Make of this opinion what you will, Eisreachtach1916.
Having just read your comment, my immediate reaction is ‘See, this is why people don’t speak Irish anymore’. Criticism accompanied by put-downs and nothing positive offered.
I speak the bit of Irish I do because around 30years ago the Gaelinn speakers I worked with for about 3 months, kept telling me to ‘give it a go’ and not to worry about getting it wrong. I was a long time out of school at the time but that was the first time I spoke Irish. And I was terrified at first. They were the first fluent speakers who were realistic in their approach and I am very grateful to them.
I might have kept it up more/started learning proper grammar if I’d stayed in the same place for longer than a couple of years at a time, but I ended up moving around a lot so was unable to build up any Irish-speaking group of friends.
I have self-confidence speaking now in my faltering Irish because of that work I did and I refuse to apologise for trying, even when I get it wrong. Those Irish speakers helped me, corrected me and encouraged me. They never, ever said ‘that’s wrong, you must do/say...’ Instead, they said things like ‘try using this or that phrase, or what do you think of this word to describe....?’ And every single one of them made positive suggestions for further knowledge in an encouraging way.
Criticising anyone who is doing their bit to encourage others is exactly why Irish people are afraid to speak their native language. There is a time and a place, certainly, for getting things exactly right and I imagine that, for those who are fluent in the spoken and written language, attempts by fledgling speakers might feel like nails on chalkboards, but criticism without any help is actively useless and worse, smothers and stifles. Which, is, by the way, exactly what conquerors want.
When I read your comment to Stephen Delaney here, it reminded me of how Donal Lunny was rejected by some traditional musicians because the bazooki wasn’t a traditional instrument. Ditto Gerry O’Connor and his banjo. And I’m sure the same people would be horrified by The Bridies and their version of the ‘4 and 9’, not to mention the various versions of Óró, sé do bheatha 'bhaile currently doing the rounds.
Those changes to our music have kept the music alive. Stagnation leads to death.
The same applies to the language. Every effort is worth encouraging, especially street-efforts, where real life happens, but where spelling and grammar and mispronunciations occur. Languages that don’t evolve on the street level disappear. Look at what’s happened to other languages – the words that no longer exist in dictionaries.
Stephen Delaney wrote an entire article. Your comments focus on only one thing and offer nothing, which begs the question – what exactly are you trying to achieve here? If you were trying to be helpful then you’d say something like ‘next time you write the word Aontu, put a fada on it’ or something like that. You might even say ‘an mhiste leat fada a chur ar an focal ‘Aontu’ led’thol mar.....’
I understood Stephen’s article. I genuinely don’t understand your point unless that point is to belittle or discourage. I certainly got that point, so fair play to you if that was your intention.
The best, and real communicators are those that can make their meaning understood irrespective of grammar or spelling or pronunciation. Scholars write what the people are saying, and put ‘manners’ on the words afterwards.
So, here’s my positive suggestion for you, Eisreacht1916 – Please continue your wonderful work and try to keep in mind that not everyone learns how to spell, use grammar correctly, or can pronounce words in the right way. And every single attempt, with or without fadas, is worthy of encouragement.
You know the reason why I haven’t been writing about it, I’ve been flat out working on something else. I will have a nice Christmas present for all these election candidates in about an hours time should they choose to use it.
Agree with alot here however people are entitled to write or talk about whatever they like, freedom of speech is important. Giving out to people won't help, as much as some people deserve it.
I also don't think there's anything deliberate going on from alot of commentators or whatever, maybe they're just not inspired by a lot of the candidates, or are blackpilled, or the sham the national party became, another guy doing masked Nazi-like videos (btw, I agree with everything that man says), and then the other party that somehow thought associating their new brand publicly with AH was a good idea.
The candidates aren't helping that much either in terms of putting out shareable content, thats not their fault because a lot of them are new to this thing, it's just reality. I've hardly seen any content from candidates. I'd also say a lot of people who are writing on substack have jobs and a lot of them are new to this too. Alot of them might feel that everyone in their audience will vote for nationalists anyway so what's the point. I dont agree with this but I'd say it factors in. Alot of people think the situation is hopeless. Lots of people need stuff to share for their Audi, or see no value in the election. Maybe they don't even pay attention to it. All the fighting is killer too. AOL would have been great to do it because she has the profile and skill. But again, she's entitled to talk about whatever she wants, even if it is neverending gemma o doherty obsession.
So there's multiple problems feeding into this, not just commentators not platforming.
Fact is there's too many candidates running everywhere, it was always a stupid idea given limited resources and the power of the machine. That's also feeding the lack of platforming id imagine, it's too diluted.
That party who platformed AH should have picked a few candidates, targeted a few areas, and put everything into them. They should have done the basic simple thing that makes sense, and had hundreds of people targeting one area for weeks and months. That whole party looks like a Honeypot designed to get nowhere, more and more every day.
You make a lot of points well here. My addition to this is that if all of the collective efforts of the movement isn’t enough to impress these people at this point then they are either Narcissistic, focused on using their withheld approval as some type of carrot on a stick or else they are not really with us in the first place. Sometimes people insert themselves into movements, fads, clicks and groups just suck them dry out of pure self gratification or financial or emotional gain. When pressured to partake in the rudimentary chores of supporting said group they evaporate or pretend you are not there. I don’t chase those types. Never did. I also have a habit of letting them know what they are.
One way relationships in this thing where content creators are concerned must be challenged
I think it's a waste of time challenging them but fire away.
Either way people shouldn't be compelled to say or write anything, nor should they be told what to talk about or not talk about. Some people don't want anything to do with elections, free thinking and freedom is either all or it's nothing.
Aside from that, every nationalist party has had years at this stage to create their own platforms and they didn't. Lots of other nationalist movements in other countries did. It's shocking that they didn't do anything along these lines.
The blame lies with those who have the ability to do it and didn’t. It’s that simple. Freedom of speech doesn’t include being protected from scrutiny either. Nobody is compelling speech here. The issue is that people are withholding their skill sets from each other.
There's scrutiny and then there's blame. Sure we can all do stuff that we have the ability to do but don't. I don't blame people for not doing things I wish they did do.
As I was saying, for the most part there are multiple factors. The other thing is, big online groups or audiences and local election candidates don't mix really, the audiences aren't aligned.
Either way, lots above to explain it, pointing fingers given all of those things isn't the answer
Fascinating piece there and I'd agree 100% with it. It's a point of view I haven't seen expressed before. I can't get me head round what's going on in the country the last 5 or more years. I would say about 70% of the electorate disagree with the migration policies of FF, FG, SF, GRN, LAB, SD, PBP and the rest. Similarly the same 70% would be against what's being thought to our kids at school. The same with establishment policies on the Trans and other woke issues. Yet the most likely Government next week will be FF, FG and another far left party, probably Labour or SD. I think the reason is the Irish people's priority is their pocket over their heart . Secondly the centre right of politics in Ireland does not have credible leader. We have no one in the mould of Trump, Malone or Orban etc. Thirdly you cannot under estimate the power and influence of the liberal left main stream media in Ireland. I fear our country will be sold out this weekend by our own people.
Our measure of success will not be the government staying in, it will be handful of people we get in there with them. One of ours in that place will be a major victory. Also another measure of success will be the percentage of the vote lost by the establishment and also the complexity of the deal they need to make with others to stay in. The more they have to bend and twist to hold it, the weaker their grip will become. We are going nowhere. We have dominated the narrative from outside the Dail. The next 5 years are ours.
I think your meme is valid. But you can’t accuse everyone who cares about freedom on Irish substack of failing “our candidates”. Talking politics at that level is not in alignment with my writing. I’m doing plenty as are many others in their work which is what they are called to do. If you’re upset that the nationalists didn’t get enough coverage that’s valid. But there is no need to point shame and blame anyone. Except of course for RTE.
Everyone is doing fantastic work. Everyone. The point is not that people have been substandard etc, it is that they have dropped the ball on this, once every five year opportunity to change the fundamental nature of how our society is governed. Obviously, people who don’t engage with politics are less blame than those who do but there is no hiding from this issue any longer. This is why the tip of the spear in that article is aimed at those political commentators primarily.
If I was to write an article blaming RTE, as if I was genuinely surprised they didn’t platform nationalists, conservatives and libertarians then I would belong in a mental institution. I am not surprised at them in the slightest. I am sincerely taken aback by the level of ignorance shown to the political wing of this thing we are all fighting. It’s like the film Starship Troopers where the different classes of society have absolute contempt for each other even though they are fighting an alien horde. The film is a work satirical brilliance that mocks the very situation I am pointing out now.
My delivery of this complaint might have been off but I am absolutely rock steady on this point. If we do not have respect for those thousands of people who have spent the last four weeks travelling town to town knocking on doors for hours at a time, then who do we have respect for? I have talked to catholics, spiritualists, sovereign citizen types and other politically estranged groups about this issue. The belief that we can pray, will, manifest or avoid our way out of this thing moot. We have to support our troops. Period.
Nationalists usually respect the culture of their country, especially its native language.
All words in Irish in your piece are misspelt.
RTE recte RTÉ.
There is no such word in Irish as 'Aontu'; there is a similar word 'Aontú', which means ‘unity’.
Who gives you the right to anglicise Peadar Tóibín's surname to 'Tobin'?
The Brits spent centuries anglicising our surnames and forenames in their colonisation of the Irish people, and some of us have corrected that historical wrong.
Now you are engaging in the same colonising wrong.
Incidentally, I’m not a follower of Aontú or Peadar Tóibín.
You're a clown eisreactach1916, your either a rival candidate trying undermine this man's message with pedantry, or you're a lefty Vaxxed up moron with zero life and have nothing but fadas to spot. And you hate that there are actual nationalists here, not pretend ones like you that do everything the corporate govt say and do.
Your a fucking fada spotter in other words. That's your value to the world. That's what every breath you have ever taken has brought you to. Fada spotting. You sad pathetic little worm.
I have a basic ability to speak Irish. Perhaps you are having a bad day which can happen to any of us so if that is the case, please ignore my comment. The attitude you are displaying here, intentionally or not, is exactly why I don't go to Irish speaking groups to improve my Irish. I speak in Irish with my fluent son in law when we have the opportunity, which is not often. I don't need to be humiliated for trying to speak Irish.
Make of this opinion what you will, Eisreachtach1916.
Having just read your comment, my immediate reaction is ‘See, this is why people don’t speak Irish anymore’. Criticism accompanied by put-downs and nothing positive offered.
I speak the bit of Irish I do because around 30years ago the Gaelinn speakers I worked with for about 3 months, kept telling me to ‘give it a go’ and not to worry about getting it wrong. I was a long time out of school at the time but that was the first time I spoke Irish. And I was terrified at first. They were the first fluent speakers who were realistic in their approach and I am very grateful to them.
I might have kept it up more/started learning proper grammar if I’d stayed in the same place for longer than a couple of years at a time, but I ended up moving around a lot so was unable to build up any Irish-speaking group of friends.
I have self-confidence speaking now in my faltering Irish because of that work I did and I refuse to apologise for trying, even when I get it wrong. Those Irish speakers helped me, corrected me and encouraged me. They never, ever said ‘that’s wrong, you must do/say...’ Instead, they said things like ‘try using this or that phrase, or what do you think of this word to describe....?’ And every single one of them made positive suggestions for further knowledge in an encouraging way.
Criticising anyone who is doing their bit to encourage others is exactly why Irish people are afraid to speak their native language. There is a time and a place, certainly, for getting things exactly right and I imagine that, for those who are fluent in the spoken and written language, attempts by fledgling speakers might feel like nails on chalkboards, but criticism without any help is actively useless and worse, smothers and stifles. Which, is, by the way, exactly what conquerors want.
When I read your comment to Stephen Delaney here, it reminded me of how Donal Lunny was rejected by some traditional musicians because the bazooki wasn’t a traditional instrument. Ditto Gerry O’Connor and his banjo. And I’m sure the same people would be horrified by The Bridies and their version of the ‘4 and 9’, not to mention the various versions of Óró, sé do bheatha 'bhaile currently doing the rounds.
Those changes to our music have kept the music alive. Stagnation leads to death.
The same applies to the language. Every effort is worth encouraging, especially street-efforts, where real life happens, but where spelling and grammar and mispronunciations occur. Languages that don’t evolve on the street level disappear. Look at what’s happened to other languages – the words that no longer exist in dictionaries.
Stephen Delaney wrote an entire article. Your comments focus on only one thing and offer nothing, which begs the question – what exactly are you trying to achieve here? If you were trying to be helpful then you’d say something like ‘next time you write the word Aontu, put a fada on it’ or something like that. You might even say ‘an mhiste leat fada a chur ar an focal ‘Aontu’ led’thol mar.....’
I understood Stephen’s article. I genuinely don’t understand your point unless that point is to belittle or discourage. I certainly got that point, so fair play to you if that was your intention.
The best, and real communicators are those that can make their meaning understood irrespective of grammar or spelling or pronunciation. Scholars write what the people are saying, and put ‘manners’ on the words afterwards.
So, here’s my positive suggestion for you, Eisreacht1916 – Please continue your wonderful work and try to keep in mind that not everyone learns how to spell, use grammar correctly, or can pronounce words in the right way. And every single attempt, with or without fadas, is worthy of encouragement.
You know the reason why I haven’t been writing about it, I’ve been flat out working on something else. I will have a nice Christmas present for all these election candidates in about an hours time should they choose to use it.
Agree with alot here however people are entitled to write or talk about whatever they like, freedom of speech is important. Giving out to people won't help, as much as some people deserve it.
I also don't think there's anything deliberate going on from alot of commentators or whatever, maybe they're just not inspired by a lot of the candidates, or are blackpilled, or the sham the national party became, another guy doing masked Nazi-like videos (btw, I agree with everything that man says), and then the other party that somehow thought associating their new brand publicly with AH was a good idea.
The candidates aren't helping that much either in terms of putting out shareable content, thats not their fault because a lot of them are new to this thing, it's just reality. I've hardly seen any content from candidates. I'd also say a lot of people who are writing on substack have jobs and a lot of them are new to this too. Alot of them might feel that everyone in their audience will vote for nationalists anyway so what's the point. I dont agree with this but I'd say it factors in. Alot of people think the situation is hopeless. Lots of people need stuff to share for their Audi, or see no value in the election. Maybe they don't even pay attention to it. All the fighting is killer too. AOL would have been great to do it because she has the profile and skill. But again, she's entitled to talk about whatever she wants, even if it is neverending gemma o doherty obsession.
So there's multiple problems feeding into this, not just commentators not platforming.
Fact is there's too many candidates running everywhere, it was always a stupid idea given limited resources and the power of the machine. That's also feeding the lack of platforming id imagine, it's too diluted.
That party who platformed AH should have picked a few candidates, targeted a few areas, and put everything into them. They should have done the basic simple thing that makes sense, and had hundreds of people targeting one area for weeks and months. That whole party looks like a Honeypot designed to get nowhere, more and more every day.
Respectfully yours.
You make a lot of points well here. My addition to this is that if all of the collective efforts of the movement isn’t enough to impress these people at this point then they are either Narcissistic, focused on using their withheld approval as some type of carrot on a stick or else they are not really with us in the first place. Sometimes people insert themselves into movements, fads, clicks and groups just suck them dry out of pure self gratification or financial or emotional gain. When pressured to partake in the rudimentary chores of supporting said group they evaporate or pretend you are not there. I don’t chase those types. Never did. I also have a habit of letting them know what they are.
One way relationships in this thing where content creators are concerned must be challenged
I think it's a waste of time challenging them but fire away.
Either way people shouldn't be compelled to say or write anything, nor should they be told what to talk about or not talk about. Some people don't want anything to do with elections, free thinking and freedom is either all or it's nothing.
Aside from that, every nationalist party has had years at this stage to create their own platforms and they didn't. Lots of other nationalist movements in other countries did. It's shocking that they didn't do anything along these lines.
That's where any blame here should lie.
The blame lies with those who have the ability to do it and didn’t. It’s that simple. Freedom of speech doesn’t include being protected from scrutiny either. Nobody is compelling speech here. The issue is that people are withholding their skill sets from each other.
There's scrutiny and then there's blame. Sure we can all do stuff that we have the ability to do but don't. I don't blame people for not doing things I wish they did do.
As I was saying, for the most part there are multiple factors. The other thing is, big online groups or audiences and local election candidates don't mix really, the audiences aren't aligned.
Either way, lots above to explain it, pointing fingers given all of those things isn't the answer
Fascinating piece there and I'd agree 100% with it. It's a point of view I haven't seen expressed before. I can't get me head round what's going on in the country the last 5 or more years. I would say about 70% of the electorate disagree with the migration policies of FF, FG, SF, GRN, LAB, SD, PBP and the rest. Similarly the same 70% would be against what's being thought to our kids at school. The same with establishment policies on the Trans and other woke issues. Yet the most likely Government next week will be FF, FG and another far left party, probably Labour or SD. I think the reason is the Irish people's priority is their pocket over their heart . Secondly the centre right of politics in Ireland does not have credible leader. We have no one in the mould of Trump, Malone or Orban etc. Thirdly you cannot under estimate the power and influence of the liberal left main stream media in Ireland. I fear our country will be sold out this weekend by our own people.
Our measure of success will not be the government staying in, it will be handful of people we get in there with them. One of ours in that place will be a major victory. Also another measure of success will be the percentage of the vote lost by the establishment and also the complexity of the deal they need to make with others to stay in. The more they have to bend and twist to hold it, the weaker their grip will become. We are going nowhere. We have dominated the narrative from outside the Dail. The next 5 years are ours.
I think your meme is valid. But you can’t accuse everyone who cares about freedom on Irish substack of failing “our candidates”. Talking politics at that level is not in alignment with my writing. I’m doing plenty as are many others in their work which is what they are called to do. If you’re upset that the nationalists didn’t get enough coverage that’s valid. But there is no need to point shame and blame anyone. Except of course for RTE.
Everyone is doing fantastic work. Everyone. The point is not that people have been substandard etc, it is that they have dropped the ball on this, once every five year opportunity to change the fundamental nature of how our society is governed. Obviously, people who don’t engage with politics are less blame than those who do but there is no hiding from this issue any longer. This is why the tip of the spear in that article is aimed at those political commentators primarily.
If I was to write an article blaming RTE, as if I was genuinely surprised they didn’t platform nationalists, conservatives and libertarians then I would belong in a mental institution. I am not surprised at them in the slightest. I am sincerely taken aback by the level of ignorance shown to the political wing of this thing we are all fighting. It’s like the film Starship Troopers where the different classes of society have absolute contempt for each other even though they are fighting an alien horde. The film is a work satirical brilliance that mocks the very situation I am pointing out now.
My delivery of this complaint might have been off but I am absolutely rock steady on this point. If we do not have respect for those thousands of people who have spent the last four weeks travelling town to town knocking on doors for hours at a time, then who do we have respect for? I have talked to catholics, spiritualists, sovereign citizen types and other politically estranged groups about this issue. The belief that we can pray, will, manifest or avoid our way out of this thing moot. We have to support our troops. Period.
Good comment. Thanks for clarifying.
Nationalists usually respect the culture of their country, especially its native language.
All words in Irish in your piece are misspelt.
RTE recte RTÉ.
There is no such word in Irish as 'Aontu'; there is a similar word 'Aontú', which means ‘unity’.
Who gives you the right to anglicise Peadar Tóibín's surname to 'Tobin'?
The Brits spent centuries anglicising our surnames and forenames in their colonisation of the Irish people, and some of us have corrected that historical wrong.
Now you are engaging in the same colonising wrong.
Incidentally, I’m not a follower of Aontú or Peadar Tóibín.
You are equating grammatical laziness with colonisation. Go get a ride for yourself.
I never mentioned grammar.
My point is about spelling.
Attacking ad hominem in a discussion is an indication of… I think you know the answer!
I notice, old chap, that there are no errors in the King’s English in your article.
Oh no, we couldn’t have that, now, could we, old bean?
But any old erroneous spelling will do for the Irish – sure isn’t it ONLY Irish!
Why are you talking to me in the Kings English then?
You're a clown eisreactach1916, your either a rival candidate trying undermine this man's message with pedantry, or you're a lefty Vaxxed up moron with zero life and have nothing but fadas to spot. And you hate that there are actual nationalists here, not pretend ones like you that do everything the corporate govt say and do.
Your a fucking fada spotter in other words. That's your value to the world. That's what every breath you have ever taken has brought you to. Fada spotting. You sad pathetic little worm.
I intentionally left out the Fada’s on Tobin’s name.
I have a basic ability to speak Irish. Perhaps you are having a bad day which can happen to any of us so if that is the case, please ignore my comment. The attitude you are displaying here, intentionally or not, is exactly why I don't go to Irish speaking groups to improve my Irish. I speak in Irish with my fluent son in law when we have the opportunity, which is not often. I don't need to be humiliated for trying to speak Irish.