Gaeilge briste is well known to be better than Bearla cliste.
But with the Irish now taking first place in the Áras, as new Uachtarán Catherine Connolly pledged in her inaugural speech this week, how is the quality of her caint?
In an ominous preview of what the next seven years of Park-watching are going to be like for well-meaning non-Honours Irish students, Connolly prompted some confusion when she uttered in her Dublin Castle speech her rousing “Ligimis don Ghaeilge bláthú”, or “let us allow Irish to bloom”.
Because when the Áras issued the official transcript, an F had wormed its way into one of the words, rendering it “Ligfimis don Ghaeilge bláthú”. This F, inaudible though it was, made the word possibly future tense, or conditional, but certainly grammatically unusual.
Despite appearing in the official text of the speech, the more Gaelic end of the media, including Tuairisc and the Conradh na Gaeilge X account, left the F out of their reports.
Continue Reading on The Irish Times
This preview shows approximately 15% of the article. Read the full story on the publisher's website to support quality journalism.