Random sentances of Irish you remember from school and their English transation

deex wrote: »

Seanfocals! All I remember is bloody seanfocals! We learned one every week in primary school and very little other Irish - no idea what the logic was in that.

Off the top of my head:

- aithnionn ciarog ciarog eile
- tus maith leath na hobire
- tir gan teanga, tir gan anam
- is fearr gaeilge briste na bearla cliste
- is glas iad na cnoic i bhfad uainn

etc etc.

So, did your Gaeilge stay 'briste' or did the brainwashing work?

For people don't know, here are the translation of those above:
- Aithníonn ciaróg ciaróg eile. [A beetle recognises another beetle = It takes one to know one.]
- Tús maith leath na hoibre [A good start is half the work.]
- Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam [A land without a language is a land without a soul.]
- Is fearr Gaeilge briste ná béarla cliste [Broken Irish is better than clever English].
- Is glas iad na cnoic i bhfad uainn [meaning 'The grass is always greener on the other side', although literally 'The hill is greener...'.]


I did my Leaving Cert in 1990, and our Irish teacher got us to write essays on a certain few topics which we were supposed to remember/adapt for the essay question in the exam. The most 'famous' one was about 'dífhostaíocht' (unemployment, which was in abundance back then too).

If I met one of the lads from my class now, 25 years later (:eek: ) and said 'Nagorno-Karabakh', the response would probably be "Freaker!", our teacher's nickname. In the late 80s and early 90s, there was a war in Nagorno-Karabakh between the Armenians and Azerbaijanis. We could write prolifically about this 'as Gaeilge'.

Then, a few years ago, a German band that I like released a song called 'Nagorny Karabach'.