This page was created by Emily Bengtson.  The last update was by Michaila Gerlach.

Star of the Sea : A Postcolonial/Postmodern Voyage into the Irish Famine

Contemporary Music

There are essentially summer camps that teach Irish in Ireland.  One in particular, Coláiste Lurgan, does this by having students translate popular songs into Irish and perform them at the end of the camp.  The practical use of the language matters much less when it’s a song.  People sing in Latin and Greek and dead languages all the time.  It’s about communicating, yes, but not so much what the words are saying but what the music is.  And when it’s a popular song that is already well known, the students already know the English translation and this can help solidify the language for them.

You can check out their YouTube channel, but here are some examples of how they're fostering the love of language in the next generation:

Wake Me Up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A6__HssHW8
Uptown Funk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgmNqXvUPBk
Watch for traditional Irish instruments and dancing in these two videos and how they celebrate their culture by bringing it into something already popular.

Footloose: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4X46rXaH0U
A Laoich Bhig (Little Lion Man) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWsmq39sGk8
These two videos either have lyrics or the words were especially easy to pick out, for example "agus" (and) in Little Lion Man

Rolling in the Deep: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Caxf7C0FiA
Lion King: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqmw0_cbYQ0
These two are just beautiful and fun and show of how beautiful the Irish language is.

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