A taste of Thanksgiving...

This past Thursday, I had my first-ever Thanksgiving away from my family. It was odd, to say the least, especially because over here it isn't a holiday. Still, a bunch of us Americans from my MA group got together for a potluck Thanksgiving dinner. It turned out better than I could have hoped!

There were six of us total: Jen, Meredith, Beth, Meg, Pat (Meg's brother, and not part of our MA,) and me. Everyone brought something, except Jen who was hosting. We didn't have a whole turkey, because there were so few of us and the only turkeys that Meredith could find were 13 pounds; however, Meredith (who is an amazing cook) made four turkey drumsticks and six turkey breasts, and she sliced the turkey breasts and stuffed them! With homemade stuffing, of course.

The spread:

(I made the green bean casserole, top right, and it was delicious!)

Desert was also delicious, and featured an unnecessary amount of pie:

That's an apple pie and a cherry pie, by Beth (who did the lattice crust by hand,) and two different types of pumpkin pie, by Meg.

I don't have a group picture yet-- Meg took one, with the auto-timer on her camera, and promised to email it around, but so far hasn't delivered.

I do, however, have a video!

Backstory: when we were on our Carraroe trip, one of the events was singing. Our favorite song was this one, Bean Pháidín, mostly because of the beginning to the chorus: "SEEEEEEEEEEEEE an trua ghéar nach mise, nach mise..." This video features Meg (left) and Meredith (right) hacking through the Irish and Meredith getting excited about her favorite Irish word ("fuinneog," window.)


Overall, it was a very fun evening. It did make me miss my family quite a lot, though. Back in the 'States, Thanksgiving weekend is always a minor reunion, but over here I spent the weekend reading and researching for my final papers. Well, I'll see them soon enough-- I have less than three weeks before winter break! That, of course, means I have less than two weeks before my finals are all due... *sigh*

cúpla focal

Today I'm going to talk about a couple of my favorite Irish words. I've already discussed "craic," but that particular word has entered Hiberno-English and is widely used even by those who have no Irish.¹ The words I'm discussing today are just a couple that I have come across in my Irish class that struck my fancy.

Glas: this word is commonly translated as either "green" or "gray," depending on the context. This might strike an English-speaker as being a little odd-- these two colors are so different that it's strange there would be only one word for both. However, that definition is a little vague. More accurately, glas means "the color of the sea." The fact that different languages divide the spectrum differently fascinates me, and the fact that Irish has a word specifically for sea-color says a lot about the Irish relationship with the ocean.

Cailleach: the most common translation I've seen of this word is "hag." However, while "hag" has a negative implication in English, there isn't anything implicitly bad about being a cailleach, unless maybe you're using the term on a little girl. It is also used to mean "old woman," "witch," and in older contexts, "nun." As a concept, it's really something more like "wise woman" or "crone," describing an older woman of great knowledge that deserves respect.²

Sasana: the Irish word for "England." This amuses me greatly, because the derivation of Sasana is "Saxony." Someone from Sasana is a Sasanach-- a Saxon. Also, on a related note, the word danar. I have seen this word used, especially in resistance poetry from the 18th and 19th centuries, to mean "invader" or "foreigner"-- but it literally means "Dane," and comes from the Viking days. (Sometimes, in resistance poetry, the English are referred to as danar, essentially casting them in the role of the pillaging Vikings.)



1: One of the distinctions about Hiberno-English is the use of the word "have" to mean "know," especially in the context of a language. You don't know Irish, you have Irish.

2: For example, my mother! ♥

there's diamonds lying in the road

This weekend¹ has been full of cultural activities for me!

As you may recall, a couple weeks ago at the BAFFLE poetry festival I met a young man named Neil McCarthy. Neil had invited us to an event he hosts every other Thursday called "the Voice and the Verse," a little show that pairs a local poet and a local musician to perform together. This past Thursday, Beth, Jen, and I decided to check it out, so we went on up to The Crane.

The show was excellent! First, a guitar player named Jamie did a few songs to open. His music reminded me a bit of Dave Matthews, though less pop-y. I recognized him from Shop Street-- he's one of the regular buskers. He has always amused me, being a redhaired Irish guy with a high tenor voice who sings Johnny Cash songs in the street. His original stuff was very good, though.

After him, the main act came one: a performance poet named Stephen Murray. Oddly, I have actually met him before! When I was in Galway during my study abroad, I got to see a great deal of the (April 2005) Cuírt Poetry Festival, but my favorite event by far was the slam poetry competition. I had been the only one interested out of my class, so I had gone alone to the pub where it was held and ended up talking to one of the poets for half an hour, before and after the readings. His poem had been my favorite, and he won that competition. That poet was Stephen Murray, who is also a good friend of Neil McCarthy's. What a strangely small world! Anyway, Stephen recited some fantastic poetry, accompanied by a guy with a guitar who did backup rhythms for his poems. Stephen's poetry is very good, but he also performs it impeccably, which is of equal importance with slam or performance poetry.

When Stephen was through reading, the musician who had been accompanying him took the stage for himself. All I can say about him: wow.

Dan Donnelly is his name; he calls his band "Sonovagun," though it's pretty much just him with a recording box to loop sounds back and accompany himself. I highly recommend giving some of his music a listen, because it's very good. Very pleasant indie-folky guitar pop. He performed for the rest of the night, playing a mix of his own stuff and some fun covers.

After the show, Beth and I talked to Neil for a while, and he informed us of a small informal jam going on the next day, at a pub called The Nauchton. Dan Donnelly would be playing there, and Beth and I enjoyed his music so much that we decided to check it out. So the next night, we went out and brought Meg with us.

This show was a much more typical bar show-- it was packed, standing room only all night, and noisy. People were talking the whole time and the music was just background noise. Still, we secured places near the front of the crowd and watched the whole 2+ hour set. Afterward, Dan came and shook our hands, recognizing Beth and I from the night before. He had CDs for sale, and I decided to buy one. The problem was, I had a hard time deciding which one I wanted. He has two full-length albums for €10 apiece, and a single for €5. Both the albums had songs I really liked-- "Spare Change" on one and "Diamonds In The Road" on the other. I was debating buying both, and he saw this uncertainty, because he said "Tell you what. For €20 I'll give you both albums, the single, and a DVD of two concerts!" Done! So now I have the whole Dan Donnelly collection. It's really good stuff.

It was still fairly early, not even 11pm, by the time Dan got packed up. Meg, Beth, and I weren't sure if we wanted to stick around, go somewhere else, or go home, when Neil came up and invited us to go to another pub with him, Dan, Jamie (the other musician from the night before) and their girlfriends, to see some more live music. We were surprised and a bit flattered, so we went along to another pub. This place was a lot quieter and the music was very low-key, so we just sat around and chatted for a bit until around midnight, when Beth, Meg, and I got too tired and went home. The only bit of excitement here was when a very drunk man started harassing Beth. He was hitting on her in a very vulgar way, and got hostile when she rebuffed him. Dan Donnelly jumped up and confronted him, and looked ready to fight him until he backed off. A Northern Irish man ready to start a bar fight to protect someone he just met? I guess stereotypes exist for a reason. ^_~


Overall, an exciting and enjoyable weekend. It was very nice to get see something a little different than crappy dance music or kitschy tourist bars. I like that Neil has sort of befriended us-- I feel like he can introduce me to a lot of the indie/art scene in this town. I knew it existed, I just hadn't found it... but Thursday, watching slam poetry among lip-pierced intellectuals, I finally felt like I'd discovered my crowd.




1: And by "weekend" I mean "Thursday and Friday." I spent Saturday and today doing homework.

a few pictures...

For this Sunday, I give you a few pictures that I didn't take. All these were taken by the lovely and talented Beth Blonigen, and shamelessly stolen by me.

(Click for larger versions)

This first one is a cottage in Connemara, from our trip to the gaeltacht. It's a good representation of the landscape out there...


Half of my MA group. This was also take that weekend, at An Cístin, the pub in Carraroe.

Left to right: Grace, me, Tony, Katie, Debora, Meg, Jen, Meredith, Caelen.

Taken this past Thursday, at The Crane in Galway.

Jen, Meredith, and me being a dork as always. (Though my hair looks fantastic!)