Start With A Song: The First Step to Learning Irish

by John R. Howley

Irish is a hard language for an English speaker to learn. The grammar has a prepositionbased syntax different from Germanic languages. Daily speech is idiomatic and relies on phrases foreign to American English. Pronunciation varies greatly depending on the region. Though many eager Irish Americans try to learn the language, the feat is sometimes too daunting. As an American Irish speaker myself — one who spends considerable time using the language — I am still daunted. I often misuse prepositions, misquote seanfhocail (Irish sayings), and misunderstand my fellow Gaeilgeoirí (Irish speakers).

However, I never fumble Irish in song.

For the first months of my learning Irish, the only words I could string together were verses. My musical fluency is thanks to Pádraig Ó Cearúill, a Gweedore native and New York University’s long-time Irish teacher. In 2023, I enrolled in his elementary course through NYU and Columbia’s language exchange program. For the first half of his class, my peers and I offered greetings and polite inquiries in Irish: we spoke of each other’s days, the weather, our homes. Sometimes Pádraig even taught us grammar. During the second portion of class, equipped with lyric translations and Pádraig’s steady baritone, we sang in Irish of the Mad Puck Goat, a fisherman courting his wife, persistent matchmakers, and Irish seaweed. We recited the lavish food at Dónal and Mórag’s wedding and lamented about the difficult life of a married fisherman. Though we could not speak Irish fluently, we could sing it. This musical relationship with Irish is shared by many Americans. I once met a New Yorker at a Brooklyn seisúin ceol (traditional music session) who sang a beautiful “Ar Éirinn ní Neosfainn Cé Hí” but didn’t speak a word of Irish. During a Pop-Up Gaeltacht (gathering of Irish speakers) in the Bronx, an older gentleman spoke little but perfectly delivered the verses of his mother’s favorite lullaby. At my own family Thanksgiving, where I sang “Mo Ghile Mear” accompanied by my father on a tin whistle, my Bostonian family harmonized with me during the 18th-century chorus. From my Boston clan to NYU’s Irish language beginners, music offers a vessel for the Irish language to exist among non-speakers. Pádraig understood this and gave his students the opportunity to wield the language before they could speak fluently, allowing his mentees to feel less intimidated by the difficult prospect of Irish mastery.

With Níl Na La, my Irish radio show at WKCR, I take a page from Pádraig’s book. If you tune in during the very first hour of every new week, you know that I only speak and play music in Irish. I typically cue slower traditional tunes, catered to those drifting off to their midnight sleep. To date, and despite my on-air pleas, no Gaeilgeoir has ever called in to identify themselves. It is unlikely that anyone understands what I’m playing or what I’m saying. And yet, like Pádraig, I try to offer a space for the non-speaker to musically welcome Irish into their lives, even if they don’t have any experience with the language.

Some listeners in the radio abyss are receptive. I once had a caller request “Óró Mo Bháidín.” He could only ask for the song by humming it, and he had no clue what it meant, but he said that it always lulled him to sleep. I now play the song often. In an instance of extreme coincidence, I mentioned my radio show to an actress with whom I was acting in a play. Her face lifted into a smile, and she informed me that an EMT friend of hers listened to a radio show in Irish every Monday morning while on duty. As if there were any question, she later confirmed that he tuned in to my show on WKCR. According to the EMT, he listened from his ambulance because it soothed him during shifts. Even those who cannot sing in Irish can enjoy it through song.

For an endangered language like Irish, music is a powerful weapon against obscurement, a form of communication that transcends grammatical comprehension and expands the language’s impact. Níl Na La is not just an hour of trad tunes, it is also a modest attempt at diasporic Irish revival. The show seeks to incorporate Irish into the lives of those who would otherwise not listen, to engage the Irish diaspora—and those beyond it—with the beauty of a tongue once prominent in New York City.

As with any linguistic revival, exposure is not enough—people must actually learn the language. Luckily, as Pádraig taught me and my peers at NYU, Irish music is a wonderful educator. In Pádraig’s class, the music we sang informed our habitual use of the language. For instance, in my first months studying Irish, I was confused about how to say “I love you.” It was one of the first phrases that I wanted to employ with my family but, in Irish, there was no direct translation that followed my English grammatical understanding. While learning “Casadh an tSúgain,” with Pádraig, I stumbled across a lyric that captured the feeling of love: “má bhíonn tú liom,‘s gur liom gach órlach de do chroí,” which translates to “if you’re with me, every inch of your heart is with me.” I adapted and modified the phrase for everyday life, and now employ “tá gach orlach de mo chroí agat” (“every inch of my heart is at you”) at the end of conversations with my loved ones. To this day, it’s the only phrase I use. My classmates all share similar experiences, often relying on flowery song lyrics in lieu of everyday translations. Irish music can help make a beginner into a speaker.

So if you, like me and many eager Irish Americans, find yourself compelled to learn or just enjoy the Irish language, take Pádraig’s advice: start with music. Begin with a guitar instead of a grammar book, a pub’s trad session instead of a classroom, a song instead of a lesson. Pick your favorite tune and learn to sing it to a loved one or hum it on your way to work. Find a few phrases in the song and weave them into your everyday life. Before you know it, you’ll be taking place in a modern Irish revival. Eventually, if you want to speak in conversation, you’ll need to memorize the irregular verbs, internalize that a name is at you but a feeling is on you, and toil over noun genders. However, I can assure you, it is much easier learning to speak a language that you already sing. am am

12:00 A.M. Monday mornings on WKCR is a good place to start.

John R. Howley is the Bunaitheoir & Uachtarán [Founder & President] of GAELTACHT NYC, a community bringing Irish speakers in New York City together.

He hosts Níl Na La (The Celtic Show) on WKCR every Monday 12-1am (Sunday nights). Previously, he was one of the co-hosts of WKCR's radio drama show SoundStage. Tune in to say hello—or, better yet, "Dia duit!"