Sin Sceal Eile – TG4 doing it’s bit for Rugbai Beo

Prologue

Caoimhin MacDonnacha is ainm dom. I was born and reared (rugadh agus a tógadh) i Sceiri ach ta me in mo chonaí anois i mBaile Atha Cliath. Níl aon Gaeilge agam ach beagnach (despite a healthy ‘C’ in Honours Irish in the Leaving Cert in the now long gone De La Salle!!). If you, like me, like to take your rugby as often as you can get it, but on numerous occasions are forced to watch it on TG4 – then read on or should I say ‘Lean ar Aghaidh’.

1. I am grateful to my father-in-law, Robert Cosgrove, for his assistance with this article. Robert hails from The West and since my entry into the Cosgrove Clan has accompanied me to various matches in Dublin, Galway. Limerick and once to Rome (Grand Slam year 2009). Robert speaks fluently and eloquently in our native tongue – he fairly blasts out Amhran na Bhfiann at the matches. He may slightly overuse Connaught Irish (to quote himself ‘what you speak up there in Dublin is not Irish at all!’) but he does have a great grasp of the language including some lovely sayings which I will include at the end (not necessarily directly related to Rugbai but can be applied in general situations).
2. I am also grateful to my daughter Harriet, now age 15, who since age 9 ¾ has been attending Irish Summer College in Rinne, Co Waterford and lately in Letermore, Connemara– Harriet was aghast when I informed her that she was only going to learn Irish so that she could provide the running commentary for me during TG4 rugbai beo!! Harriet’s Irish is ‘go hiontach’ thanks to Rinne and her SeanDad, the aforementioned Robert.

The essentials just to get by when Rugbai Beo is on

Let’s be honest – you can see the game unfold with your eyes – you can even turn the sound down if the ‘cupla focal’ (or in this case ‘a lan focal’) are annoying you. However, most of us would agree that the commentary and associated punditry do add something to our understanding and enjoyment of a game.

Des Bishop, that great analyser / comedian who hails from Queens in New York, but who has resided in Ireland for 20 years now, spent a whole year in Connemara learning to speak our native tongue and he cracked it – in fairness he was up and running after 6 weeks. You and I don’t have 6 weeks free to throw at this – we just need enough Irish to allow us to understand roughly what the TV people are spouting on about so that we can agree / contradict / counter argue. Let’s start with the simple stuff

Some useful general phrases

These are well known in our wider family and are often trotted out when English just won’t quite do it.

  Finally for the non believers – some useful stuff to demonstrate you truly understand our native tongue

Kevin McDonough 2017