on the side of the road having a chat. This was especially the case in three areas. Inis Meáin, Baile na nGall, Doirí Beaga (Gaoth Dobhair). Connacht, Munster, Ulster...

In areas where "the statistics" show low levels of use, I rarely if ever heard Irish. For example, Acaill (not a word in five days) and Ceann Trá (very little). I should add that I wasn't even aware of the statistics very much when I first visited many of these communities. Some multiple times. I wasn't travelling around with a clipboard noting what % of conversations were in Irish, but to me the census data has proven reasonably true.

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Were Irish-speakers ever in such a situation? If in a social situation one of them wanted to make an impression on the beautiful daughter of the Big House would they do better speaking Irish or English.

Hearing everybody in a posh restaurant speaking Irish was an amazing experience. For me.

But you're describing a situation where a pub full of Irish speakers in the Gaeltacht were speaking English with each other. You couldn't make it up. They have no one to blame but themselves. 'The Big House' ffs. The past is the past. This isn't the 1850s. Native speakers deserve a lot of the blame for the state of the language imho. You had too many who gave the language up to 'get ahead' and too many (although very much a minority) who wouldn't give learners the time of day because of their 'book Irish'.

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Hearing everybody in a posh restaurant speaking Irish was an amazing experience. For me.

If it's an example of a newfound pride in using Irish in public, then great.

Maith thú Danny

Getting back to the original question, maybe Gaillimh le Gaeilge would know of Irish-speaking accommodations in Galway.

Paul