By Sean Hillen
GROWING up outside Chattanooga in Tennessee, Annie Shattuck would never have dreamed of speaking Irish.
Years later after a familiarisation visit to Donegal while owner of travel company, ‘Ireland Unlocked Tours’ in Nashville, Annie became enamoured of the ancient language and is learning it to speak it at home with her young son, Jack, who attends a ‘Naíonra’ school in Dungloe.
“I want to encourage him in speaking Irish, actually to keep up with him,” said Annie, a smile in her voice. “We even sing wee bits of songs together in Irish.”
She added: “Growing up, I always had a strong sense of connection to Ireland and studied its history, its music, its culture. It was always on my bucket list to go. Having gone the first time 15 years ago, I thought I’d got it out of my system. Instead, it got into my system, I was hooked, and I started coming over here every year, alone or with groups. Now I live here and it’s great.”
Annie is one of a growing number of people, many of them non-Irish, attending classes throughout Donegal, including at Ionad Naomh Pádraig community centre in Dore managed by Mary Coyle where a class is taught by Seamus Herrity, a teacher with over 20 years experience.
“It’s the language I was reared on and grew up with so I’m delighted to play my part in promoting it to other interested people, and I’ve noticed a huge uptake,” said Seamus from Gortahork who hosts classes almost every day throughout north west Donegal, including Carrigart, Fanad, Cloughaneely and Gaoth Dobhair.
As well as people from different parts of Ireland, from Dublin to Offaly, Cork to Belfast, Seamus teaches students from countries as diverse as Brazil, Canada, Scotland, Australia, England and the US.
He said rising levels of interest in Irish are due to many factors, including pop culture with the success of the singing group, Kneecap, as well as President Catherine Connolly’s renewed emphasis on the language being spoken at and around Áras an Uachtaráin. Even the Netflix series ‘House of Guinness’ has Irish language subtitles.
Mary Coyle, whose community centre has offered Irish language classes for more than 20 years and plays an integral part in the language strategy plan for areas such as Gaoth Dobhair, Ranafast, Loughanure and Annagry, says speaking as Gaeilge has become “hip, even sexy.”
“After visiting Donegal, people, of course, talk about the natural beauty of the area, but the one thing they say they really miss is the language and the people,” she says.
