Member Profile: Dónal Grogan

Dónal Grogan’s initiation into the Irish language was as impressive as it was peculiar. Moving to Ireland at the age of 11, he was deemed except from having to take it in school. However, while doing homework in a class during which other students were being taught Irish, he absorbed a few words passively. One day, when the teacher asked for the Irish translation of “thin,” only Dónal could answer him. As a result, the teacher forced him to take the leaving cert exam for Irish—which he passed, partly by using some of the test instructions given in Irish as a base for his essay. 

Dónal watched his sister and her husband successfully learn Irish in order to raise their children in the language. It was all the proof he needed that it was possible to pick up where he left off on the Leaving Cert and become fluent himself. Now living in Colorado, he stays active in learning any way that he can, from Let’s Learn Irish courses to popup Gaeltacht events.  In fact, Dónal, so entirely invested in the language, says that in some ways he leads two lives: one in English and one in Irish.