In today’s Dear Bitesize post, I’m answering two questions that came in recently to Bitesize Irish Gaelic. The first learner wanted to know where to get the news in the Irish language. Another Irish language learner wished to know how to correctly tell the date in Irish Gaelic.
Let’s have a look at the first question:
Is there anywhere I can read the news in Irish?
There are quite a few options, all of which are available online:
You can read both national and international news on the website of the national public service broadcaster of the Republic of Ireland:
Nuacht RTÉ
If you would prefer to watch the news, go to TG4, the television channel for Irish-language speakers.
Nuacht TG4 Player
You can listen to both local, national, and international news on Raidió na Gaeltachta, the RTÉ’s Irish-language radio service.
Raidió na Gaeltachta
Currently, there is no national Irish language newspaper is in print but there is an online newspaper here packed with current affairs and opinion pieces which you can read here:
Tuairisc.ie (note the option to easily access the dictionary on the top right corner of the site: click the button in the top right and then click any word on the page to find it in the dictionary!)
Last but now least, this site provides a portal to many of the news sites, both past and current.
Nuacht1
Now, let’s get on to our next question:
I want to write dates down in words and I am struggling to understand the way they should be written and said.
Though telling the date in Irish is a not that different to English method so let’s use some examples to see how it is done.
First of all, let’s say the first of May.
an chéad lá de Bhealtaine is literally the first day of May.
an chéad lá de mhí na Bealtaine is literally the first day of the month of May.
As you can see, lá /law/, which means day, is not optional and must be included no matter if you are speaking or writing. As you can see, the word mí /me/, which means month, is optional.
Just like in English, the ordinal numbers are used (first, second, third, etc.). You can learn the ordinal numbers in this lesson: Ordinal numbers – 1st, 2nd, 3rd,…
Now that we have broken down the process of telling the date, let’s have a look at a few more examples:
07 January: an seachtú lá de mhí Eanáir/d’Eanáir
12 April: an dara/dóú lá déag de mhí Aibreáin/d’Aibreán.
21st July: an t-aonú lá is fiche de mhí Iúil/d’Iúil
30th October: an tríochadú lá de mhí Dheireadh Fómhair/de Dheireadh Fómhair
If you want to write the dates in a more abbreviated manner, you can write them like this:
1 Eanáir, 2 Feabhra, etc.
or
an 5ú lá de Bhealtaine
If you want to learn the months of the year, you can find them here:
That’s it for today, folks. Thanks for reading!
Le gach dea-ghuí (Best wishes)
Siobhán
4 thoughts on “Dear Bitesize: Irish Gaelic News Sites and Telling The Date”
I know someone who wants to get a tatoo of an important date in gaelic (day/month/year). Where do I look to steer her in the right direction? Its hard to find info that include years so I am struggling here.
Sarita, a chara
If you need help translating things for a tattoo, http://www.irishlanguageforum.com/ could help you.
A Bhriain, a chara,
Go raibh maith agat for the excellent recommendation and all of the explanations. It’s a very good idea for a lesson as you are correct that there isn’t much material available on how to pronounce the years – usually just a brief mention of it if mentioned at all.
You may find this article useful: https://brianlambe.wordpress.com/irish-numbers/
A Shiobhán, a chara.
Could you develop a lesson on how to *say* years? So that I can speak about a particular year, or answer questions, and understand years when they said, e.g., “I was born in nineteen eighty-one.” or (“or back in eighty-one.”) “I went to Ireland in two-thousand, and two-thousand sixteen.” (or “twenty-sixteen.”) “I was not able to go to Ireland in twenty-twenty. because of COVID-19” 🙁 “The Easter Rising occurred in nineteen-sixteen.” “The Flight of the Earls took place in sixteen o seven.” “Brian Boru was killed at the Battle of Clontarf in [the year] ten-fourteen.” etc.
Also some other ways of speaking about years could include, “Many Ulster Scots emigrated to America in the seventeen hundreds.” (or “in the eighteenth century.”) “Back at the turn of the century” or “in the sixties.” “Over the last decade.” or “up until the last century.”
There are all sorts of beginner/intermediate books, and many online resources that cover days of the week, months, cardinal and ordinal days of the month, seasons. But saying years is not in any of my books. I can’t seem to find it online either. I’m sure years are spoken about on TG4, especially on Nuacht TG4, on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta talk segments, maybe they are not always written as numerals in newspapers and magazines, or in non-fiction books and novels.
Go raibh míle maith agat!
Brian