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Glengormley

Glengormley

Glengormley is a town located in the borough of Newtownabbey, bordering the north-western edge of Belfast in Northern Ireland. Origins Taking its name from the Irish Gaelic gleann gorm liath, meaning "the blue grey glen", the original settlement grew up in the mid 19th century around a junction of the road linking Belfast with Antrim and Ballyclare.

Location

Today Glengormley has become a large suburb and the urban area has expanded to the extent that it is now linked to north Belfast. It is a popular residential area with several further developments underway, including the one-square-mile Mayfield Garden Village which was under construction in 2005. A major rebuild of Northcott Shopping Centre is also planned for 2006.

Geography

As the lowest pass through the Belfast hills from the northern prospect, Glengormley is also traversed by major communication arteries including the Belfast to Londonderry railway line (Mossley West Halt) and the M2 motorway (Northern Ireland). Despite being a glen, technically, Glengormley sits at 700 feet above sea level and is noted for a climate noticeably colder than the adjacent Lagan valley area. The cold and windy dispotion may be explained by the 'tunnel' which runs from the North Antrim Coast to the edge of Glengomley on the Hightown Road. The tunnel may be evidenced from the Cavehill Country park entrance at Hightown Road, as one looks east to Slemish.

Leisure

Glengormley hosts a cinema and bowling complex, and numerous restaurants, a focal point for much of East Antrim. It is within easy walking distance of the Cavehill Country Park and Bellevue Zoo. The expansive Valley park provides a safe cycling route to the North Shore coastal cycle path and onwards to Central Belfast.

Commercial

With the well developed transport network, Glengormely hosts major commercial complexes in the The Mallusk enterprise park, including Royal Mail and Marks and Spencer.

Famous inhabitants

- Actor Stephen Boyd (1931-1977) - starred in Fantastic Voyage (1966) and some 50 other films (none of them blockbusters), born in Glengormley
- Roy Mason - Irish painter who produced an acclaimed series of 'Troubles' paintings while a Glengormley resident.
- Writer Padraic Fiacc lived in Glengormley
- Derek Mahon - Irish poet who lived in Glengormley. One of his best-known poems is entitled Glengormley.
- Naomh Gallagher Category: Towns in Antrim

Newtownabbey

Newtownabbey Borough Council is a Local Council in County Antrim in Northern Ireland. Newtownabbey Borough has a population of over 80,000 and is on the north shore of Belfast Lough just immediately north of Belfast. The Borough was founded in 1957 and comprises large urban residential areas along with traditional farming communities. Its major industries include electronics, software and telecommunications development and agriculture. Council headquarters are at Mossley Mill in Newtownabbey. Towns within the area include Ballyclare and Glengormley. The University of Ulster at Jordanstown is also in the Council area. The Newtownabbey Borough Council area consists of 4 electoral areas: Antrim Line, Macedon, University and Ballyclare. At the 2005 elections 25 members were elected from the following political parties: 12 Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), 6 Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), 2 Alliance Party, 1 Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), 1 Sinn Féin, 1 UUC, 1 Newtownabbey Ratepayers Association and 1 Independent. At the Annual General Meeting of the Council on the first Monday in June each year the Mayor is elected and becomes the first citizen of the Borough. The Mayor of Newtownabbey for 2004/2005 is Alderman Ted Turkington (UUP) and the Deputy Mayor is Alderman Billy Decourcey (DUP). The next election is due to take place in May 2009. In elections for the Westminster Parliament it is split between the East Antrim constituency, the South Antrim constituency and the North Belfast constituency. :See Also: Local Councils in Northern Ireland Category:Districts of Northern Ireland Category:County Antrim

Belfast

:This article is about the city of Belfast in Northern Ireland. For other uses, see Belfast (disambiguation). Belfast (Béal Feirste in Irish) is a city in the United Kingdom, and the second-largest city on the island of Ireland. It is the largest city in Northern Ireland, of which it is the capital, and in the province of Ulster. While the actual population within the city limits is c. 275,000, approximately 550,000 people live in the Greater Belfast area. It is situated at the south-western end of Belfast Lough, a long natural inlet ideal for the shipping trade that made the city famous, and near the mouth of the River Lagan. It is flanked by long stretches of hills, the Holywood Hills on the south and the Antrim Hills on the north. The name Belfast originates from the Irish Béal Feirste, or the mouth of the Farset (feirste is the genitive of the word fearsaid, "a spindle"), the river on which the city was built. Interestingly, the river Farset has been superseded by the River Lagan as the most important river; the Farset now languishes under the High Street in obscurity. Bridge Street indicates where there was originally a bridge across the Farset. Belfast saw the worst of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. A calmer scene in recent years has allowed some development of the city. The Lagan riverfront has been regenerated, including the new Odyssey complex and sports arena. Much of the city centre has now been pedestrianised. The city has two airports: Belfast City Airport adjacent to Belfast Lough and Belfast International Airport, formerley Aldergrove RAF Station, home of the famous 502 Squadron, which is near Lough Neagh. Queen's University Belfast is the main university in Belfast. The University of Ulster also maintains a campus in the city, which concentrates on fine art and design.

Geography

Belfast is situated at . A consequence of this latitude is that it both endures short winter days and enjoys long summer evenings. In the middle of the darkest period in December, local sunset is at 3.50 p.m. while sunrise is as late as 8.45 a.m. However, this is counterbalanced by the period from May to July. In mid-to-late June, sunset occurs after 10 p.m. and the daylight survives until 11 p.m. on fine nights. To the north of Belfast are the Glens of Antrim in County Antrim, and to the south, the Castlereagh Hills in County Down. Overlooking the city are Divis Mountain, Black Mountain and Cavehill - the famous "Napoleon's Nose" is a basaltic outcrop here which forms the border with neighbouring Glengormley, and is said to have inspired the famous novel Gulliver's Travels. Like much of the country, Belfast has a temperate climate with significant rainfall. Average daily maximums are 19°C (66°F) in July, 8°C (46°F) in January. There is significant rainfall on over 200 days in an average year, and an annual rainfall total of approximately 850mm (33 inches), still barely half that received in Western Ireland and Scotland. While sleet and snow fall occasionally in Winter, as an urban, coastal, area, snow lies in Belfast on an average of only 2-3 days per year.

Points of interest

Gulliver's Travels The City Hall, dating from 1906, Queen's University, Belfast (1849), and other Victorian and Edwardian buildings display a large number of sculptures. Among the grandest buildings are two former banks: Ulster Bank (1860), in Waring Street and Northern Bank (1769), in nearby Donegall Street. Also notable is the Linenhall Library (1788), in Donegall Square North. The world's largest dry dock is located in the city, and the giant cranes (Samson and Goliath) of the Harland and Wolff shipyard, builders of the Titanic, can be seen from afar. Other long-gone industries included Irish linen and rope-making. Sections of the city contain numerous sectarian murals, reflecting the political and religious allegiances of the communities living there: the Shankill Road, which is almost entirely Protestant, has murals depicting loyalty to the British Crown, the Ulster Volunteer Force, and other loyalist paramilitary groups. Conversely, murals on the Falls Road, Poleglass, Marrowbone, New Lodge, Twinbrook and Ardoyne neighborhoods, which are almost entirely Roman Catholic areas feature political themes such as a united Ireland, and the Provisional IRA, as well as traditional folklore and the Irish language. The Irish folk hero Cú Chulainn has appeared on both republican and loyalist murals, representing the heroic Celtic past for the former and legendary battles between Ulster and the other provinces for the latter. The ornately decorated Crown Liquor Saloon in Great Victoria Street is notable as being the only bar owned by the National Trust. The Royal Courts of Justice in Chichester Street is home to Northern Ireland's Supreme Court.
- Albert Memorial Clock, Belfast
- Ormeau Baths Gallery

History

Ormeau Baths Gallery The site of Belfast has been occupied since the Bronze ages, and the remains of Iron Age hill forts can still be seen. The original Belfast Castle was at Castle Junction, where several roads meet at the top of the High Street. This was demolished at the same time the River Farset was covered over to create the High Street. There is a new castle on the slopes of the Cavehill above the Antrim and Shore Road, now a popular location for wedding receptions. In the early 17th century Belfast was settled by English and Scottish settlers, under a plan by Sir Arthur Chichester to colonise and remove Irish Catholics from the land (see Plantation of Ulster. This caused much tension with the existing Irish Catholic population who rebelled in 1641, when England was distracted with its Civil War. The resulting slaughter is still strong in Ulster Protestant folk memory. It was later settled by a small number of French Huguenots fleeing persecution, who established a sizeable linen trade. In the 19th Century, Belfast became Ireland's pre-eminent industrial city, with linen, heavy engineering, tobacco and shipbuilding dominating the economy, and Belfast briefly overtook Dublin in population at the end of the nineteenth century. Migrants to Belfast came from across Ireland, Scotland and England, but particularly from rural Ulster, where sectarian tensions ran deep. The same period saw the first outbreaks of sectarian riots, which have recurred regularly since. By 1901 Belfast was the largest city in Ireland. Since around 1840 its population included many Catholics, who originally settled in the west of city, around the area of today's Barrack Street. West Belfast remains the centre of the city's Catholic population (in contrast with the east of the City which is almost exclusively Protestant). Other areas of Catholic settlement have included the north of the city, especially Ardoyne and the Antrim Road and the Markets area immediately to the south of the city centre. Conditions for the new working-class were often squalid, with much of the population packed into overcrowded and unsanitary tenements, and the city suffered from repeated cholera outbreaks in the mid 19th Century. Conditions improved somewhat after a wholesale slum clearance programme in the 1900s. Belfast became the centre of Irish unionism, and in 1922 it was declared the capital of Northern Ireland after Ireland was partitioned into Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State (later to become the Republic of Ireland, when it withdrew from the Commonwealth in 1949). The period immediately after partition was marked by vicious sectarian disturbances, and a dramatic hardening of the city's sectarian boundaries. In common with similar cities world-wide, Belfast suffered particularly during the Great Depression. Many thousands of Catholics left the city, often permanently, after the creation of Northern Ireland saw a sustained campaign of violence and intimidation against them, such as the families of former Fianna Fail Taoiseach Charles Haughey, and Canadian-born actors Martin Short and the late James Doohan. During the Second World War, Belfast was one of the major cities in the United Kingdom bombed by German forces and virtually the only one intentionally bombed by the Luftwaffe on the isle of Ireland, most of which had remained neutral during the War. Belfast was targeted due to its concentration of heavy shipbuilding and aerospace industries. Ironically, the same period saw the economy recover as the war economy saw great demand for the products of these industries. See Belfast blitz. The post-war years were relatively placid in Belfast, but sectarian tensions and resentment among the Catholic population at the widespread discrimination festered below the surface, and the city erupted into violence in 1969 and bombing, assassination and street violence formed a backdrop to life throughout The Troubles. In the early 1970s, the city saw huge forced population movements as families, mostly but not exclusively Roman Catholic, living in areas dominated by the other community were intimidated from their homes. The general decline in European manufacturing industry of the early 1980s, exacerbated by political violence, devastated the City's economy. As recently as 1971 the city was overwhelmingly Protestant, but today is almost evenly balanced due to higher Catholic birth rates and rising prosperity, together with Protestant emigration (both internal, e.g. to North Down and external) together with boundary changes have fundamentally, and irreversibly changed the balance. Today the city still remains scarred by the conflict between the two communities and most of it is highly segregated with enclaves of one community surrounded by another (e.g. Protestant Glenbryn Estate in North Belfast, and the Catholic Short Strand in East Belfast) feeling, and often being, under siege. In 1997, unionists lost control of Belfast City Council for the first time in its history. Since then it has had two Catholic mayors, one from the SDLP and one from Sinn Féin. In 2004, the composition of the Belfast City Council changed again, and now the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland holds the balance of power between nationalists and unionists. The formation of the Laganside Corporation in 1989 heralded the start of the regeneration of the River Lagan and its surrounding areas, a process assisted by the ceasefires of 1994, although communal segregation has continued since then, with occasional low level street violence in isolated flashpoints and the construction of new Peace Lines.

Local Politics

In the 2005 local government elections, the voters of Belfast elected 51 councillors to Belfast City Council from the following political parties: 15 Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), 14 Sinn Féin, 8 Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), 7 Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), 4 Alliance Party, 2 Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), and 1 Independent (Frank McCoubrey). Belfast has four UK parliamentary and Assembly constituencies - North Belfast, West Belfast, South Belfast and East Belfast. All four extend somewhat beyond the city boundaries into parts of Castlereagh, Lisburn and Newtownabbey districts. In 2003, they elected 7 Sinn Féin, 6 DUP, 5 UUP, 4 SDLP, 1 PUP, and 1 Alliance MLAs (members of the Northern Ireland Assembly). In the 2005 general election, they elected 2 DUP MPs, 1 SDLP MP, and 1 Sinn Féin MP. Belfast is twinned with Nashville, Tennessee in the United States and Hefei in China.

Media

Belfast is the home of The News Letter, the oldest weekly newspaper in the world still in publication. Other main newspapers include The Irish News, and the evening newspaper Belfast Telegraph. More recently, the Daily Ireland newspaper, which is supportive of Sinn Féin, was launched in 2004, while there is also an Irish language weekly newspaper called Lá (or "day"). The current affairs magazine Fortnight (published, ironically, on a monthly basis) offers commentary from a left of centre but non-party-political stance. The city is also the headquarters of BBC Northern Ireland, the ITV station UTV and the commercial radio stations Cool FM and Belfast CityBeat.

Notable people

Famous people from or living in Belfast
- Gerry Adams, republican political leader
- Thomas Andrews, scientist
- Thomas Andrews, shipbuilder
- Derek Bell, musician
- John Stewart Bell, physicist
- George Best, football player
- Danny Blanchflower, football player
- Kenneth Branagh, actor/director
- Jocelyn Bell Burnell, astronomer (discoverer of pulsars)
- Frank Carson, comedian
- Mairead Corrigan, Nobel Laureate (Peace)
- James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland
- Mairtín Crawford, poet
- John Boyd Dunlop, inventor and veterinary surgeon
- Reg Empey, unionist political leader
- Lord Fitt, nationalist Political leader
- James Galway, musician
- Chaim Herzog, sixth President of Israel
- John Hewitt, poet
- Alex Higgins, snooker player
- David Holmes, DJ
- Lord Kelvin, scientist
- Sir John Lavery, artist
- Francis Maginn, deaf missionary & visionary
- Charles Michael Lavery QC, Barrister
- Michael Longley, poet
- Shauna Lowry, television presenter
- Sammy McIlroy, football player
- CS Lewis, author and scholar
- Mary McAleese, President of Ireland
- Arlene McCarthy, politician
- Henry Joy McCracken, industrial and Irish politician
- Ian McDonald, science fiction author
- Alexander McDonnell, chess player
- William Frederick McFadzean, soldier and posthumous VC recipient
- Siobhán McKenna, actress
- James Joseph Magennis, submariner and VC recipient
- Mickey Marley, street entertainer
- Professor Denis Moloney OBE, Solicitor
- Gary Moore, musician
- Van Morrison, musician
- Colin Murray, radio DJ and journalist
- Denis Murray, Broadcast Journalist
- Ruby Murray, singer
- Ian Paisley, unionist political leader and church leader
- Mary Peters, athlete and Olympic Gold Medalist
- Stephen Rea, actor
- Bob Shaw, science fiction author
- Maclean Stewart, actor
- Norman Whiteside, football player
- Betty Williams, Nobel Laureate (Peace)

Districts

- Ardoyne
- Andersonstown
- Ballymacarrett
- Ballymurphy
- Belfast City Centre
- Donegall Road
- Falls Road
- Finaghy
- Glen Road
- Grosvenor Road
- New Lodge
- Rathcoole (Belfast)
- Shankill Road
- Shaws Road
- Short Strand
- Springfield road
- Stewartstown Road
- Stormont
- Suffolk Road
- Turf Lodge
- Whiterock

External links

- [http://www.gotobelfast.com/ Go To Belfast - Tourism]
- [http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk Belfast City Council]
- [http://www.geographia.com/northern-ireland/ukibel00.htm city homepage]
- [http://www.belfast.net/mo/belmap.jpg Map of Central Belfast]
- [http://www.geographyinaction.co.uk/Urban_structure/Urbanstructure_intro.html Urban structure of Belfast]
- [http://www.nics.gov.uk/ NI Government]
- [http://www.simplyparking.co.uk/belfast/belfast-airport-parking.htm Belfast Airport Parking]
- [http://www.scots-online.org/grammar/belfast.htm Belfast Dialect]
- [http://www.irish-architecture.com/buildings_ireland/antrim/belfast/index.html Architecture of Belfast]
- [http://www.regiochannel.co.uk/belfast/index.html Belfast local web directory]
- [http://www.crownbar.com/about.asp The Crown Liquer Saloon] Category:Capitals in Europe Category:Cities in Ireland Category:Coastal cities Category:Ports and harbours of Northern Ireland Category:Ports and harbours of Ireland Category:Northern Ireland ko:밸파스트 ja:ベルファスト simple:Belfast

Irish language

Irish (Gaeilge), a Goidelic language spoken in the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, is constitutionally recognized as the first official language of the Republic of Ireland. On 13 June, 2005, EU foreign ministers unanimously decided to make Irish an official working language of the European Union. The new arrangements will come into effect on January 1, 2007. According to statistics released by the Government of Ireland in 2004, there are 1,570,894 speakers of Irish in the Republic. Of these, 339,541 use Irish every day, 155,039 weekly, 585,300 less often, 459,657 never, and 31,357 didn't state how often. However, these statistics are often disputed by Irish language activists and their opponents. 65,000 people has been quoted as the amount of people in the Gaeltacht who use the language as their first, daily language¹. Other data states that 167,487 can speak Irish in Northern Ireland and 25,870 in the United States. For Irish English, see Hiberno-English.

Names of the language

In English

The language is sometimes referred to in English as Gaelic (IPA: ), or Irish Gaelic. This has generally been the common name for the language in the Irish diaspora. Within Ireland proper, it has inevitably acquired political significance. Referring to the language as "Gaelic" suggests that the language is as distant and unrelated to modern Irish life as the civilization of the ancient Gaels. Calling it Irish, on the other hand, indicates that it is and should be the proper national language of the Irish people, and this is the generally accepted term among scholars and in the Irish Constitution. Use of the term Irish also avoids confusion with Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig), the closely related language spoken in Scotland and often referred to in English as simply Gaelic (IPA: or ). The archaic term Erse, originally a Scots form of the word Irish, is no longer used and in most contexts is also considered derogatory.

In Irish

In the Caighdeán Oifigiúil (the official written standard) the name of the language is Gaeilge, which reflects the southern Connacht pronunciation . Before the spelling reform of 1948, this form was spelled Gaedhilge; originally this was the genitive of Gaedhealg, the form used in classical Modern Irish. Older spellings of this include Gaoidhealg in Middle Irish and Goídelc in Old Irish. Other forms of the name found in the various modern Irish dialects, in addition to south Connacht Gaeilge mentioned above, include Gaedhilic/Gaeilic/Gaeilig (pronounced ) in County Donegal and parts of County Mayo, Gaedhealaing/Gaoluinn/Gaelainn (pronounced ) in Munster, and Gaedhlag (pronounced ) in Omeath, County Louth.

Official status

Irish is given recognition by the Constitution of Ireland as the first official language of the Republic of Ireland (with English being a second official language), despite the limited distribution of fluency among the population of that country. Since the State was founded in the 1920s as the Irish Free State (see also History of the Republic of Ireland), the Irish Government required a degree of proficiency in Irish for all civil service positions (including postal workers, tax officials, agricultural inspectors, etc.), as well as for employees of state companies (e.g. Aer Lingus, RTE, ESB, etc). Proficiency in Irish for entrance to the public service ceased to be a compulsory requirement in 1974, in part through the actions of protest organizations like the Language Freedom Movement. While the requirement was also dropped for wider public service jobs, such as teaching, Irish remains a required subject of study in all schools within the Republic which receive public money (see also Education in the Republic of Ireland). The need for a pass in Leaving Certificate Irish for entry to the Gardaí (police) was dropped in September 2005, although applicants are given lessons in the language during the two years of training. Most official documents of the Irish Government are published in both Irish and English. The National University of Ireland, Galway is required to appoint a person who is competent in the Irish language, as long as they meet all other respects of the vacancy they are appointed to. This requirement is laid down by the [http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ZZA35Y1929S3.html University College Galway Act, 1929 (Section 3)] and recently was subject of a High Court case on the matter[http://www.galwayindependent.com/news/3905.html] - it is expected that the requirement may be repealed in due course[http://www.education.ie/home/home.jsp?maincat=10861&pcategory=10861&ecategory=10876§ionpage=13637&language=EN&link=link001&page=1&doc=29800]. As a treaty language of the European Union, the highest-level documents of the EU are translated into Irish; in addition, the language has also recently received a degree of formal recognition in Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom, under the Good Friday Agreement. Furthermore, Irish will become an official working language of the European Union beginning January 1, 2007.

The Gaeltacht

There are pockets of Ireland where Irish is spoken as a traditional, native language. These regions are known as the Gaeltacht. These are in County Galway (Contae na Gaillimhe), including Connemara (Conamara) and the Aran Islands (na hOileáin Árann); on the west coast of County Donegal (Contae Dhún na nGall; in the part which is known as Tyrconnell/Tír Chonaill); and Corca Dhuibhne on the Dingle peninsula in County Kerry (Contae Chiarraí). Smaller ones also exist in Mayo (Contae Mhaigh Eo), Meath (Contae na Mí), Waterford (Contae Phort Láirge), and Cork (Contae Chorcaí). However, even within the Gaeltacht areas, the Irish-speaking populations have declined since the Gaeltacht boundaries were drawn up. The numerically and socially strongest Gaeltacht areas are those of Conamara and Tír Chonaill, in which a significant proportion of residents use Irish as a community language and in which children often speak the language among each other. The highest concentrations of Irish speakers are found in Ros Muc, Connemara, and around Bloody Foreland (Cnoc na Fola) in Tír Chonaill.

Dialects

See main article Irish dialects. There are a number of distinct dialects of Irish. Roughly speaking, the three major dialect areas coincide with the provinces of Munster (Cúige Mumhan), Connacht (Cúige Chonnacht) and Ulster (Cúige Uladh).

Munster dialects

Munster Irish is spoken in the Gaeltachtaí of Kerry (Contae Chiarraí), Muskerry (Múscraí), Cape Clear (Oileán Cléire) in the western part of County Cork (Contae Chorcaí), and the tiny pocket of Irish-speakers in An Rinn near Dungarvan (Dún Garbháin) in County Waterford (Contae Phort Láirge). The most important subdivision in Munster is that between Decies Irish (spoken in Waterford) and the rest of Munster Irish. Some typical features of Munster Irish are: # The use of personal endings instead of pronouns with verbs, thus "I must" is in Munster caithfead, while other dialects prefer caithfidh mé (mé means "I"). "I was and you were" is Bhíos agus bhís in Munster but Bhí mé agus bhí tú in other dialects. # In front of nasals and "ll" some short vowels are lengthened while other are diphthongised. # A copula-construction involving is ea is frequently used.

Connacht dialects

The strongest dialect of Connacht Irish is to be found in Connemara and the Aran Islands. In some regards this dialect is quite different from general Connacht Irish but since most Connacht dialects have died out during the last century Connemara Irish is sometimes seen as Connacht Irish. Much closer to the traditional Connacht Irish is the very threatened dialect spoken in the region on the border between Galway (Gaillimh) and Mayo (Maigh Eo). The Irish of Tourmakeady (Tuar Mhic Éadaigh) in southern Mayo (Maigh Eo Theas) and Joyce Country (Dúthaigh Sheoige) are considered the living Irish dialects closest to Middle Irish. Also, the northern Mayo dialect of Erris (Iorras) and Achill (Acaill) is in grammar and word-building essentially a Connacht dialect; but shows an affinity in vocabulary with Ulster Irish, due to large-scale immigration of dispossessed people following the Plantation of Ulster. Connemara Irish is very popular with learners, thanks to Mícheál Ó Siadhail's self-teaching textbook Learning Irish. However, there are features in Connemara Irish outside the official standard—notably the preference for verbal nouns ending in -achan, such as lagachan instead of lagú, "weakening". The non-standard pronunciation with lengthened vowels and heavily reduced endings give Connemara Irish its distinct sound.

Ulster dialects

The most important of the Ulster dialects today is that of the Rosses (na Rosa), which has been used extensively in literature by such authors as the brothers Séamus Ó Grianna and Seosamh Mac Grianna, locally known as Jimí Fheilimí and Joe Fheilimí. This dialect is essentially the same as that in Gweedore (Gaoth Dobhair= Inlet of Streaming Water), the same dialect used by native speaker Enya (Eithne) and her siblings in Clannad (Clann as Dobhar = Family from the Water). Ulster Irish sounds very different and shares several unusual features with Scottish Gaelic, as well as having lots of characteristic words and shades of meanings. However, since the demise of those Irish dialects spoken natively in what is today Northern Ireland, it is probably an exaggeration to see Ulster Irish as an intermediary form between Scottish Gaelic and the southern and western dialects of Irish. Indeed, Scottish Gaelic does have lots of non-Ulster features in common with Munster Irish, too. One noticeable trait of Ulster Irish is the use of the negative participle cha(n), in place of the Munster and Connaught version ní. Even in Ulster, cha(n), most typical of Scottish Gaelic, has ousted the more common ní only in easternmost dialects (including the now defunct ones once spoken in what is now Northern Ireland). The practice seems to be that cha(n) is most usually used when answering to a statement, either confirming a negative statement (Níl aon mhaith ann - Chan fhuil, leoga = "It is no good" - "Indeed it isn't") or contesting an affirmative one (Tá sé go maith - Chan fhuil! = "It is good" - "No, it isn't!"), while ní is preferred in answering a question (An bhfuil aon mhaith ann? - Níl = "Is it any good?" - "No").

Other regions

The extant dialects of Irish native to Leinster, the fourth province of Ireland, became extinct during the 20th century, but records of some of these were made by the Irish Folklore Commission among other bodies prior to this. The present-day Irish of Meath (in Leinster) is a special case. It belongs to the Connemara dialect, as the Irish-speaking community in Meath is simply a group of mostly Connemara speakers who moved there in the 1930s, after a land reform campaign spearheaded by Máirtín Ó Cadhain (subsequently one of the greatest modernist writers in the language). In areas outside the traditional Gaeltacht, where standard Irish was learnt in schools, this has become the "dialect" of leaners of the language. What has been called "Dublin Irish" or "Gaelscoil Irish" has also arisen, that is Irish poorly learnt and heavily influenced by English. English idioms are translated directly, e.g. "Tabhair suas" for Give up when the verb "Lig" should be used. English grammar is sometimes used straight when not applicaple to Irish. Often, when the speaker doesn't know a word, the English will be substituted, sometimes with "áil" affixed. "áil" is generally an ending for the verbal noun of a verb, but when added to an english word, this becomes the stem, e.g. vótáil. Many "Béarlachas"(false Irish based on English) words and phrases are used, e.g. pioc, sórt, saghas, féar plé etc. Also, typical interjection words often used in English and especially English influenced by America are used, e.g. like, man, so, etc. are used un-translated in Irish.

Comparisons

The differences between dialects are considerable, and have led to recurrent difficulties in defining standard Irish. Even everyday phrases can show startling dialectal variation: the standard example is "How are you?":
- Ulster: cad é mar atá tú? ("what is it as you are?" Note: caidé or goidé and sometimes dé are alternative renderings of cad é)
- Connacht: cén chaoi a bhfuil tú? ("what way [is it] that you are?")
- Munster: conas taoí? ("how are you?") In recent times, however, contacts between speakers of different dialects have become more common, and mixed dialects have originated. Nevertheless, many dialect speakers (especially Ulster) are still jealously trying to guard their own variety against influences from other dialects. Among non-native speakers, this can be seen as a quest for authenticity. Regional accents are commonly taught to non-natives and imitated: an urban non-native speaker of Irish in Cork City (Cathair Chorcaí) is very probably trying to emulate Coolea or Kerry dialect; one from Belfast (Béal Feirste) tends to speak an Irish modelled on the Rosses dialect of Donegal; and Galwegian Irish-speakers, living next door to Connemara, will do their best to sound like a Connemara native.

Shelta

There also exists a cant called Shelta, based partly on English and partly Irish, in use by the Irish Travellers.

Linguistic Structure

The features most unfamiliar to English speakers of the language are the orthography, the initial consonant mutations, the Verb Subject Object word order, and the use of two different forms for "to be". However, initial mutations are found in other Celtic languages as well as in some Italian and Sardinian dialects, as an independent development. They are also found in some West African languages.

Syntax

See main article Irish syntax One aspect of Irish syntax that is unfamiliar to speakers of other languages is the use of the copula (known in Irish as an chopail). The copula is used to describe what or who someone is, as opposed to how and where. This has been likened to the difference between the verbs ser and estar in Spanish and Portuguese, although this is only a rough approximation. The copula, which in the present tense is is, is usually demonstrative: :Is fear é. "It is a man." :Is Sasanaigh iad. "They're English." When saying "this is", or "that is", seo and sin are used: :Seo í mo mháthair. "This is my mother." :Sin é an muinteoir. "That's the teacher." One can also add "that is in him/her/it", especially when using an adjective, when it is desired to emphasise the quality: :Is fear láidir atá ann. "He's a strong man." :(Literally: "It is a strong man that is in him.") :Is cailín álainn atá inti. "She's a beautiful girl." :(Literally: "It is a beautiful girl that is in her.") This sometimes appears in Hiberno-English, either translated literally as "that is in it", or as "so it is".

Morphology

See main articles Irish morphology, Irish nominals, and Irish verbs. Another feature of Irish grammar that is shared with other Celtic languages is the use of prepositional pronouns (forainmneacha réamhfhoclacha), which are essentially conjugated prepositions. For example, the word for "at" is ag, which in the first person singular becomes agam "at me". When used with the verb bí ("to be") ag indicates possession; this is the equivalent of the English verb "to have". (Literally, "is a book at me")

Tá leabhar agam.	"I have a book."
Tá deoch agat.	"You have a drink."
Tá ríomhaire aige.	"He has a computer."
Tá páiste aici.	"She has a child."
Tá carr againn.	"We have a car."
Tá teach agaibh.	"You (plural) have a house."
Tá airgead acu.	"They have money."

Compare with Breton: ('Banne' related to the Irish 'bainne' - milk - though semantically drifted) ('Bugel' related to Irish word "buachail" - boy - though semantically drifted)

Ul levr a zo ganin.	"I have a book."
Ur banne a zo ganit.	"You have a drink."
Un urzhiatur a zo ganti.	"He has a computer."
Ur bugel a zo gantañ.	"She has a child."
Ur c'harr a zo ganomp.	"We have a car."
Un ti zo ganeoc'h.	"You (plural) have a house."
Arc'hant a zo ganto.	"They have money."

Orthography and pronunciation

See main articles Irish orthography and Irish phonology. The written language looks rather daunting to those unfamiliar with it. Once understood, the orthography is relatively straightforward. The acute accent, or síneadh fada (´), serves to lengthen the sound of the vowels and in some cases also changes their quality. For example, in Munster Irish (Kerry), a is or and á is in "law" but in Ulster Irish (Donegal), á tends to be . Around the time of World War II, Séamas Daltún, in charge of Rannóg an Aistriúcháin (the official translations department of the Irish government), issued his own guidelines about how to standardise Irish spelling and grammar. This de facto standard was subsequently approved of by the State and called the Official Standard or Caighdeán Oifigiúil. It simplified and standardised the orthography. Many words had silent letters removed and vowel combination brought closer to the spoken language. Where multiple versions existed in different dialects for the same word, one or more were selected. Examples:
- Gaedhealg / Gaedhilg(e) / Gaedhealaing / Gaeilic / Gaelainn / Gaoidhealg / Gaolainn => Gaeilge, "Irish language" (Gaoluinn or Gaolainn is still used in books written in dialect by Munster authors, or as a facetious name for the Munster dialect)
- Lughbhaidh => Lú, "Louth"
- biadh => bia, "food" (The orthography biadh is still used by the speakers of those dialects that show a meaningful and audible difference between biadh - nominative case - and bídh - genitive case: "of food, food's". For example, in Munster Irish the latter ends in an audible -g sound, because final -idh, -igh regularly becomes -ig in Munster pronunciation.) Modern Irish has only one diacritic sign, the acute (á é í ó ú), known in Irish as the síneadh fada 'long mark'; this is frequently referred to, especially by English speakers as simply the fada, using the adjective as a noun. The dot-above diacritic, called a ponc séimhithe or sí buailte (often shortened to buailte), derives from the punctum delens, which was used in medieval manuscripts to indicate deletion, similar to crossing out unwanted words in handwriting today. From this usage it was used to indicate the lenition of s (from /s/ to /h/) and f (from /f/ to zero) in Old Irish texts. Lenition of c, p, and t was indicated by placing the letter h after the affected consonant; lenition of other sounds was left unmarked. Later both methods were extended to be indicators of lenition of any sound except l and n, and two competing systems were used: lenition could be marked by a buailte or by a postposed h. Eventually, use of the buailte predominated when texts were writing using Gaelic letters, while the h predominated when writing using Roman letters. Today Gaelic letters and the buailte are rarely used except where a 'traditional' style is required, e.g. the motto on the University College Dublin coat-of-arms or the symbol of the Irish Defence Forces. Letters with the buailte are available in Unicode and Latin-8 character sets (see Latin Extended Additional chart [http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1E00.pdf PDF]).

Mutations

See main article Irish initial mutations In Irish, there are two classes of initial mutations:
- Lenition (in Irish, séimhiú "softening") describes the change of stops into fricatives. Indicated in old orthography by a dot (called a sí buailte) written above the changed consonant, this is now shown by adding an extra -h-:
- caith! "throw!" - chaith mé "I threw" (this is an example of the lenition as a past-tense marker, which is caused by the use of do, although this is now usually omitted)
- margadh "market", "market-place", "bargain" - Tadhg an mhargaidh "the man of the street" (word for word "Timothy of the market-place" (here we see the lenition marking the genitive case of a masculine noun)
- Seán "Seán, John" - a Sheáin! "O John!" (here we see lenition as part of what is called the vocative case - in fact, the vocative lenition is triggered by the a or vocative marker before Sheáin)
- Nasalisation (in Irish, urú "eclipsis") covers the voicing of voiceless stops, as well as the true nasalisation of voiced stops.
- athair "father" - ár nAthair "our Father"
- tús "start", ar dtús "at the start"
- Gaillimh "Galway" - i nGaillimh "in Galway"

History and politics

Stages of the Irish language

The introduction of Irish to Ireland dates from some time after 1200 BC.² The earliest form of the language, Primitive Irish, is found in ogham inscriptions up to about the 4th centuryAD. After the conversion to Christianity, Old Irish begins to appear as glosses in the margins of Latin manuscripts, beginning in the 6th century, until it gives way in the 10th century to Middle Irish. Modern Irish dates from about the 16th century.

The Irish Language Movement

The Irish language was the most widely spoken language on the island of Ireland until the 19th century. The first Bible in Irish was translated by William Bedell, Church of Ireland Bishop of Kilmore, in the 17th century. A combination of the introduction of a primary education system (the 'National Schools'), in which Irish was prohibited and only English taught by order of the British government, and the Great Famine (An Drochshaol) which hit a disportionately high number of Irish language speakers (who lived in the poorer areas heavily hit by famine deaths and emigration), hastened its rapid decline. Irish political leaders, such as Daniel O'Connell (Dónall Ó Conaill), too were critical of the language, seeing it as 'backward', with English the language of the future. Contemporary reports spoke of Irish-speaking parents actively discouraging their children from speaking the language, and encouraging the use of English instead. This practice continued long after independence, as the stigma of speaking Irish remained very strong. Some, however, thought differently. The initial moves to save the language were championed by Irish Protestants, such as the linguist and clergyman William Neilson, in the end of the eighteenth century; the major push occurred with the foundation by Douglas Hyde, the son of a Church of Ireland rector, of the Gaelic League (known in Irish as Conradh na Gaeilge) which started the Gaelic Revival. Leading supporters of Conradh included Pádraig Mac Piarais and Éamon de Valera. The revival of interest in the language coincided with other cultural revivals, such as the foundation of the Gaelic Athletic Association and the growth in the performance of plays about Ireland in English, by such luminaries as William Butler Yeats, J.M. Synge, Sean O'Casey and Lady Gregory, with their launch of the Abbey Theatre. Even though the Abbey Theatre playwrights wrote in English (and indeed some disliked Irish) the Irish language affected them, as it did all Irish English speakers. The version of English spoken in Ireland, known as Hiberno-English bears striking similarities in some grammatical idioms with Irish. Some have speculated that even after the vast majority of Irish people stopped speaking Irish, they perhaps subsconsciously used its grammatical flair in the manner in which they spoke English. This fluency is reflected in the writings of Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde and more recently in the writings of Seamus Heaney, Paul Durcan, Dermot Bolger and many others. (It may also in part explain the appeal in Britain of Irish-born broadcasters like Terry Wogan, Eamonn Andrews, Graham Norton, Desmond Lynam, etc.) This national cultural revival of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century matched the growing Irish radicalism in Irish politics. Many of those, such as Pearse, de Valera, W.T. Cosgrave (Liam Mac Cosguir) and Ernest Blythe (Earnán de Blaghd), who fought to achieve Irish independence and came to govern the independent Irish state, first became politically aware through Conradh na Gaeilge, though Hyde himself resigned from its presidency in 1915 in protest at the movement's growing politicisation. A Church of Ireland campaign to promote worship and religion in Irish was started in 1914 with the founding of Cumann Gaelach na hEaglaise (the Irish Guild of the Church). The Roman Catholic Church also replaced its liturgies in Latin with Irish and English for their liturgies following the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

Independent Ireland and the language

The independent Irish state was established in 1922 (The Irish Free State 1922-37; Ireland (Éire) from 1937, also known since 1949 as the Republic of Ireland). Although some Republican leaders had been committed language enthusiasts, the new state continued to use English as the language of administration, even in areas where over 80% of the population spoke Irish. The government refused to implement the 1926 recommendations of the Gaeltacht Commission, which included restoring Irish as the language of administration in such areas. As the role of the state grew, it therefore exerted tremendous pressure on Irish-speakers to speak English. This was only partly offset by measures which were supposed to support the Irish language. For instance, the state was by far the largest employer. A qualification in Irish was required to apply for state jobs. However, this did not require a high level of fluency, and few public employees were ever required to use Irish in the course of their work. On the other hand, state employees had to have perfect command of English and had to use it constantly. Because most public employees had a poor command of Irish, it was impossible to deal with them in Irish. If an Irish-speaker wanted to apply for a grant, obtain electricity, or complain about being over-taxed, they had to do it in English. As late as 1986 a Bord na Gaeilge report noted "...the administrative agencies of the state have been among the strongest forces for anglicisation in Gaeltacht areas". (page 41 of “The Irish Language in a Changing Society: Shaping The Future”. Author: Advisory Planning Committee of Bord na Gaeilge. Published by Criterion in 1986). The new state increased attempts to promote Irish through the school system. Some politicians claimed that the state would become predominantly Irish-speaking within a generation. However, it is generally agreed that this policy was clumsily implemented. From the mid-1940s onward the policy of teaching English-speaking children through Irish was abandoned. In the following decades, support for the language was progressively withdrawn. Whereas the first three presidents of Ireland (Douglas Hyde/Dubhghlas de hÍde, Sean T. O'Kelly/Seán T. Ó Ceallaigh and Eamon de Valera) and the fifth (Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh) were all so fluent in Irish that it became the working language in their official residence, later presidents struggled with any degree of fluency, its use declining to such an extent that it is only used now (if at all) in occasional speeches. Similarly, where earlier generations of Irish government leaders were highly fluent, recent prime ministers (Albert Reynolds/Ailbhe Mag Raghnaill, John Bruton, Bertie Ahern) had little fluency, struggling to pronounce passages of their speeches in Irish to their Ard-Fheiseanna (party conference(s), ). It is, though, disputed to what extent such professed language revivalists as de Valera genuinely tried to Gaelicise political life. Ernest Blythe did little during his time as Minister of Finance to assist Irish language projects beyond the vested interests of already established organisations. Even in the first Dáil Éireann, few speeches were delivered as Gaeilge (in Irish), with the exception of formal proceedings. None of the recent taoisigh (plural of 'Taoiseach', meaning 'prime minister') have been fluent in Irish; however, the two most recent Presidents, Mary McAleese (Máire Mhic Ghiolla Íosa) and Mary Robinson (Máire Mhic Róíbín) are fluent, though the latter studied the language while in office to improve her fluency. Every President of Ireland has all so far taken their inaugurational 'Declaration of Office' in the language, but they have the option of taking the English declaration at the inauguration. Even modern parliamentary legislation, though supposed to be issued in both Irish and English, is frequently only available in English. Much of publicly displayed Irish is ungrammatical, thus irritating both language activists and enemies of the language and contributing to the public image of the revival as phony and bogus. Many public bodies have Irish language or bilingual names, but some have downgraded the language. For example, Eircom (formerly Telecom Éireann) effectively dropped Irish from its telephone directories in 1999. An Post, the Republic's postal service, continues to have place names in the language on its postmarks, as well as recognising addresses (as does the Royal Mail in Northern Ireland). In an effort to address the half-committed attitude of Irish language use by the State, the Official Languages Act was passed in 2003. This act ensures that every publication made by a governmental body must be published in both official languages, Irish and English. In addition, the office of Language Commissioner has been set up to act as an ombudsman with regard to equal treatment in both languages. ombudsman, with placenames in English and Irish.]] In 2002, at the launch of what was to be a new traffic management system for Dublin, it was revealed that the vast majority of signs would be in English only. The justification offered was that, in making the English lettering large enough to be easily read by motorists from a distance, there was no space to include Irish. The use of the single Irish words left, 'An Lár' (meaning city centre) was criticised on the basis that no-one would know what it meant, even though it was a term used widely for decades on street signs. Even the once common method in Ireland of beginning and ending letters - beginning 'A Chara' (meaning friend) and ending 'Is Mise le Meas' - is becoming rarer. A major factor in the decline of spoken Irish has been the movement of English-speakers into the Gaeltacht (predominantly Irish speaking areas) and the return of native Irish-speakers who have acquired English-speaking families. This has been stimulated by government grants and infrastructure projects. "only about half Gaeltacht children learn Irish in the home... this is related to the high level of in-migration and return migration which has accompanied the economic restructuring of the Gaeltacht in recent decades" (page xxvi of The Irish Language in a Changing Society: Shaping The Future) . Many see this as a deliberate attempt by anti-nationalist politicians to wipe out the language. "That economic development of the kind undertaken was likely to have such consequences was readily predictable a decade ago" (p47). In a last-ditch effort to stop the complete collapse of Irish-speaking in Connemara in Galway, planning controls have been introduced on the building of new homes in Irish speaking areas. These are supposed to ensure that the proportion of English speakers in the local population does not increase. But even this may be too little, too late, as many of those areas have a majority of English speakers, with all Irish speakers being bilingual, using English as their everyday language except among themselves. Attempts have been made to offer some support for the language through the media, notably the launch of Raidió na Gaeltachta (Gaeltacht radio) and Teilifís na Gaeilge (Irish language television, called initially 'TnaG', now renamed TG4); both have been relatively successful. TG4 has offered Irish-speaking young people a forum for youth culture as Gaeilge (in Irish) through rock and pop shows, travel shows, dating games, and even a controversial award-winning soap opera in Irish called Ros na Rún (featuring, among other characters, an Irish-speaking gay couple and their child). Most of TG4's viewership, however, tends to come from showing Gaelic football, hurling and rugby matches, and films in English. There is also a daily Irish-language newspaper called Lá, a weekly called Foinse, and the Irish Times and Daily Ireland have pages in Irish, with articles appended with short lists giving the meaning of some of the words used in English. In 1938, the founder of the Conradh na Gaeilge, Douglas Hyde, was inaugurated as the first President of Ireland. The record of his delivering his inauguration 'Declaration of Office' in his native Roscommon Irish remains almost the only surviving remnant of anyone speaking in that dialect, which in effect died out with him. Over sixty years later, the majority of the Gaeltacht and Irish-speaking areas in existence as he took that oath no longer exist. There is a concerted effort to promote the language among recent immigrants. In 2003, the Qur'an was translated into Irish, following a collaboration between the Islamic Cultural Centre in Dublin and Foras na Gaeilge.

Northern Ireland

:Main article: Irish language in Northern Ireland As in the Republic, the Irish language is a minority language in Northern Ireland, known in Irish as Tuaisceart na hÉireann/Tuaisceart Éireann or na sé chontae (the six counties). Attitudes towards the language in Northern Ireland have traditionally reflected the political differences between its two divided communities. The language has been regarded with suspicion by unionists, who have associated it with the Catholic-dominated Republic, and more recently, with the republican movement. Many republicans in Northern Ireland, including Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams, learnt Irish while in prison, a development known as the jailtacht. Although the language was taught in Catholic secondary schools (especially by the Christian Brothers), it was not taught at all in state (Protestant) schools and public signs in Irish were effectively banned under laws by the Parliament of Northern Ireland, which stated that only English could be used. These laws were not repealed by the British government until the early 1990s. However, Irish-medium schools, known as gaelscoileanna, had already been founded in Belfast and Derry, and an Irish-language newspaper called Lá ('day') was established in Belfast. BBC Radio Ulster began broadcasting a nightly half-hour programme in Irish in the early 1980s called Blas ('taste', 'accent'), and BBC Northern Ireland also showed its first TV programme in the language in the early 1990s. The Ultach Trust was also established, with a view to broadening the appeal of the language among Protestants, although hardline loyalists like Ian Paisley continued to ridicule it as a "leprechaun language". Ulster Scots, promoted by many loyalists, was, in turn, ridiculed by nationalists as "a DIY language for Orangemen" According to recent statistics, there is no significant difference between the number of Catholic and Protestant speakers of Ulster Scots in Ulster (see Ulster Scots language), although those involved in promoting Ulster-Scots are almost always unionist. Irish received official recognition in Northern Ireland for the first time in 1998 under the Good Friday Agreement. A cross-border body known as Foras na Gaeilge was established to promote the language in both Northern Ireland and the Republic, taking over the functions of the previous Republic-only Bord na Gaeilge. The British government has ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in respect to Irish in Northern Ireland. It has been claimed that Belfast now represents the fastest growing centre of Irish language usage on the island - and the Good Friday Agreement's provisions on 'parity of esteem' have been used to give the language an official status there. In March 2005, the Irish language TV service TG4 began broadcasting from the Divis transmitter near Belfast, as a result of agreement between the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Northern Ireland Office, although so far this is the only transmitter to carry it.

The Irish Language Today

The number of native Irish-speakers in the Republic of Ireland today is a tiny fraction of what it was at independence. The Official Languages Act of 2003 gave people the right to interact with state bodies in Irish. It is too early to assess how well this is working in practice. Other factors were outward migration of Irish speakers from the Gaeltacht and inward migration of English-speakers. The Planning and Development Act (2000) attempted to address the latter issue, but the response is almost certainly inadequate. Planning controls now require new housing in Gaeltacht areas to be allocated to English-speakers and Irish-speakers in the same ratio as the existing population of the area. This will not prevent houses allocated to Irish-speakers subsequently being sold on to English-speakers. Outward migration of Irish-speakers could be reduced if the state, which is the main employer in the Republic of Ireland, were to exercise its right to have certain jobs performed in Irish and relocated to the Gaeltacht. On 3rd December 2003 the Minister for Finance announced a new Decentralisation programme, moving over 10,000 civil and public service jobs to 53 locations in 25 other counties outside Dublin. The government explicitly said this was being done to boost the economy of outlying areas. None of these jobs were used to provide employment for native Irish-speakers in the Gaeltacht. According to data compiled by the Irish Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, only one quarter of households in Gaeltacht areas possess a fluency in Irish. The author of a detailed analysis of the survey, Donncha Ó hÉallaithe, described the Irish language policy followed by Irish governments a 'complete and absolute disaster.' The Irish Times (January 6, 2002), referring to his analysis, which was initially published in the Irish language newspaper Foinse, quoted him as follows: 'It is an absolute indictment of successive Irish Governments that at the foundation of the Irish State there were 250,000 fluent Irish speakers living in Irish-speaking or semi Irish-speaking areas, but the number now is between 20,000 and 30,000.' According to the language survey, levels of fluency among families is 'very low', from 1% in Galway suburbs to a maximum of 8% parts of west Donegal. With such sharp decline, particularly among the young, the real danger exists that Irish will largely become extinct within two generations, possibly even one. While the language will continue to exist among English speakers who have learned fluency and are bilingual (though mainly English-speaking in their everyday lives) Gaeltachtaí embody more than just a language, but the cultural context in which it is spoken, through song, stories, social traditions, folklore and dance. The death of the Gaeltachtaí would make a break forever between Ireland's cultural past and identity, and its future. All sides, irrespective of their view on the methodology used by independent Ireland in its efforts to preserve the language, agree that such a loss would be a cultural tragedy of a monumental scale. The [http://www.usenglish.org/foundation U.S. English Foundation] has published analyses of the United States Census 2000, and states that 25,870 US residents [http://www.usenglish.org/foundation/research/lia/languages/irish_gaelic.pdf speak the Irish language at home (pdf file)]. An interest in the Irish language is maintained throughout the English speaking world among the Irish diaspora and there are active Irish language groups in North American, British and Australian cities. Several computer software products have the option of an Irish-language interface. Prominent examples include Mozilla Firefox[http://gaeilge.mozdev.org/], Mozilla Thunderbird[http://gaeilge.mozdev.org/], OpenOffice.org[http://ga.openoffice.org/], and Microsoft Windows XP[http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0db2e8f9-79c4-4625-a07a-0cc1b341be7c&displaylang=ga].

Notes

¹Article in the Irish Independent. ² J.P.Mallory Two Perspectives on the Problem of Irish Origins Emania 9(1991)53, at 58: "The lexical evidence of the Irish language suggests that it was introduced into Ireland most plausibly after c.1200 BC and any attempt to set the arrival of the Irish before this date becomes increasingly difficult to sustain ... I find it difficult to imagine it as anything other than a language introduced by a population movement rather than a lingua franca or pidgin carried along trade routes ..."

External links

- [http://wikisource.org/wiki/Main_Page:Gaeilge Irish main page at Wikisource]
- [http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Die_araner_mundart Die araner mundart] (a phonological description of the dialect of the Aran Islands, from 1899)
- [http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaeilge/gaeilge.html Gaeilge ar an ghréasán Irish online recources]
- [http://www.bnag.ie Foras na Gaeilge]
- [http://www.foinse.ie Foinse - weekly newspaper]
- [http://www.daltai.com Irish Language Information and Resources]
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=gle Irish] at Ethnologue
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Irish-english/ Irish - English Dictionary]
- [http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/search.html Gaelic Dictionaries]
- [http://nualeargais.ie/gnag/gram.htm Braesicke's Gramadach na Gaeilge (Engl. translation)]
- [http://www.kids.net.au/encyclopedia-wiki/ir/Irish_language Kids.net.au Article]
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Irish-english/ Irish English Dictionary] from [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org Webster's Online Dictionary] - the Rosetta Edition

Northern Ireland

- [http://www.cinni.org/ultach/ Ultach Trust]
- [http://www.nuacht.com Lá]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/irish/ BBC Northern Ireland Irish language] ja:アイルランド語 nb:Irsk gælisk språk

Ballyclare

Ballyclare (Bealach Cláir in Irish) is a small town in the Six Mile Valley, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. People have lived here for five thousand years. Invaders included Vikings and Normans. The earliest evidence of people in this area is a horde of flint arrow heads found when houses were being built north of the river in November 1968. There are 39 flints - some perfectly finished and others are blank indicating an 'industry' and trading here near the river crossing over four thousand years ago. When the Normans built the castle at Carrickfergus they placed a line of outposts along the river which was then called the "Ollar "- River of the Rushes. In time the soldiers making the journey from Carrickfergus to Antrim reached the river at this spot when they had traveled six miles so began to call the Ollar the Six Mile Water. One of these mottes is close by the river in the War Memorial Park in Ballyclare. There are two on opposite sides of the river at Doagh and one at Antrim. The village grew after the Plantation of Ulster and was granted permission by George II in 1756 to hold two fairs each year making it an important market centre. At the same time as the Pilgrim Fathers landed in America it was finally settled by Scots planters. Jonathan Swift preached here and it was from here the families of Mark Twain, Sam Houston and General Alexander Macomb left for America. The people of Ballyclare and the surrounding villages played a part in the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and fought in the Battle of Antrim. At the beginning of the twentieth century Ballyclare was a growing industrial town with an Urban Council and became the largest paper producer in Ireland. It had a narrow gauge rail link to Larne and a broad gauge connection to Belfast. Under the reorganization of Northern Ireland local government in the 1970s, Ballyclare lost its Urban District status and was absorbed into the Borough of Newtownabbey. Archibald McIlroy's novel "When Lint Was In The Bell" is a light-hearted, lightly fictionalized chronicle of life in 19th-century Ballyclare. Ballyclare is home to two famous schools - Ballyclare High School and Ballyclare Secondary School.

The May Fair

Ballyclare May Fair occurs on a Tuesday in May every year, and is part of a week of festivities. The tradition stems from a grant by George II to hold two yearly fairs, although only the May Fair now survives. The fair began as a local horse fair, but representatives of cavalry regiments came from all over Europe came to buy as the reputation of the fair spread. The fair's heyday ended with the First World War, but is still a well-loved event in the town. The May Fair is one of the few horse fairs now left in the country. The Main Street is sanded down and given over to horse selling for the day. However, there is now a variety of modern amusements in the square. Other events include the Mayor's Parade, followed by sports, street events, concerts and exhibitions. Local shops compete for the best dressed window, and children take part in Fancy Dress Competitions and the Duck Race. A May Fair Queen is chosen to represent the town over the next year. :See also: List of towns in Northern Ireland Ballyclare and District Historical Society[http://www.ollar.utvinternet.com/] Category: Towns in Antrim

M2 motorway (Northern Ireland)

The M2 motorway in Northern Ireland runs a total of 23 miles, forming two sections of the route from Belfast to Ballymena, bypassing Antrim on the way. The road was built in several phases between 1969 and 1975 but was never completed due to the cancellation of the project at that time. The first part, J1-7, runs from Belfast to Antrim (from whence the M22 motorway proceeds); and the second section, J10-12, forms the Ballymena bypass. The A26 road links the 2 sections and has been upgraded to dual-carriageway standard. There are no plans to finish building the M2 between J7-10 for this reason. Despite this, the M2 is one of Northern Ireland's most important motorways, forming most of the main route from Belfast city to Belfast International Airport. At Belfast, the route becomes the 1-mile M3 motorway which forms the first part of the road to Bangor. Although some other short sections of motorway link with the M2, it does not connect to the other main motorway in Northern Ireland, the M1 (the M12 is the only other motorway section not linked to the M2). J1b and 7 are the only motorway junctions in the United Kingdom that consist solely of motorway exits, with no entry slip-roads (once you leave the motorway, you can't get back on) although junction 7 is scheduled to become full access in 2006. The M2 has no junction 3, and after J7 the next junction is J1 of the M22. A scheme is due to get underway in 2007 to widen the M2 to 3 lanes citybound between junctions 2 and 4 and remodel the Sandyknowes roundabout (J4).

List of Junctions

- Junction 1A - A12 Westlink and M3 motorway
- Junction 1B - Whitla Street, Belfast Southbound offslip only
- Junction 1 - Fortwilliam and Docks, Belfast
- Junction 2 - A2 Shore Road, Greencastle and M5 motorway
- Junction 4 - A6 Antrim Road and A8(M) to Larne
- Junction 5 - A57 Templepatrick
- Junction 6 - B95 Antrim
- Junction 7 - Antrim Area Hospital (Crosskennan) Offslips only until 2006 Route follows A26 to...
- Junction 10 - A36 Ballymena
- Junction 11 - A42 Ballymena
- Junction 12 - A26 Ballymena
See also

- Roads in Ireland
- List of motorways in the United Kingdom
- [http://www.uk-roads.org.uk/ UK Roads Portal]
- [http://www.cbrd.co.uk/motorway/2n.shtml CBRD Motorway Database - M2 Northern Ireland]
- [http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/roads/m2.html Northern Ireland Roads Site - M2] Category:Roads in Northern Ireland

Antrim

Antrim in Northern Ireland may refer to
- Antrim town.
- County Antrim, one of the traditional counties of Ireland.
- Antrim Borough Council, an administrative division. The following are constituencies in the House of Commons and also Assembly constituencies in the Northern Ireland Assembly:
- East Antrim
- North Antrim
- South Antrim It is also the name of several places in the United States of America:
- Antrim, Louisiana
- Antrim, Michigan
- Antrim, New Hampshire
- Antrim, New York
- Antrim, Ohio
- Antrim, Pennsylvania
- Antrim County, Michigan
- Antrim Township, Michigan
- Antrim Township, Minnesota
- Antrim Township, Pennsylvania and in Canada:
- Antrim, Nova Scotia
- Antrim, Ontario Notable individuals named Antrim include:
- Richard Antrim, (1907-1969) a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy Other notable Antrims include:
- USS Antrim (FFG-20), named after Richard Antrim.
- Two ships of the Royal Navy named HMS Antrim after County Antrim.

Stephen Boyd

Stephen Boyd (born William Millar, July 4, 1931 – June 2, 1977) - was an Irish actor, born in Glengormley in Northern Ireland, who starred in over fifty films. Boyd began in British films, but it was his role in a 1957 French film Les bijoutiers du clair de lune (English title: Heaven Fell That Night) opposite Brigitte Bardot that got him noticed. He went to Hollywood and appeared as second leads in a variety of films. His role as Messala in Ben-Hur (1959) propelled him to international fame and he was thereafter fated to play roles wearing breastplates and Roman togas, as in Samuel Bronston's The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), in which he co-starred with Sophia Loren. He was originally chosen to play Mark Antony opposite Elizabeth Taylor in 20th Century-Fox's epic production of Cleopatra under the direction of Rouben Mamoulian, but eventually withdrew from the problem-plagued production when he committed to star in The Fall of the Roman Empire (Cleopatra was later directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and the role of Mark Antony went to Richard Burton). Boyd also appeared in John Huston's Biblical epic The Bible...in the Beginning (1966) and was top-billed in another costumed epic Genghis Khan (1965), filmed in Yugoslavia. He appeared in the French-produced Napoleonic epic Imperial Venus (1962), playing opposite Gina Lollobrigida. His non-epic roles included the musical Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962) opposite Doris Day, the Hollywood melodrama The Oscar (1966), the sci-fi special effects extravaganza Fantastic Voyage (1966), the spy thriller Assignment K (1969) and the international Western Shalako (1969), shot in Spain. His career declined in the 1970s and he appeared in several European potboilers before making a comeback in Michael Apted's British gangster thriller The Squeeze (1977). He died of a heart attack at the age of 45 while playing golf. Stephen Boyd was interred in Oakwood Memorial Park Cemetery in Chatsworth, California.

External links

-
- [http://www.eastantrim.co.uk East Antrim Hockey Club] Boyd, Stephen Boyd, Stephen Boyd, St Boyd, St Boyd, St Boyd, St Boyd, St

Derek Mahon

Derek Mahon (born 1941) is an Irish poet. He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, but later studied at Trinity College, Dublin. He moved to London in 1970. Thoroughly educated and with a keen understanding of literary tradition, Mahon came out of the tumult of Northern Ireland with a formal, moderate, even restrained poetic voice. In an era of free verse, Mahon has often written in received forms, using a broadly applied version of iambic pentameter that, metrically, resembles the "sprung foot" verse of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Some poems rhyme. Even the Irish landscape itself is never all that far from the classical tradition, as in his "Achill": :Croagh Patrick towers like Naxos over the water ::And I think of my daughter at work on her difficult art :And wish she were with me now between thrush and plover, ::Wild thyme and sea-thrift, to lift the weight from my heart. He has also explored the genre of ekphrasis: the poetic reinterpretation of visual art. In that respect he has been interested in 17th century Dutch and Flemish art. Mahon has been cited as a major influence by a number of Irish poets, including Seamus Heaney, Eavan Boland, and Eamon Grennan.

Works

Poetry

- Night-Crossing. Oxford University Press, 1968
- Lives. OUP,1972.
- The Snow Party. OUP, 1975.
- Poems 1962-1978. OUP, 1979.
- Courtyards in Delft. OUP, 1981.
- The Hunt By Night. OUP, 1982.
- Antarctica Gallery Press, 1985.
- Selected Poems. Gallery Press, 1990.
- Selected Poems. Viking, 1991.
- The Hudson Letter. Gallery Press, 1995.
- The Yellow Book. Gallery Press, 1997.
- Collected Poems. Gallery Press, 1999.

Translations

- The Chimeras (a version of Les Chimères, by Nerval). Gallery Press, 1982.
- High Time (a version of Molière's A School for Husbands). Gallery Press, 1985.
- The Selected Poems of Philippe Jaccottet. Viking, 1988.
- The Bacchae of Euripedes, and Racine's Phaedra. Gallery Press, 1996.
- Birds (a version of Oiseaux, by Saint-John Perse). Gallery Press, 2002.
- Cyrano de Bergerac. (A version of the play by Edmond Rostand.) Gallery Press, 2004.
- Oedipus (A conflation of Sophocles' Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus.) Gallery Press, 2005.

Prose

- Journalism: selected prose, 1970-1995. Ed. Terence Brown. Gallery Press, 1996.

External links

- "[http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15372 Achill]" from poets.org.
- "[http://www.thepoem.co.uk/poems/mahon.htm A Disused Shed in Co. Wexford]" from The Poem.
- "[http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/ellpatke/Miscellany/Painting/Painting%20into%20Poetry.htm Painting into Poetry: The Case of Derek Mahon]" by Rajeev S. Patke. Mahon, Derek Mahon, Derek Mahon, Derek

Baunatal (Tal)

Das Baunatal ist ein Tal in Nord-Hessen südlich des Habichtswalds bei Kassel.
- Darin fließt der Bauna-Bach.
- Darin liegt die Stadt Baunatal.
- Darin liegt die Gemeinde Schauenburg.
- Darin liegt der Baunataler Stadtpark. Kategorie:Tal

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