Q&A Le Siobhán Agus Emma – Thursday April 15Th 2021

Watch back April’s Live Q&A with Siobhán and Emma above!

Here are some notes and links from the Q&A:

• Irish vowels 0:52​
  • Aibítear na Gaeilge
• Recommendations for plays in Irish 3:15​
  • Scoil Drámaíochta – scripts of plays for school children
  • Leabharlann Drámaí – Library of Plays
  • Playography as Gaeilge – Database of Irish plays
  • Some famous plays: ‘Barbara Rua agus drámaí eile’ by Pádraic Ó Conaire, An Triail by Máiréad Ní Ghráda
• Terms for service dogs as Gaeilge 13:27​
  • madra seribhíse, madra teiripe: service / therapy dog
  • madra póiliní: police dog
  • madra bolaíochta (drugaí): (drug) sniffer dog
  • madra cosanta: guard dog
  • Find more phrases on focloir.ie and tearma.ie.
• The surname Cox and the first name Shannon 16:52​
  • Cox is the anglicised form of the surname Mac an Choiligh or also possibly Mac Conchoille. These surnames have also been anglicised as MacQuilly. Nic an Choiligh would indeed be the correct form of your name if that is your maiden name. It does indeed seem to originate from coileach, which means rooster, or cockerel, that is probably why it was anglicised to Cox. The name Sionainn seems to have originated from the river of the same name which happens to be the longest river in Ireland. It’s hard to tell what Sionainn actually means, some think it comes from sean-abhainn, which would mean old river but others think it was named after a goddess called Sionna.
• “I have difficulty understanding spoken Irish, can you help?” 22:24
  • Nuacht mhall – the weekly news read slowly. A transcript and a glossary is in the episode description. 
  • Vifax – Practice your Irish with clips from the daily news on TG4 (Irish language TV) on vifax.nuim.ie. There’s also a worksheet available for each clip, including a transcript of the audio on the last page of the pdf.
  • Raidió na Gaeltachta (National Irish language radio station)
  • TG4 (Irish language TV channel)
  • Leighleat.com– stories with both text and audio.
  • Leighanois.com – stories with both text and audio.
  • Scéalta do pháistí le Glór na nGael – children’s books read aloud, includes both text
• One could say “Tá mé i mo mhúinteoir” rather than “is múinteoir mé” and still mean “I am a teacher”. Is there any difference in meaning between the two sentences, implicit or otherwise? 34:59​
  • “Is (noun) mé”, is more to the point and simpler to construct than “Tá mé i mo (noun)”. The latter is very common in spoken Irish though the former is preferred in written Irish.
• Some major literary works and figures since the 18th century 41:11​
  • Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire by Eibhlín Dhubh Ní Chónaill (1748-1800)
  • Cúirt an Mheán Oíche by Brian Merriman (1747-1805)
  • Séadna by Peadar Ua Laoghaire
  • Mo Scéal Féin by Peadar Ua Laoghaire
  • Pádraic Ó Conaire, short story writer
  • Cré na Cille by Máirtín Ó Cadhain
• Slender R 48:13
  • Eoin’s video
  • Hear examples of the slender r in three dialects here.