My very first interaction with Irish literature and culture was through James Joyce’s Dubliners. I remember the absolute thrill and joy I felt upon that first reading; how the words floated and swirled in the air, and called forth shadowy visions of a place I had never visited. The glimmering yellow windows, the streets of Dublin, and the beautiful Western reaches of Ireland. I felt nostalgic for a place I did not know, and yet, from that very first encounter, felt that I had a memory of.
Part of this nostalgic familiarity stemmed from the topographical similarities between my hometown in the mountains of North-East India, and the cliffs and dales of Ireland. I grey up surrounded by rolling hills, ever-present mist and rains, and a sense of the largeness of natural landscape. And from all I read and saw of Ireland, I could sense that same largeness. And I wanted to experience it.
Fast forward to my first year as an English Ph.D. at Notre Dame, I started learning the Irish language as part of my Irish Studies Graduate minor. I have always been interested in languages and translation, and so I knew that learning another language would be a good intellectual experience. However, what I did not expect was to feel an intuitive affinity with Irish. I was able to pick up the language more easily than I had anticipated, given that it is vastly different from any of the other three languages I speak. But learning Gaeilge alongside an Irish drama course where we were reading Yeats and Synge helped me mesh language, literature, and landscape together. Further conversations with my absolutely brilliant Beginning Irish I teacher and FLTA, Clíodhna, made me want to immerse myself in Gaeilge, and learn to speak the language more naturally, outside a classroom setting. And the SLA grant provided that opportunity! Go raibh maith agat, CSLC!
I am excited to travel to the Gaeltacht, and learn to use Irish in real-life situations, outside a classroom setting. While Clíodhna’s classes taught me a lot, I feel that I learned even more talking to her outside the classroom, where I had to think on my feet, and try to formulate sentences on the spot. I am looking forward to using my Irish and gaining more in conversations with native speakers of the language at Gleann Cholm Cille.
I am also very excited for my shadowy visions of the Irish landscape, that first developed through Joyce and continued to morph through readings of Yeats and Synge, to materialize. I want to understand why I feel this sense of intuitive connection with a place, and a language, that is so removed from my own. What is it that draws me in? Is it a certain level of cultural affinity, especially when it comes to ideas of societal bonds and tight-knit community? Is it the deep love of music and dance, that I have experienced in my own native culture? Is it the rolling green environs? I am curious to find out…
…starting in less than a week!