You know that saying about truth being stranger than fiction? Well, look no further than County Laois, where seachtar schoolgirls have set themselves up as arms dealers. Bhí siad ag oibre le the C4 programme Dispatches ar feadh sé mhí, and have had no problems purchasing “small arms and torture tools” and were even asked if they’d like to act as a loval agent by one company.
This is HI-larious.
And made even funnier, imo, because of the serious aspect. A total wtf! headline from The Irish Times Laois girls set up as arms dealers:
A spokeswoman for the Department of Trade said it was preparing export control legislation which would for the first time regulate arms brokering in Ireland and by Irish citizens abroad. [subs req’d]
On a less serious issue lets move on to Cheltenham. Where I’m sure half the country are already, and at a good portion of those not there are betting on it. But I don’t really care about that, I was more amused by this article[1] on the commentator in England having to deal with some Irish ainmneacha capaill.
There was big disappointment for the Irish in the festival’s opening race when Cheltenham’s in-house commentator correctly pronounced the name of a horse called Ó Muircheartaigh … The remainder of the meeting was a triumph, not least for the language movement. Dún Doire (owned by a syndicate from Dunderry, Co Meath) won the fourth race, while Native Jack led an Irish 1-2-3-4 in the fifth.
The third-placed horse here was called Buailtes and Fadas, as the race-caller’s Gaeilge exam extended to grammar. [subs req’d]
For those of you wondering Builtes are little dots that used to be placed above letters in irish to indicate pronunciation. And a fada is the difference between a and á and indicates a change in pronunciation. If you are interested check out this page on Wikipedia
Anyone want to guess how Ó Muircheartaigh is pronounced? I’d say it with 4 syllables.
- again in the Times so subs req’d ↩
First things first, I recognised the quote! Yay me.
Oh-Miur-Kawr-Tie?
Congrats Anne, I haven't actually seen that film, so i cheated and googled for quotes from it. Shush, don't tell anyone else.
And I made another mistake with the 4 syllables (apart from my spelling ;) ), in that if you include the O there are five. So your miur and tie are almost correct, but the bit in the middle…
Hmm. I can't recall ever hearing about the Builte. I remember a show on RTE called Bualià that was about a snowman…
I would say it was O Mur-taw, pronounced like the English spelling Murtaugh?
Hee UI, I remember BuailÃ, Fear Sneachta Bán, hata ar a gceann. BuailÃ! BuailÃ!
Have you heard of a séimhiú (not too sure of that spelling), cause that is pretty much what a builte is.
Alan, you need to find another 2 syllables, and change the final one :)
It is vaguely similar to Holmes' nemisis (as NM pointed out in RL)
Oh, I remember it too! BuailÃ, buailÃ! That's a lost memory resurrected, right there.
That looks like the right spelling of séimhiú to me. The mother has one at the end of her name and she used to spell it with the little dot instead of a h.
In RL, I also ran out of credit anyway. Curse you! CURSE YOU!
And WHAM! topped the charts again! Score.
It's a very good film.
Don't leave us hanging like that, what's the proper pronunciation?
(oh miur-key-awr-tie is my last go)
Oh-mura-hearty.
There!
Aye NM, 2-1. I saw, well heard the score.
And also, Mwahahaha. thats what you get for talking fer 45 minutes, when you coulda said to me "hang up and google talk". I disavow any responsibility.
Anne, a bit of anticipation is good for the soul :)