Kneecapped into Learning Irish

This is Eamon Connor. I’m originally from Belfast, Ireland, but I live in the States now and I have been here for about 35 years. Spoiler alert: I wasn’t really kneecapped, but the band Kneecap did help me find my way back to learning and speaking Irish again. It’s an interesting story…

Life in Belfast

I was born in Ardoyne in Belfast – in the North- and grew up there through the 1960’s’ and 70’s. There was always a little bit of Irish in our house and I can remember my mother going to a place in the West Belfast called the Cluain Árd where she took Irish lessons. So, she was always had a “cúpla focal” for us: Tar Isteach, Suigh Síos and, most often: Bí Ciúin!

When I went to high school in the early seventies, I started to learn Irish formally. I studied it for seven years up to “A -level” when I graduated high school. I was pretty good at it if I say so myself and I earned my gold fáinne. I went to the Gaeltacht a few times; to Gweedore and Falcarragh. That was an absolute blast, and it was the longest I’d been away for home at the time – almost a month. It still amazes me that my nieces and nephews, who went there in the 2000’s, had the same experiences that I had.

I also joined an Irish language youth group called Ógras. We used to meet each week for games, socials, etc, all “as Gaeilge” (through Irish). I remember going on some great camps with them to the Aran Islands and to Kildare. I met a lot of guys from West Belfast who would go on to be a big force in the Irish language movement there in the 1980’s.

And then I went off to college…agus sin é: rinne mé dearmad ar mo chuid Gaeilge! I forgot it all behind…

Moving Stateside

I have been in the States since 1991. Initially in Philadelphia, but for the last 30 years I have lived in Alexandria in Virgina just outside Washington DC.

And then I got kneecapped.

My friend Jen reached out to me to ask: “Have you seen this movie called “Kneecap?” I had seen a few Kneecap videos on YouTube and I’d heard about the movie. I don’t much care for rap music but there is something really cool in that what they are doing by being both contemporary and local to Belfast. The first video I watched had Kneecap rapping in Irish in the back of a black taxi! I love that. For those who don’t know, black taxis are (or were) cheap transport that took the place of buses in areas like West Belfast and Ardoyne throughout the conflict. I had ridden in them hundreds of times; so it was just fun to see them doing that.

Relearning ‘An Cúpla Focal’

I told Jen where the name Kneecap originated and also that everybody in Ireland knows a couple of word in Irish – a cúpla focal. So, I gave her a cúpla focal: Dia Duit. Then two more: Slán Leat . And, then two more: Fáilte Romhat. That’s six words; that’s almost a sentence! After that, we started using our cúpla focal if we texted each other and added words as we went. She taught me GRMA, the shorthand for Go raibh maith agat (thank you)! I found a copy of an old school textbook I had called Progress in Irish that I gave to her. It was written and published by the Christian Brothers in the 1960s! It used the ponc séimhithe – the dot over a letter – to indicate that it was aspirated.

We eventually saw the movie. ‘Kneecap’. What a riot that was and again, it was great to see and hear Irish being spoken so widely in Belfast. I was aware of the language movement’s success in Belfast with Bunscoileanna and Meánscoileaana as well as Irish street signs but it was great to see it up on a big screen in Virginia. I absolutely loved the scene where Mo Chara snatches the baton from the young orange man and runs off. That chase scene is hilarious. But again: it’s local to Belfast and it is also straight out of Hollywood – especially the scene where he is running over the bridge with the crowd behind him in pursuit.

Making Progress

And then we found Lets Learn Irish. What a great resource that has turned out to be! We both registered immediately for the A0 class. I decided to go right back to the start and to begin learning Irish again rather than try to guess who much Irish I knew. It has been a lot of fun rediscovering words, phrases, and sayings that I had long ago forgotten. As luck would have it, Let’s Learn Irish hosted one of the TEG exams in Washington DC in June. So both Jen and I registered for the AI course and then studied for the exam. We held a comhrá each week as practice. We expect to get the exam results soon so here’s hoping that we did well!

It has been a great experience reconnecting with the Irish language as a student and also as a mentor to someone who is new to the language. And now it’s on to the A2 level and beyond! Slán go fóill, Eamon