Kinvara woman Patricia Nic Eoin has developed a way of teaching Irish that allows people to engage with it in a different way. With a background in law and translation, the aim of her online courses is to give people the tools and confidence to speak it. And most of us know more Irish than we think we do, she tells JUDY MURPHY.

Most people who come through this country’s education system study Irish all the way through from infant class to Leaving Cert. Yet, as we know too well, the majority of us still don’t feel comfortable using the language.

It’s nothing to be proud of, but it’s a fact. So, when Patricia Nic Eoin observes that there’s a sense of ‘”unfinished business” for many of us, she’s spot on.

Patricia, who has a background in law and translation, is now providing a different way of teaching Irish to those who “have a little niggle there that just won’t go away until they finally do something about it”.

Most people with Leaving Cert Irish have good “passive Irish”, she says, meaning that we understand it pretty well. The next step is to bridge the gap so we feel comfortable speaking it.

Patricia is doing that via her website All About Irish, an online learning facility for adults, which caters for levels from beginner to advanced. She set it up in September 2020 and since then it’s been attracting attention from people in the US and UK as well as Ireland.

Her approach is a “back to basics” one, where she teaches people about the structure of the language, especially on the eight-week beginners’ programme.

It’s not grammar in the narrow sense, she says, rather, it’s about giving people a grasp of the fundamentals.

“Irish is a Celtic language, so things happen that don’t happen in English. It’s important for people to understand that,” she explains. “So, the ear needs to start tuning into different sounds and that’s something that’s not always given sufficient attention in school.”

Those sounds could be something as simple as the phrase Dia Duit, she explains. It’s pronounced with a ‘dh’ sound that doesn’t exist in English. There’s also a different way of using verbs to denote tenses.  And Irish sentences are structured differently to those in English. While ‘is maith liom tae’ means ‘I like tea’, the structure of that simple phrase isn’t the same in Irish as it is in English. Knowing these basic building blocks will help with learning Irish, says Patricia.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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