I can't believe I've been here for over a month. The time is absolutely flying. My classes are starting to pick up a bit and I feel like I'm learning so much about Ireland. I purposely took a mix of classes that cover topics about Ireland in different points of time. It's such an interesting country to study because it has such a rich cultural history that goes back for centuries, but at the same time, it's only been an independent nation since 1922. So in my indigenous arts class, we learn about all of the old Irish art forms, while in my history and politics classes we cover more recent Irish events.
I am also so glad I'm taking a class in the Irish language. It's the official language of the country, but unfortunately, only about 10% of the country actually speaks it fluently. So even though all of the buildings around campus and street signs around the city are written in Irish first and English second, walking around town I've only ever heard people speaking English. Irish students are required to take the language in schools growing up, but by the time they enter university, they hardly remember any of it. There have been some efforts made to revive the language, though. We learned about these summer camps that teenagers go to for intense Irish lessons. They make it fun and relevant though, and the students remake popular songs in Irish and film videos! I've been listening to them while I study. Here's their version of Passenger's "Let Her Go":
I'm also loving my Irish Indigenous Arts class! A couple of weeks ago we went out to Carna, a Gaeltacht or Irish speaking area of Connemara. We went into a pub, all stood in a big circle, and learned how to Irish dance! But not the river dance kind of Irish dancing, we learned Sean-Nós style dancing, or old-style dancing. It's very similar to tap dancing- in fact, American tap dancing originated from when Irish immigrants came to America in the 1800s and their style mixed with the traditional dancing of African-Americans. So here we were, 40 non-Irish students (my indigenous arts class is only offered to visiting students, and is mostly Americans) dancing in a pub! It was pretty hilarious.
Last week in our Indigenous Arts class, we learned about Sean-Nós singing (old-style singing). It's a very beautiful style, where the singer is unaccompanied and has a lot of freedom to improvise the rhythm and ornamentation. The song we learned was called "A Stór Mo Chroí," which means "Darling of my Heart." It's a song that would be sung by the mother of a young Irish man or woman emigrating in the late 19th or early 20th century to find work and a better life. We talked about how this wasn't just a goodbye for a while, but it was a goodbye knowing they would never see each other again. It would take the Irish emigrant nearly their whole life to save up the amount of money and time needed to come back to Ireland for a visit, by which time their parents would probably be long gone. I had a hard enough time saying goodbye to my parents when I left for Ireland, knowing it would only be five months and that I would get to email and Skype with them nearly every day. I cannot even imagine having to say goodbye to my parents forever, but this song definitely made me understand what it would feel like a little bit better.
Aside from learning about Irish culture in my classes, I've been making it a point to seek out live trad music around Galway! This city really is the "cultural heart of Ireland", and there are so many opportunities to soak it all in. I still have to write a post about my birthday weekend and going to Dublin, so stay tuned for more! For now, here's an Irish toast we learned in class:
"Go mbeirimid beo ar an am seo arís!" (May we be alive this time next year!)
Slán go fóill!
Elise
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