Information sought on moving to Gaeltacht (Gaoth Dobair)

craichoor

I'm resiting my Irish Leaving Cert in June and I want to give myself an edge. I was considering 'doing a Des Bishop' and moving to the Donegal Gaeltacht, Gaoth Dobhair.

I love to play football and hurling, are there many teams there and of what levels? Would they be welcoming of blow-ins (and understanding of my reasons for being there)? I would consider a transfer as it would give me extra reason to stay for the weekends.

Would it be easy to find digs or a cheap apartment/house?

Are there Irish language classes too or would I find someone to give grinds?

What would the nightlife be like?

Looking forward to the responses.

Mr Jinx

craichoor wrote: »

I'm resiting my Irish Leaving Cert in June and I want to give myself an edge. I was considering 'doing a Des Bishop' and moving to the Donegal Gaeltacht, Gaoth Dobhair.

I love to play football and hurling, are there many teams there and of what levels? Would they be welcoming of blow-ins (and understanding of my reasons for being there)? I would consider a transfer as it would give me extra reason to stay for the weekends.

Would it be easy to find digs or a cheap apartment/house?

Are there Irish language classes too or would I find someone to give grinds?

What would the nightlife be like?

Looking forward to the responses.

Plenty of football there not sure of the chances of getting a game ! Whats this thing called hurling ?
http://www.clgghaothdobhair.com/

should be plenty of accomadation available, check www.daft.ie

http://www.colaistecholmcille.com/ for irish collages

plenty of pubs and nightclubs as well

Noreen1

You didn't say whether you planned to go to school there?

Pobalscoil Gaoth Dobhair is an all-Irish Community school, if you're interested in that level of immersion?
They're bound to have a website, if you want to check it out?

Noreen

cosanostra

Regarding football you could prob train along with clg gaothdobhair not sure about getting a game tho,hurling would be pretty much non existant.

If its just for a few weeks to brush up there is plenty of irish colleges who operate courses usually during school breaks eg. easter time you could apply to them.You could contact the derrybeg udaras na gealtacht office and they would point you in the right direction.

You could contact the local fas office im nearly sure they have a list of people who do digs explain what your planning to do.

Nightlife is pretty decent for a rural area there is two nightclubs dodge and eden(check them out on facebook) eden has been closed since dodge opened and only opens on selected nights but there is plenty of lively bars too hudai beags is good if your into trad music and sean ogs would attract the younger crowed but there is plenty of other pubs too and something for everyone really.

mistermouse

Its God's Country and you will love it especially in good weather.

Possibly not as busy as it was a few years ago but a brilliant part of the world.

Glencolmcille has a great Irish language Course too at Oideas Gael, no nitelubs but great pubs and wonderful scenery in the area

North_West_Art

Gaoth Dobhair is great, lots going on and no shortage of night life... one thing though, I think you will find a sizable difference between Gaoth Dobhair Irish and the Irish that you are used to speaking. Have you heard Gaoth Dobhair Irish spoken?
The curriculum is set in Leinster; examiners who are correcting papers may be young, and are not familiar with Donegal Gaelic.. I have heard of native speakers from Gaoth Dobhair achieving just a pass in Leaving Cert Irish because of differences in dialect

craichoor

North_West_Art wrote: »

Gaoth Dobhair is great, lots going on and no shortage of night life... one thing though, I think you will find a sizable difference between Gaoth Dobhair Irish and the Irish that you are used to speaking. Have you heard Gaoth Dobhair Irish spoken?
The curriculum is set in Leinster; examiners who are correcting papers may be young, and are not familiar with Donegal Gaelic.. I have heard of native speakers from Gaoth Dobhair achieving just a pass in Leaving Cert Irish because of differences in dialect

Well I'm from Cavan originally and I've been to Oideas Gael Gleann Cholm Cille before so I presume it's quite similar to Gaoth Dobhair Irish and although some of the older speakers were difficult to understand I liked what I heard.

Noreen1 wrote: »

You didn't say whether you planned to go to school there?

Pobalscoil Gaoth Dobhair is an all-Irish Community school, if you're interested in that level of immersion?
They're bound to have a website, if you want to check it out?

Noreen

I'm an adult learner, 28, so I don't think going back to attend school would be feasible. But it's handy to know that that school is there as I'd definitely consider approaching a teacher for grinds.

Thanks to cosanostra, mistermouse and Mr. Jinx for their input.

aridion

North_West_Art wrote: »

Gaoth Dobhair is great, lots going on and no shortage of night life... one thing though, I think you will find a sizable difference between Gaoth Dobhair Irish and the Irish that you are used to speaking. Have you heard Gaoth Dobhair Irish spoken?
The curriculum is set in Leinster; examiners who are correcting papers may be young, and are not familiar with Donegal Gaelic.. I have heard of native speakers from Gaoth Dobhair achieving just a pass in Leaving Cert Irish because of differences in dialect

Maybe this is due to a lack of academic prowess, no?
I know a lot of native speakers who didn't do well in Leaving cert. Irish. They could speak it well but just couldn't apply their speech to paper.

North_West_Art

aridion wrote: »

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Maybe this is due to a lack of academic prowess, no?
I know a lot of native speakers who didn't do well in Leaving cert. Irish. They could speak it well but just couldn't apply their speech to paper.

yes, that would probably come into it alright. Gaoth Dobair spoken Irish is an entity unto itself though, it is different from Gaelic spoken in Glencolumbkille, as someone was asking earlier in the thread. I think there are a few people on this forum from that area, might be able to fill you in better

Noreen1

North_West_Art wrote: »

yes, that would probably come into it alright. Gaoth Dobair spoken Irish is an entity unto itself though, it is different from Gaelic spoken in Glencolumbkille, as someone was asking earlier in the thread. I think there are a few people on this forum from that area, might be able to fill you in better

I'm not from Gweedore, though I'm very familiar with the dialect.( I have some relatives in Gweedore.)
I have no problem understanding Gweedore Irish, (or Glencolumbkille Irish, either:D). That may be because I'm a native speaker - but honestly, offhand, about the only thing I can think of is the habit of abbreviating some words eg. "m'shin", instead of "mar sin", or " 'Tuighe?" instead of "Cen fath?"
The accent/dialect is certainly slightly different to Mayo, or Galway Irish, since Donegal Irish is, (arguably), the oldest, and least corrupted form of Irish - but no more difficult to get used to than the different English accents/dialects.
Then again, I'll admit to being biased in favour of Donegal Irish.:p

You will also find that it might take a while to get used to the fact that people speak pretty quickly - but that's because Irish, properly spoken, tends to roll off the tongue. In Gweedore, it rolls off the tongue a bit more quickly than in Ranafast, Glenties, Cloughaneely, or Glencolumkille - but not so fast that the rest of us have any difficulty understanding it.:D:D

Noreen

North_West_Art

I have family up there also.. although Im not a native speaker myself. Heres a random clip of film footage from Bunbeg with native speakers interviewed

Noreen1

North_West_Art wrote: »

I have family up there also.. although Im not a native speaker myself. Heres a random clip of film footage from Bunbeg with native speakers interviewed

Thanks. That's a pretty fair representation of the Gweedore dialect.
It reminded me of a photographer I spoke to once. He came to Donegal, to use his own phrase "without a word of Irish".
He wanted to learn Irish, and ended up working in Gweedore for 6 months, alongside one of the speakers in that clip - Maire MacNiallais.

His solution was to request that she should speak to him only through Irish.
He now speaks Irish pretty fluently!

Maybe the OP could contact her for advice if he does move to Gweedore? She's well known for being passionate about the language. I don't know the lady, personally, but I can't fault her Irish.:D

Noreen

Cork

I was thinking of moving down to Kerry to improve my Irish.

You'd need a job that you are inter acting with people.

Any ideas?

Von Hapsburg

Deadly serious proposal:

Think about moving to Tory Island.

Small Gaelic-speaking community
small secondary school
you'll get a game of anything they're playing 'cos numbers are so small
school staff are enthusiastic and keen to keep up numbers
accommodation should be available - arás Cholmcille springs to mind
you can't just head home to Béarlaland when you take the notion