Mollie Guidera | The Gaeilge Renaissance: From Embers to a Blaze

In this episode of The Irish Snug, host Tim Grant welcomes the inspiring Mollie Guidera, known globally as Irish with Mollie. Mollie is a visionary educator dedicated to stripping away the classroom stigmas of the Irish language and replacing them with the beauty of its history, logic, and soul.

From teaching in the Basque Country to reaching over 12,000 students in 85 countries, Mollie shares how her grandmother’s "unconditional love" sparked her journey. We dive into the "language healing" movement, the fascinating world of Hiberno-English, and why the Irish diaspora—especially in America—is the engine behind the current Gaeilge renaissance.

Whether you're a fluent speaker, a "recovering" learner from your school days, or just curious about your roots, this conversation explores how the Irish language is a "remembering" of who we are.
*In this episode, we discuss:*
The "Silent" Letters: Mollie explains her grandmother’s wisdom on why Irish is actually logical and musical once you find the rhythm.
Language as Healing: The profound connection between Gaeilge and the brain, including moving stories of how it reaches those with dementia.
Irish-American Identity: A candid talk on the "Irish accent," the history of the diaspora, and moving past the gatekeepers of culture.
Modern Renaissance: The impact of social media, the internet, and bands like Kneecap in making Irish vibrant and relevant for a new generation.

*Resources & Links Mentioned*

*Learn with Mollie:*
Official Website: https://www.irishwithmollie.com
The Gaeilge Guide: Mollie’s book on sparking your connection to the language and legacy.
Free Resources: Download the Ciorcal Comhrá (Conversation Cheat Sheet) and sign up for her bilingual weekly newsletter.

*Language & Media Resources:*
TG4: Ireland's national Irish-language broadcaster (Check out their documentaries and kids' TV).
Gaeilge Weekly: A must-listen podcast for learners.
Scéal (Story) & Seachtain (Week): New Irish language supplements and podcasts from the Irish Times and Independent.
Duolingo: For daily vocabulary practice.

*Cultural Inspiration:*
Manchán Magan: Explore the work of this "language healer" and author.
Glasnevin Cemetery: Tour Glasnevin and walk the history of Michael Collins and Constance Markievicz. https://www.dctrust.ie/experience-glasnevin/tours-and-highlights.html
The Basque History of the World: The book that influenced Mollie’s perspective on indigenous language pride.

🪉 *FOLLOW THE IRISH SNUG:*
Website: https://www.theirishsnugpodcast.com/
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#Ir

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Irish Snug Podcast. So why don't we start we'll start off with an introduction. Join us today on The Snug is someone who is making the Irish language more accessible, vibrant, and more relevant than ever before. You might know her from her massive online presence as Irish with Molly. Molly Gadera is an educator and creator dedicated to stripping away the classroom stigmas of the Irish language and replacing them with the beauty of its history, its logic, and its soul. Whether she's teaching the nuances of a traditional phrase or helping people reconnect with their ancestral roots through the language, her passion is infectious. Molly, welcome to the Irish Snug.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Girl Milamaga. Thank you so much, Tim. I'm delighted to be here. Thank you for the invitation.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

It's great. Your your energy is just, you know, I've I first discovered you on social media, and I just noticed you do have you have that infectious uh thing about you, and I think it's great. I think it's great, and I think we're the Irish language is really uh re uh there's a revitalization right now. So um we'll and we'll talk about that. But um why don't we start off? Uh you've been teaching for many, many years, and it sounds like you've been all over the world. So what gave you the spark for teaching?

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Great question. Um, you know, I never really thought about teaching. Maybe in contrast to my mother, who was a primary school teacher. You know, sometimes we want to kind of rail against what our parents do or not go down the road that they think is best for us. So I think they saw in me bossing my brothers around and creating, you know, mini worksheets for them as a child, even they probably thought, you are a born teacher, but I never really saw that or wanted to be a teacher. I was thinking about speech and language therapy, drama, um, loads of different things. And then I was working with children and teenagers in the Swiss Alps as a camp counselor, and I really love working with like all ages and just the energy of like groups and dynamics and explaining things and having the crack. And then I met a lot of teachers there, and they were just raving about you know the lifestyle you could have traveling and teaching in different places. So I did my Cambridge Celta course, which is teaching English to adults, and that really ignited a spark, I think, for grammar literature. I have a degree in literature from Trinity, so I've always loved reading and writing, and it just made sense, you know, that I could combine my one of my dreams, which was traveling the world, with my passion, which was kind of growing, you know, to create materials and to make learning fun. And then over time, one thing led to another, and Irish teaching became my thing. And I, you know, kind of applied those skills that I had learned as an English language teacher to teaching our own native indigenous Celtic language, and probably inspired by my first teaching job, which was in the Basque Country in northern Spain. They'll tell you, this is not Spain, this is not France, this is the Basque country. And their pride and enthusiasm and their commitment to their culture and history really opened my eyes because it was the first place I had moved. I was 22, and it kind of reminded me like, wow, we have our own language, but we don't speak it every day. We don't see it in the shops and the bars, and young people aren't celebrating it. So I think that really kind of planted a seed for me.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Is is that area kind of bilingual, or do they in their own native language? Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Yeah, the Basque country is in both France and Spain, and there's a brilliant book on this called The Basque History of the World. And the Basque language is ancient and it's kind of a mysterious one, like in terms of where it came from. And there are definitely links between the Irish and the Basques because of emigration, and it's beautiful how much they've preserved and protected their identity and their heritage, and they protest for independence all the time, like very peacefully and not so peacefully. So ETA is a group that might be connected with the IRA in terms of you know, imprisoned freedom fighters. But yeah, really, really interesting history, and also it has some of the best food in the world, it has great surfing beaches, so it was a brilliant place to be as a young 20-something year old.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Oh, that's great. That's great. And so uh tell me more about I have your um I have your book, by the way, and we'll talk about that in a little bit later. But I did read about how there was much, much influence that you had through your grandmother with the language. Yes. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

I have a photo of her here on my desk. Yeah, you know, I think we can't underestimate the positive praise that we can get as children and teenagers and young adults, and this kind of unconditional, abundant love. And she really bestowed that on us. You know, she'd be like, You're a bundle of love, you're a gem, you're a darling, you're a charmer, and just always praising, always positive. We have a shanakal in Irish, mul on oiga agis chakishi, meaning praise the youth and she will come or she will flourish. Not just for girls, but for anyone that I try to embody with my teaching style as well. I think when people feel supported and kind of, you know, boosted by praise, they end up achieving incredible things. And to feel loved and like you can do no wrong. And even if you do, you're still loved, that's fine. So my relationship with her was just kind of growing and strengthening when I was studying in Trinity in Dublin, because I would walk up to her house and we'd have porridge together and celebrate my exam results with the Baileys and different things like that. And then she went into a nursing home. She lived till a great age, she was 96, and I was traveling the world and I would phone her and write letters to her, and she was getting more and more deaf. And she had been practicing Irish her whole life, cycling around the country, working with a hostelin group called Anoiga, meaning the youth. And so she loved Irish and she was always learning, and she kind of really exemplified this idea of lifelong learning, which is something I include with my courses as well. But I remember just becoming a bit frustrated that she wasn't able to hear me. She was incredibly deaf. And then I switched to Irish one day on the phone, and she could hear me fine. So it was beautiful to have that connection with her.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

It's interesting you bring that up because I did have a friend of mine who is from Derry on the on the podcast, and he was telling me, I think I thought it was his friend, but I think it was actually his uncle, who was very sick. And he obviously English was his first language, but he did speak Gaelic, uh Irish, as as uh you know, he said Gaelic. But um it was interesting because he said in in his final days he started having dementia. He couldn't remember any he couldn't speak with anybody. But when he came in the room, he spoke Irish to him, and he was able to have a full conversation with them. So how interesting is that that he couldn't remember the main language he spoke his whole life, but he was able to have a conversation in Irish. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

It is incredible, you know, the brain, the way the brain works, and because we've just come through Shak the Naguelga or Irish Week, the first till the 17th of March is always celebrating Irish culture and language. And so I've had people reach out to me from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the states, all over the world, asking for particular phrases so they could teach their communities and people in nursing homes. And one particular guy in New Zealand said that he works with the elderly in a nursing home and that he wrote things on the board and they practiced them, and people were in tears, and they were remembering all of these phrases and songs and stories that their grandparents would have taught them. And it's just really beautiful to think that the language kind of lives through us and we can come home to that language, and it's there for us.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

My my last guest was uh Dawn Doherty. She is uh she's actually my cousin. She's from Mayo, but she lives in New York now, and she teaches music and singing, and she has a music therapy program where it's a very similar thing where she'll sing songs with some elderly people, and it's the only thing that gets them into some sort of uh you know, they they remember and they you know, we're talking about like Alzheimer's and dementia, things like that. It's a great it th the brain does work in an you know, and I think God works in mysterious ways as well. It's just uh very, very, very cool. Let's see. So your grandmother, I have in your you wrote in your book, your but your grandmother said that when you're speaking Irish thoughtfully, you hear every single letter, even the silent ones. That's it, that's interesting. Can you explain what she meant by that?

SPEAKER_01 9:49

Yes, I think you know, people might come to Irish as a beginner and look at the words and feel very intimidated and overwhelmed, and you know, they might think, Oh, I'll never be able to do this. This is crazy. Like FH sounds like nothing. BH sounds like wa or v. And that's completely normal and a necessary part of the journey to be confused, frustrated, feel like giving up. But realistically, Irish is orthographically shallow, meaning the sounds and the spellings are very consistent, logical, and patterned. So, for example, if you're saying I'm great, tome erowus, we have different ways to say I'm brilliant or I'm great, but this is one of them, tome erowus. And the last word there, awes, comes from the idea of improvement, and it's spelled f-h-e-a-b-s. So if you're an English speaker, you might be like phous or ph us. You might be completely thrown out by that word. But when you learn that f sounds like nothing, bh sounds like w and the broad and slender vowels kind of affect the sounds, then it's very consistent. It's just owes. So you know there's a pregnant pause there at the beginning with the silent FH. You know that ABH sounds like ow, and you know that a broad s sounds like sss. So erowus. And people agree with me. I'm not just going mad. People say it is true, it's all clicking, that you start to see the letters in a different way, and they are the rhythms that rise from the landscape. You can really feel the music and the poetry and the lyricism in the words. So I think what she meant was there is sense there, and there is something meaningful, and there's music, and these inflections and intonations all make sense when you start looking thoughtfully at the words.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

And it's consistent throughout, right? So I mean, some people might be intimidated by that, but if you want the more you do it, I guess you it's it's not more it's not memorization, it's more you feel it. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

And you know, for English speakers, a lot of the Irish diaspora, and we have one of the largest diasporas in the world, most of us are native English speakers. And I've also taught English, as you know, so English is orthographically deep. It's really inconsistent and irregular. And we've learnt words, you know, to we know how to say them properly and spell them, but they're not as logical as Irish. So we don't give ourselves enough credit that it's worth it and we can do it. We are very humans are very quick to say, oh, I'm bad at languages, I'm too old, I'm too stupid, but it's worth it and you can do it. And it all makes sense with the right method and mindset.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

And there's that part of uh, I guess, you know, in Ireland I've heard all these stories of uh this is the way you have to learn it, and it was almost shoved down your throat. But the reality is that English was was shoved down the throat first.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Yes, exactly. So And even that that word usage, your choice of shove, like it's a very violent and aggressive history, and we do use words like it was beaten into us, it was shoved down our throat. And you're right, like Irish children were made to wear the botascourd, which is a tally stick, and it was a wooden kind of ledger, and a notch was struck off or carved into it every time they spoke their native language, the only one that they knew, and they were beaten for every notch that was on the wood. And it's so sad and painful, and I think a bit like the famine, genocide, and 800 years of oppression, I think there have been generations who didn't want to deal with that, who didn't couldn't talk about it and couldn't digest it as the trauma that it is. And I think thankfully, younger people and older now, everyone is kind of unifying and coming together and saying, This is our language, this is our culture, this is worth nourishing and celebrating, and we don't need any room for shame or judgment or fear or hatred. We've had enough of that in Ireland. We need to embrace it and come together and be supportive and you know, and give everyone a boolabus, a clapping hands, if they try anything, even if their pronunciation is a bit wrong or their accent is a bit off. It's like fair play to you.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

So you feel like with the internet and social media and bands like Kneecap, uh, you feel that there's sort of like a renaissance or or a paradigm shift happening now.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

Definitely. Yeah, it's very special, and it's not just a wave, it's a flood of interest, and it's only growing.

SPEAKER_00 15:03

Yeah. I see there's there's so many different uh TikTok. I never knew about TikTok until I started doing the podcast. And you know, it is interesting, you get some interesting stuff, uh, some not so interesting stuff. But but um I you know there's just such a the especially the youth, a lot of young people out there uh you know, really trying to push that the Irish language. And so your book here, The Guelga Guide, spark your connection to Irish language and legacy. Um your book as a firefighter, it kind of caught my eye. This your your analogy of of uh using the language and uh as fire. And you said uh I'm quoting a tiny glow of embers waiting for a breath of air. And together we can turn a spark into a blaze. Fire is, after all, the only element that can make more of itself. That's a quote from your book, and and that caught my eye. And I can understand that's that's something that's right, it's growing.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

Definitely. I'm so glad that you brought that up, and thank you so much for for you know reading and and championing my book. Yeah, I really see it as this light, you know, because it's illuminating all these facets of our psyche as Irish people, growing up with a different way of thinking and different mythology. And whether you grew up in Ireland or Argentina or Moscow or New York or wherever you are in the world, whether you're Irish or not, there are such beautiful and valuable indigenous insights. But I think for Irish people who have Irish ancestry, there's a real connection there and this you know, these embers that you need a bit of kindling to kind of reignite that and and light it up. And I hear this all the time: this kind of splunk hishkina, meaning like a light bulb moment, people realizing that's why my parents said that. That's why I believe this, that's why I see it that way.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

Well, and you you've been called a language healer.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

Yes. I'm so honored to be able to explore the language and you know, fuel my own curiosity through sharing it because it's so exciting, you know, and so lucky to have had the chance to speak with and work with Mankon McGann, you know, one of our great language healers, I would say. I really believe he opened the door and kind of showed us the way and deconstructed a lot of the language and demystified it and democratized it. Such a humble and generous person, Mankon was, and his legacy really lives on. But I think it is such a healing and revealing journey, and I'm so grateful that I'm able to meet people and share it with them, and they're kind of giving me this feedback that it's really released something in them, that they're able to deal with, you know, maybe parts of their own history or family or their connection with Ireland and how the language really speaks to them. People feel like it's more like a remembering than a learning something new. And I know it can feel really cheesy. Like recently, I was opening registrations and saying, do you feel that? That familiar pull, that energy? And people were like, Yes, yes, I feel it, you know. So I think it is a universal thing, but it's also very much tied to yeah, this idea of home and belonging and this craving that we have for authentic community in such a fast-paced capitalist world.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

How many how many students would you say you have now throughout the world?

SPEAKER_01 18:55

So now over 12,000 students in over 85 countries.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

Wow. 85 countries. That's amazing. Yeah, what would you say? What would you say is the most surprising or most interesting reason a non-Irish person has given you for wanting to learn Guelga?

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Hmm, great question. I feel there have been multiple interesting stories, definitely like I think British soldiers with PTSD from Northern Ireland who might want to redeem themselves or come to terms with the atrocities of the troubles.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

And that that was quite challenging, you know, being their teacher and realizing, like, wow, you know, I'm kind of maybe too young and too removed from the troubles to truly understand it because I grew up in Dublin and I'm 35. And I think for us in the Republic, in many ways, maybe like the language and calling the genocide the potato famine, we have to kind of distance ourselves to move forward as a country and you know, and accelerate. You know.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

Have you been to Derry?

SPEAKER_01 20:07

I haven't actually. Oh, I've been to Derry, the county, but not the city. And I've just watched Derry Girls and I loved it so much, and I have some friends from Derry, so I'd really love to visit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:17

Yeah, you should go, you definitely should go to Derry, and I'll I can put you in touch with some people that you might want to speak to there. Oh, very, very much into the Irish language, very much.

unknown 20:29

Uh really.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

I'd really, really love to visit.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

I will visit. Maybe this year. I'd love to make a trip. But yeah, another story. Only yesterday, someone said to me, think of all the diaspora in Latin America. And you can't teach them through English because they might not have English, so you should teach them through Spanish. And I was like, wow.

SPEAKER_00 20:46

Like you speak influent. How many languages do you speak?

SPEAKER_01 20:50

So I have a good level of Portuguese and Spanish, some French, tiny bit of Japanese, and then Irish and English, and some Irish sign language. Oh. I'd love to learn more languages and I'd love to improve. I'm always trying to learn more, but I found that really interesting that this student was saying, like, there are big Irish diaspora communities in Latin America who want to learn Irish and they need to learn through Spanish.

SPEAKER_00 21:17

Argentina, I think, has a very big Yes. Uh yeah. They're they're one of the largest St. Patrick's Day parades, I think. I heard that. I don't know. You know, uh that's maybe that's a place I need to go. I've I've been all over for I play the bagpipes in the FDNY bagpipe band. So we we've traveled all over the place. You know, all over the United States, Ireland, Scotland. Have not been to Latin America yet, though. That would be interesting. Let's talk about uh Hiberno English. I is there a ghost of the Irish language that lives in the way we speak Irish today?

SPEAKER_01 21:55

It does indeed. And a ghost who keeps coming back. Materializing itself. So Hiberno English is the dialect of English we speak in Ireland. And it's basically Irish, just translated into English. So a lot of the structures, people who move to Ireland might be like, what are you talking about? Like, even simple things that we take for granted, we might say, safe home, instead of goodbye. And safe home is literally, you know, be safe until you get home. And it comes from slan awalia in Irish. Slaw meaning goodbye or safe or secure. And awalia is to home. So there are so many things that are just literally Irish, but changed into English. And I suppose this is how we protected and preserved our own language when it was under threat. You know, you can't just tell a people stop speaking your language. Now you speak this other language, because people think of language as a means of communication or just words or structures. But languages are a whole world of meaning, syntax, stories, jokes, you know, expressions of love, different emotions.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

You just made me uh make a correlation. I guess this is part of your teaching. What you want to happen is you just said awalia, and and that's um say it again, it's to come home. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

To home.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

And and I think of the song, this is actually what my original this is I'm going back 30 years ago. The my original uh time that I saw somebody speaking Irish and singing in Irish was uh in in Galway in in Connemara. And it was an old timer. He sang these songs and he sang O Rosh of Ahhawaya, right? Which means Is it uh Welcome Home or something like that? Exactly, yeah. Something like that.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

A poetic way of saying, Oh, it's your it's your way home. Welcome home, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

Okay. And that was like the original I wanted to learn Irish then, but that's 30 years ago. How was I gonna possibly learn that living in New York, you know? And then it was only recently, maybe a year ago, and I heard a video of kneecap singing um the herring song. I'm not quite sure how to say it in Irish, but it it's just an a cappella song that they sing online, and I just thought that it was I I have to learn how to sing that song. I that it really inspired me. And then I said to my my friend who lives in Derry and speaks Irish, you know, I said, I I want to learn Irish, and he said, Well, and he told me about Duolingo, and then I found you. And that that's actually that was the the whole thing here. So now I'm I'm on track. I have your book.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

Oh no, very good. Mahu. Fair play. Yeah, I love I love how it links, you know, that like people say to me, Oh, I I love kneecap and they inspired me to learn the language, so I found you. Or the other way around, you know, they might see that I recommend kneecap and other bands and films. It's beautiful, it's a great community, and it's very uplifting and human and kind.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

So can I bring I want to bring up a topic that I I'm hoping that it doesn't offend any any Irish at all. Uh, I say this first because uh when I read comments in in various social media posts, um there are they're negative very negative comments to what I'm gonna talk about right now. Uh and the topic is is about how Irish Americans put on an Irish accent sometimes. Okay, and I you see you hear it on St. Patrick's Day, and people say, oh, top of the morning. Those kinds of things. That's not that's not what I wanna, you know. That I I don't like that. But and this is gonna lead up to a question, Molly. All right. I'm just giving you a little, I'm painting the picture forehand. I grew up with an Irish accent in my household. My grandparents, you know, and that was just how we grew up. And I didn't even know the difference when I was really young. You don't even know that there's a difference. But as I got older, I realized that my grandmother has this you know beautiful Irish accent. And and and there was a fondness to it, you know. Uh it was very um what's the word? Um, very affectionate. And we were drawn to it so much that my mother and I would constantly talk to each other in in like an accent. So I would say, my mother would say, Good morning, Tim, and I would say, Good morning, mother. You know, very simple like that. And it was that's not that's not like saying top of the morning to you on St. Patrick's Day. You know, this was more of a of an affection. Now, my mother and I did that we do that to this day. You know, there's a there's a um it's just an affectionate way of just communicating because we love the Irish that much, right? So what happened to me though is now when I I go to Ireland a lot and I go with my friends or whatever, my friends are always laughing at me because when I'm talking to somebody and they're they're talking, you know, somebody from Ireland, and their accent is sometimes a word or two will come out of my mouth that is in an accent, and I get embarrassed by it. But my and my friends laugh at me, but I cannot help it. It's just something that happens, and it's not something that is um I actually apologized to somebody one time because I did that and it because I was embarrassed. And um, they told me that you know I wasn't doing it to offend or mock them, but they this woman told me, she explained to me, she said it's more of a compliment. And and she understood the affection. So that made me feel a little bit better. So, but here's the question Does the Irish accent itself stem from the ancient language itself? And if you know, like if somebody is learning the language, um is there accent, is is that accent in the pronunciation? So, you know, for example, um I think that the song uh the herring song that I was just talking about, Aran Nuskadin, is that how I pronounce that? So I could, you know, if I was saying it in my tongue, uh Aran Nusgodin, or do you say it, you know, Aran Nuskaden? You know, like there's see how I'm kind of putting you understand where I'm getting at?

SPEAKER_01 28:31

Auran Nuscadon, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:33

Am I putting an accent in the pronunciation of the word? As you know, an Irish American learning the Irish language, am I putting an Irish accent in the pronunciation of the word? Is it you see that's my question?

SPEAKER_01 28:47

I think when learning a language, it is important to kind of mimic native speakers or to, you know, when you're learning French, you're not gonna say bonjour, you know, exactly. You'll be like bonjour, and like, of course, bonjour, like they'll understand better. It's not perfect, but it's not like bonjour, like they wouldn't understand bonjour, because that's how I might read it in English, um, with my first language interference. But I think it is important to allow for that music, and definitely in answer to your question, the the way the Irish speak English is 100% influenced by the Irish language, you know, this even diddly lidly kind of sound, like the musicality, even like the letter or it's very hard in Ireland, whereas in the UK they might say Ireland, and we'd say Ireland, like Ireland, like it's much more rhotic, and that comes from the language, or TH. We get mocked for not pronouncing our th's, you know, like 33 and a third.

SPEAKER_00 29:49

We don't have the th sound like that in Irish, and then we get I grew up there there's a guy that uh was Irish that lived in my neighborhood, and he called me Timothy. Yeah, you know, my name is Timothy, but he would call me Timothy.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

Timothy, I love it. But I think that's so beautiful. I think you've touched on a really important topic there. You know, the relationship between the Irish and the Irish Americans, and hopefully that is changing for the better. I think people are waking up and understanding a few different things. The definition of nationality, what does it mean to you to call yourself Irish? People might have a different perception. People might believe, oh, you have to be born in Ireland and you have to live your whole life in Ireland and you have to eat tobacco a day, etc. But in the States, of course, it's a melting pot of different cultures, and people are actually preserving their own culture, a lot of people, in many ways, in a much more careful and intentional and beautiful, respectful way than people who might do that in Ireland. In Ireland, people can take for granted many aspects of the culture. Thankfully, I think that's changing, and I think people are aware of the fact that people didn't leave for fun. People left because of a genocide and because of they needed employment and opportunities elsewhere. And I think Ireland has suffered so much in terms of an inferiority complex and having to look up to the US and the UK and other countries, and now Ireland is in a strong place and being able to reconcile itself and say, who are we and what do we give to the world? And also, in my view and in my experience, Irish Americans have built my whole career. I think Irish Americans are behind the whole renaissance. They have such a powerful impact. There are so many of them. They are so enthusiastic. And in the past, we've seen that as too much or too cheesy or not Irish, because Irish people can be cynical or can kind of be emotionally repressed. Whereas I think Irish Americans are like, let's do the Irish dancing, let's get the power on, let's play the pipes. And I think now people are waking up and realizing that's such a beautiful thing to be proud. It's pride and enthusiasm that will keep our language alive and keep it growing. And people sometimes ask me, oh, are your courses for Irish people or are they for Americans or like the diaspora around the world? And they're for both. They're for all because it works for everyone.

unknown 32:22

Right.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

I'm not speaking to one type of person from Boston, for example, whose great-great-grandparents came from Mayo. I'm speaking to everyone who wants to connect with the language. And I don't think it's relevant to create different courses for different types of people. I think everyone can benefit. So it's really interesting. I think, of course, like you said, if someone is kind of not done their research or just wants to capitalize on Irishness or not really understands the history and they want to wear like a green sparkly tie and say top of the morning to you without realizing Irish people never say top of the morning to you.

unknown 33:03

Right.

SPEAKER_01 33:03

But I think people are generally really well educated on that and really respectful and you know they just want to.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

I've come across I've come across the both sides of that that aisle where, you know, uh my cousins I've brought it up too, and they say, no, don't worry about you know, I I've the question being uh when I say I'm Irish, uh you know, my cousins they get that, they understand it, but I have run across people in Ireland who said, Well, you're not you're not Irish, you know. And it's the understanding of it's just the people truncating the that they're getting rid of the hyphen uh Irish American because in the melting pot you have Irish Italians, Irish German, Irish and everybody just here in America, everybody drops that. So like when growing up in school, you know, you say, all right, well, he's Irish, he's German, you know, uh, I'm dating uh I'm dating an Italian girl, you know, it d here it doesn't mean you're dating that somebody that was born in Italy. You know, that's and that's just the way we speak, because we drop the hyphen. But when I can understand when you're in Ireland, they don't they're not you know seeing the same exact thing. So it's it's not a nationality thing. It's you know it's a culture, yeah. It's a culture, it's a and how you affiliate with your culture, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

And I think if people are arguing or gatekeeping, people do that with the language, you know. Oh, you're not a native speaker, you're not from this area, you didn't grow up with fluent parents, blah, blah, blah. They're not the ones driving the movement forward. They're holding it back. Likewise with culture, if people say, you can't call yourself Irish, it's like, give it a break, you know, like Ireland is an inclusive place by its nature throughout its history. We weep with the with those who weep, as Mam Dani said the other day in the words of St. Patrick, such a beautiful, humane, compassionate history with the Caed Mila Falcha, the 100,000 welcomes. So I think with the online world, people are losing the run of themselves, but generally I think good things are happening, and people are saying we're stronger together. Nin Yart Gekir Le Gela is a great proverb, no strength without unity. And people are realizing the Irish are all over the world, and we all share this common thread of a different worldview, a different understanding.

SPEAKER_00 35:32

There's a tremendous amount of pride in this country as well, with the Irish Americans, on the uh the the history of the Irish coming to America, because if you go back to um all the wars, uh go back to the American Revolution, come go into uh World War II, um uh the Civil War, the Civil War, the fight in 69th, you know. Abraham Lincoln said, Send in the Irish, they're the ones that are gonna get the job done. You know, and there's a lot of pride with that. You know, a lot of pride. Um let's so let's switch topic. Um let's say somebody in the US, let's say somebody, or you know what, it could be anywhere. Let's say somebody wanted to start a local club that wants to learn the Irish language. Uh with the internet, with the internet and programs like yours, this is like very possible now. So what would your advice be?

SPEAKER_01 36:35

Yeah, so I have a free mini course on my website, Irishwithmolly.com, and also a free download called Kirkle Cora or Conversation Cheat Sheet. And it has maybe a hundred different questions and answers and the basics of the language, things like, you know, what's your name, how are you, what would you like, um, all the colours and the numbers and the feelings and different simple things to get you started. Also with audio, so you can listen to those. I have a newsletter, it comes out every week and it's bilingual and recorded and free. So I think there are so many different resources online, different podcasts. Guelga Weekly is a good one, and a lot of them are also bilingual and very accessible and inclusive. And people might say, Oh, but I've no one to practice with. Maybe you have no one who's interested in your area or you live in a remote place. The great thing is, like you said, we have online communities practicing, speaking, listening, reading, writing every day, and people making friends for life, people falling in love, getting pen pals. It's beautiful, and it's a really uplifting and positive, supportive space. So, yeah, I would say there's so many different things to do. You can check out Tiji Kaut, which is our national broadcaster Osquelge, and there's lots of documentaries in Irish, kids' TV shows. Um, we have a new supplement to the Irish Times and the independent called Shale, meaning story, and a new podcast called Shakten, which means week. And it's brilliant to see so much Irish at our fingertips. You know, even yesterday I was looking up this brilliant chocolate company based in Galway called Gras, meaning love, and most of the website was in Irish. I just did a skincare um tutorial on Instagram, and they sent me Kinvara, also a Galway company. All of it was in Irish as well. Like we've never seen this before in Ireland, you know, in our lifetime, in my parents or grandparents' lifetime. Never this amount of publicity for the language.

SPEAKER_00 38:46

I mean, I hear every time I hear the president of Ireland speaking, she's always speaking in Irish.

SPEAKER_01 38:52

She is a Bon Leich, uh a female legend, yeah, a Bonrian, a queen. She's just incredible, such an amazing ambassador for the language, you know, and what Ireland I think means in our hearts and souls and spirits.

SPEAKER_00 39:11

So if you were uh here's a here's uh we'll we're gonna close this up here. So I'm gonna give you a couple of just little nugget questions. If you were sitting in a snug with a figure from Irish history, who would it be?

SPEAKER_01 39:28

Oh, what a great question.

SPEAKER_00 39:31

You know, this is the Irish snug. This is the Irish snug, so I guess Do you know what?

SPEAKER_01 39:36

Just because I visited his grave the other day in Glasnevin Cemetery and I did the Cunner Aguilga tour, it was brilliant. Highly recommend that for your next trip to Ireland. I would meet Michael Collins. Ah yes, yeah, but then Constance Markovich, there are so many people. Douglas Hyde, I would really love to meet. But yeah, let's go with Michael Collins.

SPEAKER_00 40:01

Michael Collins. Michael Collins, it is. Okay, very good. And here we go. This next question is Can you give me a piece of Irish history that may not be widely known? Maybe the origin of a place in Ireland and how its name in Irish may be relevant.

SPEAKER_01 40:20

Hmm. Well, because you mentioned your family in Mayo, and I've spent a lot of my life in Mayo, it's one of my favourite, maybe my favourite county in Ireland, the name Mayo comes from Moy O, meaning the land of the ew tree. And ew trees, also back to Glassnevan Cemetery, the ew is poisonous, and so cattle weren't able to pasture there. So in a lot of graveyards, you have ew trees, and Blind Boy talks about this on his podcast a lot. The kind of the logic that comes from Irish mythology and the stories and naming things a certain way to yeah, exactly. So I love that. I think you know, when we see a word like mayo, it doesn't look Irish because it's an anglicization, and so many of our names are anglicized beyond all recognition.

SPEAKER_00 41:19

Yeah. My my grandfather was from Ardmore Point, which is out on the b the Belmullett Peninsula. And um Ardmore, I think Ard is tall, right? And more would be big, so would that mean that there was like big, tall people living there?

SPEAKER_01 41:35

Is that that's a great question. I would, I would, if I had to bet, I would say the land is tall and big. But because a lot of places have art, like you said, tall and more, meaning big. But I don't know. I mean, it could refer to the people. People, people in Mayo can be big and tall.

SPEAKER_00 41:56

Well, I know my but my uh I was that part of my family is the diamonds, and that area, the diamonds, they were known to be very, very large. Wow. You know, tall. I know I had a grandfather that was six foot seven, you know, a great great grandfather. Yeah, that's pretty big for Ireland.

SPEAKER_01 42:15

Absolutely. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 42:17

I was just we just had a reunion in Belmullet last May or June, I forget. Usually we had about a hundred people there, and there was an older woman that was standing right next to me when we were taking a group picture, and she looked at me and she says, Oh boy, you're a diamond.

SPEAKER_01 42:35

What a gorgeous compliment in both ways.

SPEAKER_00 42:39

Yeah, yeah, it was fun. Well, Molly, this was so much fun. I'm really happy that we got to do this and get together and and promote the Irish language. You're in Dublin, right?

SPEAKER_01 42:51

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:52

So if I'm ever in Dublin, I'll uh I'll let you know and maybe we uh have a have a pint in the snug somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 42:58

Perfect. I know a few snugs.

SPEAKER_00 43:01

So thank you so much, Molly. I really appreciate it and you have a great day. Slan.

SPEAKER_01 43:06

Slon.