Irish in ráth carin

agent graves

ráth carin is classed as a gaeltacht but is Irish spoken on a day to day basis like it is in the connemara gaeltacht?

AnLonDubh

Yes, basically. There isn't really a public center so there is nowhere to just stand around and hear people talking, but yes Irish is spoken there daily. The dialect is Cois Fharraige Irish.

agent graves

so if I poped into a shop there speaking irish id get responded to in irish

Baile an Locha

Yeah absolutely, the family who own the shop are locals and fluent Irish-Speakers! The sad thing about Ráth Chairn is that the locals will automatically speak to you in English as they assume you don't have Irish, but after showing them that you can speak Irish they'll respond in Irish!

gaiscioch

agent graves wrote: »

ráth carin is classed as a gaeltacht but is Irish spoken on a day to day basis like it is in the connemara gaeltacht?

Yes, Ráth Chairn is a very lively Gaeltacht. I attended a course there this summer where one of the teachers was the wife of the writer Liam Mac Cóil. Aside from the Connacht families and a few Corca Dhuibhne singers/musicians, there are several well-known scholars and academics who have moved there. There can be good trad seisiúin on at the weekend. And yes, the shop owner is a native speaker although in the summer he employed some outsider in her 40s or 50s and her daughter who seemed to think they were too cool to make the effort to speak basic Irish and that annoyed a fair few people (as all of us were there for Irish). I would be open to moving there as I left the place feeling great respect for them, but that sort of mentality is a definite turn off.