DAD DIARY: The cúpla focail

I was getting Frankie and Éamon changed in the dressing room after swimming lessons when Frankie landed a haymaker.
I was telling Éamon to lift his leg to put on his trousers, saying ‘cós’ and then ‘cós eile’.
“Daddy, why are you speaking Irish?” he asked.
Before I had a chance to reply, Frankie hit back with not just a comment but a full story.
“It’s because he’s not very good at it, Éamon, and he wants to practice it. He didn’t learn much at school so he wants to get better.”
I’m sure the others in the dressing room were suitably amused. Not long earlier I had told Frankie to ‘whisht’ when she observed out loud, ‘That man has a tattoo that’s a wifi code’. But this time there was nothing I could do but nod and agree.
She was on the money.
Frankie is in First Class now in Sáile on Achill Island. It’s a Gaeltacht school, and the standard of the Irish there is excellent. It’s been full immersion since she started – everything is through Irish, with the kids being helped along when needed.
The signs are on them. Frankie and her friends have great Irish. Éamon has just started and is making good progress, after a very good two-year base from the naóinra.
I’m already struggling with helping Frankie out when it comes to the Gaeilge. Thankfully, Aisling is a national-school teacher with very good Irish.
Where we live in Dooega is a Gaeltacht area, and it is lovely to hear conversations as Gaeilge. Frankie loves having chats across the wall with her neighbours as Gaeilge and speaking Irish to Gaeltacht students visiting the Irish college here in the village.
Meanwhile, however, I am struggling along. It has been an aspiration to try to improve ever since I came here. Progress has been slow. Aspiring to something is one thing, finding the time to do it is another.
It’s great to see the revival of the teanga this generation. Our language is something so unique to us as a people. It must be cherished and allowed to thrive.
I am among a large cohort of people who cursed Irish during my school years. Maybe it was the way it was taught in the school system, or maybe teenage me didn’t have the same appreciation of its importance as 41-year-old me has. It’s certainly one of the main regrets from my time in school.
Plenty of my classmates did honours for the Leaving Cert, so maybe blaming the system is a cop out.
It’s great to know my children will be much more comfortable with our native tongue. Whether I will be able to keep pace is another thing….