Irish language help needed please!

uglymugs · 05-02-2016 5:48pm #1

Hi,

Although I went to school in Ireland for some years, unfortunately I didn't study Irish.

I'm currently doing some craftivism projects involving sex worker rights taglines like:

"solidarity with sex workers"

"sex worker rights are human rights"

"decriminalise sex work"

"end violence against sex workers"

"only rights can stop the wrongs"

I would dearly love to include some Irish language expressions.

I found the Irish expression "Ní neart go cur le chéile" meaning there isn’t strength until we unite, pull together, which is one I feel may be appropriate.

I also found the Irish word "Meitheal" meaning the community coming together to work as a team, especially in a time of tragedy. I really love this word and would like to come up with an Irish expression utilising meitheal and meaning something like "sex workers coming together". I know "striapacha" means prostitutes. But sadly I do not have the Irish knowledge to come up with an appropriate way of putting striapacha and meitheal together.

I am wondering if anyone can help here?

Many thanks

Lucy

pog it · 06-02-2016 1:34pm

I hope someone has the time to help you with this, but please whatever you do, do not use the word 'striapach'. Even though it may mean 'prostitute' it does so with the connotations of 'slut' rather than 'sex worker' which is what you want to evoke. You would be insulting sex workers if you used that word on any signage, etc.

pog it · 06-02-2016 1:36pm

Sex worker: http://www.focloir.ie/en/dictionary/ei/sex+worker

Redser87 · 06-02-2016 1:55pm

A meitheal is quite a specific thing really, I wouldn't try to put it into a phrase with oibrí gnéis but maybe you could make an acrostic poem to sum up the human side of prostitution? M for mná, e for eagla (although faitíos would probably be a better term for the fear they might feel), i for iníon (daughter) up as far as l for le chéile, I can't think of anything else that would fit the letters and also the topic, you could use tearma.ie to find more words! If you wanted to have MEITHEAL as the main word but not necessarily as the starting letter for each line, you could use bochtanas (poverty) foréigin (violence) cearta daonna (human rights).

uglymugs · 06-02-2016 3:09pm

Thank you very much pog it.

Can I ask what is the plural of oibrí gnéis?

Thank you also Redser87. I'm off to look at your ideas and tearma.ie now.

Insect Overlord · 06-02-2016 3:51pm

uglymugs wrote: »

Thank you very much pog it.

Can I ask what is the plural of oibrí gnéis?

Thank you also Redser87. I'm off to look at your ideas and tearma.ie now.

"Oibrithe gnéis", I think. Téarma.ie is a fantastic resource for terminology like this.

Post here again if you need more advice or help with grammar, etc.

uglymugs · 06-02-2016 4:09pm

I wonder could anyone comment on the phrase "Dearg le Fearg" meaning "Red With Anger".

I found the expression whilst looking at a language rights protest / campaign, "Dearg le Fearg" "Cearta Teanga = Cearta Daonna" ("Language Rights = Human Rights").

I'm wondering is "Dearg le Fearg" like a generally rallying call or is it an expression only used in association with this language rights movement?

Red (a red umbrella) is the colour / symbol of the sex worker rights movement around the world. So if "Dearg le Fearg" happened to be a generally rallying call, it might be one very suitable for sex worker rights.

uglymugs · 06-02-2016 4:23pm

On a side note, I hope children born outside of Ireland are being given the chance to learn Irish now. I'm half English / half Irish and when I was at school in Dublin in the 1980s/1990s, if you were, like me - born outside of Ireland - you automatically didn't do Irish. As a child I never questioned this policy, but as an adult now I think it is a shame to have gone to school in Ireland but to never have done an Irish class. I know neither I nor my parents ever requested exclusion from Irish classes for my siblings and I, it was just the way it was, and that was across all the different primary and secondary schools my siblings and I went to.

uglymugs · 06-02-2016 8:08pm

After some reading, I've decided on these phrases:

Sex worker rights = Human rights
Cearta oibrí gnéis = Cearta daonna

Solidarity with sex workers
Dlúthpháirtíocht oibrithe gnéis

Decriminalise sex work
Díchoiriúlaigh obair gnéis

Working group(s) for safety for sex workers*
Meitheal sábháilteacht oibrithe gnéis

* I note a "Meitheal Sábháilteacht Bhóithre Dhún na nGall" exists which means "Working Group(s) for Road Safety in Donegal"

I would appreciate any comments, especially if I've made mistakes!

Many thanks

Lucy

pog it · 06-02-2016 10:07pm

uglymugs wrote: »

I wonder could anyone comment on the phrase "Dearg le Fearg" meaning "Red With Anger".

I found the expression whilst looking at a language rights protest / campaign, "Dearg le Fearg" "Cearta Teanga = Cearta Daonna" ("Language Rights = Human Rights").

I'm wondering is "Dearg le Fearg" like a generally rallying call or is it an expression only used in association with this language rights movement?

Red (a red umbrella) is the colour / symbol of the sex worker rights movement around the world. So if "Dearg le Fearg" happened to be a generally rallying call, it might be one very suitable for sex worker rights.

Sadly it isn't really a general rallying call - it is associated with a specific thing. Just as meitheal is too. I would avoid that word as well - sorry. It doesn't fit this context.

Why is the umbrella used as a symbol? I would think about it from that point of view instead and you will definitely come up with something unique that way.

pog it · 06-02-2016 10:32pm

Just thought of a slogan. "Ar scáth a chéile" - which you could use a red font for.
Scáth is the word for umbrella and this expression is a general one and comes from the seanfhocal (old saying) “Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine". Check it out on google for meanings but roughly speaking it means we are all sharing the same umbrella or people live in each others shadows.

uglymugs · 06-02-2016 10:37pm

pog it wrote: »

Sadly it isn't really a general rallying call - it is associated with a specific thing. Just as meitheal is too. I would avoid that word as well - sorry. It doesn't fit this context.

Why is the umbrella used as a symbol? I would think about it from that point of view instead and you will definitely come up with something unique that way.

Thanks again pog it. I guesstimated "Dearg le Fearg" wasn't a general rallying call after some reading. I will indeed take your advice re meitheal. You are the second person to say here that it doesn't fit. I really liked the word, but indeed I don't want my first foray into the Irish language to be my butchering it up totally inappropriately and so I will heed the advice.

Apparently the red umbrella was first used at a sex worker rights rally in Italy in 2001. Red has long been a colour associated with sex work, red light districts etc. Umbrella's often symbolise protection. In any event, since then it has been adopted globally as a symbol of sex worker rights.

"ugly mugs" is an online Irish sex worker safety scheme I run. It's all about sex workers coming together to share information with each other to help each other stay safe. Whilst it is a modern web service, the practice of sex workers looking out for each other is very old.

There is a famous story in fact from the 1860s about the "Curragh wrens" (a group of women who operated as sex workers around the Curragh military camp in Kildare), and how, despite the poor conditions that the women lived in, they were well known for their generosity and kindness towards each other and for helping each other out in times of distress.

I'm doing some craft projects at the moment, and whilst I will mostly be using the English language in these, I'd like to incorporate a little Irish also, because I think it would be nice to embrace the language, culture and history of Ireland somewhere. For now I'll probably stick to something I can be quite confident works though, like "Cearta oibrí gnéis = Cearta daonna".

Thank you everyone for all the help.

uglymugs · 06-02-2016 10:39pm

pog it wrote: »

Just thought of a slogan. "Ar scáth a chéile" - which you could use a red font for.
Scáth is the word for umbrella and this expression is a general one and comes from the seanfhocal (old saying) “Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine". Check it out on google for meanings but roughly speaking it means we are all sharing the same umbrella or people live in each others shadows.

I was replying before I saw this. Oh wow, thank you. I'll look that phrase up.

Comhairleoir · 07-02-2016 10:01pm

uglymugs wrote: »

After some reading, I've decided on these phrases:

Sex worker rights = Human rights
Cearta oibrí gnéis = Cearta daonna

Solidarity with sex workers
Dlúthpháirtíocht oibrithe gnéis

Decriminalise sex work
Díchoiriúlaigh obair gnéis

Working group(s) for safety for sex workers*
Meitheal sábháilteacht oibrithe gnéis

* I note a "Meitheal Sábháilteacht Bhóithre Dhún na nGall" exists which means "Working Group(s) for Road Safety in Donegal"

I would appreciate any comments, especially if I've made mistakes!

Many thanks

Lucy

Hi Lucy,

Sex worker rights = Human rights
Cearta oibrithe gnéis = Cearta daonna

Solidarity with sex workers
Dlúthpháirtíocht le hoibrithe gnéis

Decriminalise sex work
Díchoiriúlaigh obair ghnéis

Working group(s) for safety for sex workers*
Meitheal um shábháilteacht oibrithe gnéis

uglymugs · 08-02-2016 2:16pm

Thank you very much Comhairleoir

David Webb · 12-03-2016 9:41pm

uglymugs wrote: »

After some reading, I've decided on these phrases:

Sex worker rights = Human rights
Cearta oibrí gnéis = Cearta daonna

Solidarity with sex workers
Dlúthpháirtíocht oibrithe gnéis

Decriminalise sex work
Díchoiriúlaigh obair gnéis

Working group(s) for safety for sex workers*
Meitheal sábháilteacht oibrithe gnéis

* I note a "Meitheal Sábháilteacht Bhóithre Dhún na nGall" exists which means "Working Group(s) for Road Safety in Donegal"

I would appreciate any comments, especially if I've made mistakes!

Many thanks

Lucy

These phrases are all calques of English phrases, unfortunately. None of these phrases are part of the natural language of the Gaeltacht.

Gnéas is an abstract noun, formed from gné "appearance, form", to mean "having sex" as in "being male or female". It does not refer to humping and grinding!

Oibrí gnéis - doesn't mean anything in natural Irish.

Prostitutes were traditionally striapacha in Irish.

Support sex workers = something like seasaímís i dteannta na striapacha!

Irish language help needed please!

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