UK Chapter Fourteen - Irish Culture 2.ppt

Society and Culture: Unit 14
Irish Culture: Language, Literature and Arts
Ireland: Language
“Irish” or “Erse”
The traditional language
Banned by the English during it’s colonial rule
Was nearly lost during the Great Famine
Ireland: Language
Erse
Following Independence, they began teaching it in all Irish schools
Today it is mandatory for many jobs:
Civil servant
Diplomatic core
Teacher (for 1st and 2nd Levels)
Ireland: Language
Hiberno-English
Version of standard English spoken in Ireland today
English with vocabulary, accent, and diction unique to Ireland
Accents vary from region to region. These accents are also known as brogue
Ireland: Oral Culture
Ireland is an Oral Culture, one that values good talk and loves a good story.
The ability to speak gracefully and on spontaneously is highly valued, especially in business.
Ireland: Oral Culture
Irish culture is legendary for the charm and humor used in munication
They are especially famous for their jokes, poems and songs
A Limerick
A flea and a fly in a flue
Were caught, so what could they do?
Said the fly, "Let us flee."
"Let us fly," said the flea.
So they flew through a flaw in the flue
Ireland: Literature
Much of Ireland’s great literature has not yet been written down.
Ireland’s oral culture has fostered many great writers. Today, they write in two languages: English and Irish.
Most of the literature is based on traditional folk heritage.
Ireland: Literature
Famous Irish Poets :
W. B. Yeats (1865 – 1929)
Seamus Heaney (1939 - )
Both won a Nobel Prize for Literature
Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney: The Underground
The Underground
There we were in the vaulted tunnel running,You in your going-away coat speeding aheadAnd me, me then like a fleet god gainingUpon you before you turned to a reed
Seamus Heaney: The Underground
Or some new white flower japped with crimsonAs the coat flapped wild and button after buttonSprang off and fell in a trailBetween the Underground and the Albert