the anatomy of the Irish language

and the Gael i Phortingéil

In November 2023, I traveled on a European funded trip to Portugal to learn embodiment practices with Master Choreographer Lou Chardon; skills that would assist me in the ongoing exploration of the implications that speaking the Irish language has for our biology.

As co-founder of Wild Irish, I am part of the re-indigenation movement in Ireland and I add my voice to the contention of language scholars Michael Cronin and Manachán that restoring Irish will restore our collective ecological awareness. How this nebulous notion will physically manifest is something i long to post more on.

The Irish language offers a broader phonology or soundscape than the English tongue which has colonized the land, speaking it requires a greater engagement of our physiology. It represents a more intricate scale with which we might tune these body instruments. These are the considerations I took with me to Portugal, to a mentor who had learned to listen intently to the body.

There were no answers, only an experience; an experience that hinted to the depth of truth in this thesis.

And a humbling reminder that in this rhetoric of listening to land, we sometimes forget that the body is the ear.

The Gael i Phortaingéil project was funded by Culture Moves Europe mobility fund.