Learning Irish in Manchester with Conradh na Gaeilge

Classes continue on Wednesdays at the Irish World Heritage Centre, 10 Queens Rd Cheetham Hill Manchester, M8 8UF . Click on this link to see where the centre is: http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?G2M?X=384583&Y=400433&A=Y&Z=1

A donation of £2.50 is asked to defray costs as we are a voluntary organisation. Please contact Niall, secretary/rúnaí at ngwmurphy@gmail.com or 07988716102 for further information.

Ranganna (classes) for 2012 are on Wednesdays during school term times from 8.00 - 9.00pm. We usually have a two week break over Christmas and Easter and 6 weeks summer break from mid July to the beginning of September. We will be running two groups this term one with mixed abilities suitable for beginners and those with some knowledge of the language and a more advanced group so you should find a level that suits you. The lower level group is working through the excellent book "Gaeilge Gan Stró" and the format is more fexible than most formal syllabus led classess and we can accomadate people joining the group at different times of the year.

We have a break at 9.00pm when refreshments are available at the bar and then between 9.20 - 10.00 we have Imeachtaí (activities). If you are coming along for the first time please text, ring or email me in advance to check whether there is a class that night.

If you attend regularly we usually ask that you apply for membership of our branch of Conradh na Gaeilge which costs £2 per annum. In 2011 we waived this.

In our second half activities both group join together for activities pertaining to Irish Culture. This can be anything from a song or poem to further analysis of the language. We have had many fascinating presentations over the years with topics such as "How the Irish invented slang" and Insults "as gaeilge" all presented by the indomitable Fear a Tí Éamann Ó Colmáin.

Books and Learning materials:

The different levels all use different teaching materials. Don't worry about what you need come along and we will provide materials. If you decide to come along on a regular basis we may suggest that you buy your own book but you don't have to in the first instance.

This year Eamann Ó Colmain will be the tutor for the mixed ability class or "mean rang" and they will using a new book "Gaeilge Gan Stró" written by Éamonn Ó Dónaill who wrote "Turas Teanga" and "Now you're Talking" published by Gill & Macmillan at:

http://www.gillmacmillan.ie/.

"Gaeilge Gan Stró" meaning "Irish without stress" is available from www.siopa.ie or Eamann Ó Colmain will have copies of the book for sale.

Don't buy anything until you discuss this with your class tutor.

Our classes are run by Conradh na Gaeilge Manchain, Craobh An tSagairt Emmet Fullen/Manchester Gaelic League Father Emmet Fullen Branch. The branch is named after Fr. Emmet Fullen from Derry who was a great enthusiast for the Irish language and Gaelic Games and was also a founding member of St Lawrence's GFC, a Lancashire GAA Board member and Lancashire player. The current Fullen Gaels hurling and camogie club are named after him.

It was on July 31, 1893, at 9 Lower Ó Connell Street, Baile Átha Cliath, that the first formal meeting was held of the organisation to be known as Conradh na Gaeilge. In the years that followed it was called "The Gaelic League" by most of the hundreds of thousands of Irish people who enrolled as members.

When the Gaelic League was founded the Irish revolution began, Padraig Pearse said, twenty years later. Yet, in another sense, the Gaelic League was a continuation of the work and efforts of many scholars and patriots in the years before - the people who have been called "réamhchonraitheoirí."

But there is no doubt now that the founding of Conradh na Gaeilge brought a radical change in those working for the Irish Language. And the ideas which brought about this change were expressed by the man who became the first president of the Gaelic League, and later Uachtarán na hÉireann, Dr. Douglas Hyde. Dr. Hyde was a Sligo Man, son of a Church of Ireland Minister and while still a boy wrote poetry in Irish for the Dublin newspapers. He got a Doctorate of Laws in Trinity College and then devoted himself to writing and lecturing on Irish literature. The work of Conradh na Gaeilge in promoting and some would say saving the Irish Language from extinction should not be underestimated.