Oíche i nDún Dealgan | An Evening in Dundalk

Thug an tUasal Brian Walsh, coimeádaí Mhúsaem Chontae Dhún Dealgan cuireadh chuig duine d’údair New Island Books, an Dr Garry Bannister, le caint a dhéanamh ar an 14ú Márta sa Mhúsaem ar an Ollshaothar a rinne sé i dtiomsú an chéad Teasárais Gaeilge – Béarla agus ar cad a nochtadh dó faoin Ghaeilge i rith na daichead bliain a chaith sé ar an obair sin. I measc an lucht éisteachta sa Mhúsaem bhí múinteoirí na Gaeilge, lucht úsáid na Gaeilge ina gcuid oibre laethúla; sa státseirbhís agus ar an urlár damhsa, mar aon le díograiseoirí teanga.

Ina aitheasc ‘Turas trí Thírdhreach na Gaeilge’ luaigh Garry réimse leathan de shaintréithe na Gaeilge, ina measc: brí agus beocht bhuan na Gaeilge, an cráifeachas agus an draíocht a bhaineann léi, feidhm agus cumas eispriseach stór focal na teanga agus conas mar a chothaíonn miotaseolaíocht is a shaibhríonn stair na tíre scríobh agus labhairt na Gaeilge inniu.

Mr Brian Walsh, curator at the County Museum in Dundalk, invited New Island Books author, Dr Garry Bannister, to give a talk at the Museum on 14th March about his opus magnum, the Irish-English Thesaurus, and about some of what had been revealed in the process of its forty-year compilation. The audience consisted of Irish language teachers, those who used Irish in their daily work; from civil servants to those using it on the dancefloor, along with many language enthusiasts.

In his address, ‘A Journey through the Landscape of the Irish Language’ Garry pointed to a variety of specific features of Irish, some of which included: examples of its vitality, its religiosity and mysticism, the vast and powerful expressivity of its vocabulary and how both mythology and history have worked together to enrich and nourish both the written and spoken language today.