{"id":11860,"date":"2021-07-15T13:12:03","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T12:12:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/?p=11860"},"modified":"2021-07-15T13:12:03","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T12:12:03","slug":"a-gra-for-the-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/2021\/07\/15\/a-gra-for-the-language\/","title":{"rendered":"A Gr\u00e1 for the Language"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">An gr\u00e1 is an gr\u00e1in, say these two words out loud, say them out loud to yourself, out loud to the listening others around, and feel in your mouth how subtle the shift is between them; how the open mouth of love \u2014 <em>gr\u00e1 \u2014 <\/em>gets slighted by the brush of your tongue\u2019s curled tip shaping hate \u2014 gr\u00e1<em>in;<\/em> feel the quick lick it gives the roof of your mouth. It\u2019s that kind of sliver, isn\u2019t it, the one we know to be true; the one that suddenly shifts the friend or the lover to the one we don\u2019t know or want to know. In shape and in sound, there in your mouth, Irish gathers together a distinction of meaning in a unity of resonance. Where the mind of English fragments and scatters, (say them too out loud, say <em>love, <\/em>say <em>hate), <\/em>Irish holds in an elemental poetry we need to participate in to sense.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"A Gra\u0301 for the Language by Fiona Hanley\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PCk7Nh_WzdI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Sometimes what language teaches us can be that visceral.<\/p>\n<p>I am digging words in the Burren when I hit upon this realisation \u2014<\/p>\n<p><em>t\u00e1 go leor eile<\/em>, more abound, Siobh\u00e1n chirps; <em>an saoirse is an daoirse, an solas is an dolas; seo \u00e9 an fhil\u00edocht n\u00e1dur at\u00e1 le f\u00e1il sa teanga! <\/em>Siobh\u00e1n is leading us in an archaeological word excavation, amuigh san aer i gciorcal Hedge School, uncovering from Irish some sense of a way of being in the world we have only just forgotten. <em>If we lost it in a generation, we can reclaim it in a generation. <\/em>Dictionaries are scattered all around, I hold one in my lap, but there is no discussion here of the tuiseal ginideach, we are not being questioned about the <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?client=safari&amp;rls=en&amp;sxsrf=ALeKk02bIVx6sTYthT1t_C8a6XHJzapFRA:1625998989711&amp;q=modh+coinniollach&amp;spell=1&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiz9r6h5trxAhWRbsAKHZWpBVIQkeECKAB6BAgBEDA\">modh coinniollach<\/a><\/span> and all mentions of Peig are with endearment and jest. We are just picking words at random and letting the connective threads be woven from there and we weave them without trying. It feels illicit to use a dictionary in this way, and I love it. Here a space is opened of pure play, without the pl\u00e1m\u00e1s of getting anything right. Here the severed head of Irish we suffered in school is reunited with our bodies \u2014 <em>the vibrations in Irish are cos\u00fail le Sanskrit \u2014 tugann s\u00ed fuinneamh l\u00e1idir duit. <\/em>Just feel and the rest will follow; this seems to be the unspoken mantra of the Wild Irish Retreat weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier that morning, the sun rising from behind Slieve Elva, Cearbhuil leads the women down to the hazel wood chun macnamih a dheanamh, to meditate, and we follow, trusting this woman who is keeper of this land; and we go down to the hazel wood, and there\u2019s a stillness in our hearts. We\u2019ve been invited to observe a noble silence and so our passage through the curly tendrils is punctuated only by snaps of twigs, the brush of branches newly leafing and birdsong from birds I have no name for, not in either tongue. And we pause then as Cearbhuil stops and simply says \u2014 <em>\u00e9ist \u2014 <\/em>just listen. No crossed legs, no chanting, nothing specific to learn, we are simply tuning in to what is here, all around us; we are simply letting our civilised bodies contact the coill, and letting the coill touch deep into us. And later, when Cearbhuil leads us again, now through a forage walk on the land chun l\u00f3n a shol\u00e1thar, we listen then too, not just to the names that fall like small prayers to all the invisible Gods, <em>slanl\u00f3g, n\u00f3in\u00edn, neant\u00f3g, casairbh\u00e1in, <\/em>but to all the reverence is an m\u00e9ad meas at\u00e1 ann in this woman\u2019s gestures; we\u2019re listening to all the wisdom in her fingers that know when to pluck, what to leave and how to reap without plundering. It is simple, even obvious, and so all the more unbelievable that we need to be shown how to see what is in front of us and all around us; an leigheas is an maitheas ag f\u00e1s go fi\u00e1in. As if nothing has happened, all the goodness and plenitude of the land is still offered\u2014 <em>here<\/em>, the seams\u00f3g extends itself \u2014<em>here, <\/em>the seamair dhearg \u2014had we but sense and right vision to see. T\u00e1 gach rud f\u00f3s ann, I hear whispered in my head.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I spoke of these Iseas in Croke Park recently, ideas that have been forming around me and inside of me that were inspired by John Moriarty and my experience of hurling. He gave me leave to understand the world for myself, deferring to no one.<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/b5U0XPU5FD\">https:\/\/t.co\/b5U0XPU5FD<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Diarmuid Lyng (@diarmuidlyng) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/diarmuidlyng\/status\/1379188190314123266?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 5, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>And then on the beach with Diarmuid, the same principles we have absorbed from Siobh\u00e1n and Cearbhuil without any direct tutelage apply now to the game of hurling; listen, play, be here in your body. There are real players on the tr\u00e1, none more so than Diarmuid who seems to skip through the sand goat-like, whilst my legs are heavy pillars that have to be heaved and hefted to keep up with the ball. But this game is not about c\u00e9 mh\u00e9ad blianta at\u00e1 ar do dhroim; it\u2019s not about how many times you\u2019ve kitted out in any coloured jersey. Here, now, with the crashing waves of Fanore in our ears, we return to the pleasure of simply pucking a ball. We l\u00e9im go hard, we scuttle for the liathr\u00f3id, we roar <em>anseo <\/em>to each other, and when we scramble too fast ahead of ourselves, get too caught up in a race to get, Diarmuid beckons us to stop and asks us to check in with ourselves; <em>\u00e9istig\u00ed cad at\u00e1 ar si\u00fal i do chorp. Stay with the place of ease, c\u00e9 comh \u00e9asca can you make it lads, don\u2019t strain. <\/em>And while there may be taith\u00ed go leor leis an cluiche ar cuid daoine, none of us have much experience in that. Play till you\u2019re played out; win at whatever cost. Something in us knew that wasn\u2019t the way it had to be, but we had no guidance in respecting the rhythm of our n\u00e1dur; how to join effort with ease, doing with non-doing. And then, as if in an ancient ritual of bowing to our human limitation, when the hurls are finally cast aside, we throw ourselves into an Atlantach fi\u00e1in herself; engulfed in the white and the rush of her embrace; t\u00f3gtha.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, there is much more that could be shared here about cad at\u00e1 ar si\u00fal leis an Wild Irish Retreats. I could tell you about the food, not just c\u00e9 comh bl\u00e1sta is at\u00e1 s\u00e9, but how it is prepared with such care and attention; slow cooking at its finest. And even more, how it is served to you, with grace and kind eyes; accompaniments you didn\u2019t know you needed and that nourish far into the depths of you. And the music, and the fire, and the joy of being together at last. But I am not offering an advertisement here. If this sounds like a sale\u2019s pitch, it isn\u2019t. If you think I\u2019m trying to convince you of something, I\u2019m not. The arguments for Irish are many; many more those for how to rescue ourselves from our current catastrophe and our abominable alienation from the land. This is not a proof, nor is it a plea, this is simply a love song; a song of praise. This is just a need to acknowledge my luck of having returned home, after many years away, to find myself among mo mhuintir ar\u00eds, ag caint as gaeilge, le mo dh\u00e1 chosa ar an talamh. This is just to sing that it feels like a dream I am still not waking from; to sing because it is hard to say what it has all opened in me, because I feel it to be opening still. I offer these words as a return song then, a homecoming tune for the other way; what these wild Irish legends are demonstrating. There\u2019s nothing you need to know, nothing to do, nothing to fix, there\u2019s just letting go; there\u2019s just peeling back the thick layers of our resistance, our wilful control, so that <em>other <\/em>dimension of our being can re-surface; the one who did not get us into this mess; the one whose skin trembles and dances with the sheer delight of being here; the one who is <em>f\u00f3s fi\u00e1in. <\/em>Go down to Clare, go down to Kerry, and be with the Wild Irish Retreat folk if it calls you, if it be within your means. If it doesn\u2019t, if you can\u2019t, find your own way back. But claim it \u2014claim the part of you that can\u2019t be claimed; the place in you no worldly concern, no worry or slight of ill-will can reach; the place in you that is open, playful, fluid <em>fl\u00fairseach. <\/em>You don\u2019t need anything special. Open your mouth, lig amach \u00ed; slip back i <em>ngr\u00e1 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An gr\u00e1 is an gr\u00e1in, say these two words out loud, say them out loud to yourself, out loud to the listening others around, and feel in your mouth how subtle the shift is between them; how the open mouth of love \u2014 gr\u00e1 \u2014 gets slighted by the brush of your tongue\u2019s curled tip [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":269,"featured_media":11861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[111,239,2104,2454,3330,3331,3332,3398,3802,4206,4577,4578,5346,6236,7571,8500,8922],"class_list":["post-11860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-culture","tag-111","tag-a-gra-for-the-language","tag-culture","tag-diarmuid-lyng","tag-fiona-hanley","tag-fiona-hanley-a-gra-for-the-language","tag-fiona-hanley-cassandra-voices","tag-for","tag-gra","tag-how-the-irish-language-differs-from-english","tag-irish-language-cassandra-voices","tag-irish-language-retreat","tag-language","tag-modh-coinniollach","tag-qualities-of-the-irish-langauge","tag-society","tag-the"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/269"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}