ANAM:

Approaching the Irish language through the lens of embodiment, of the need for connecting to the land, to the elements, to story and to oneself.

“Cé mise, cé tusa, cá bhfuil muid ag dul?

Tá an teanga le mhuscailt, tá na síolta le cur”

Who am I? Who are you? Where are we going..?

Our voices awaken, seeds are to be sown”

I compose songs, poems and rhymes in Irish & I seek to facilitate connection to the language in ways that are creative, playful, soulful and sensitive to the reality of Ireland’s troubled history.

How might the Irish language itself might be approached as a form of medicine, for the soul, and a spark of connection to the earth that we may have lost?

The role of Ireland as a symbolic country cannot be overstated. Our history is alive with stories of vision and heart, with resistance and endurance as well as unimaginable pain, deprivation, oppression and suffering. As such, Ireland, as a character, once aware and once her story has been integrated, might serve as a kind of ‘wounded healer’ – serving a vital role in what Joanna Macy terms The Great Turning.

To reclaim the language as a living part of our lives is to pass through this portal of embodied remembering. It is to become more present to this land of Ireland, and to learn to listen. To reclaim a lost language ( as Irish or Gaeilge/Gaolainn is for many ) is also to learn to inhabit a way of seeing that slowly was erased from the lives of one’s ancestors. Emotionally, this may be experienced as a kind of facing into a kind of storm that we never knew was there. It is to turn and face the biting cold gales, the tremendous pressure from both within and around us that invites distraction, offering numbness and endless fantasy.

Stories are the hidden lifeblood of our experience. Stories form our identity: who we are, where we come from. The stories that we tell ourselves, about present past or future, determine how we feel, how we see ourselves and the world around us.

In looking for a way to anchor our relationship with the Irish language, we can go to the land, bring our attention to the earth and learn to listen.

Placenames, the “logainmneacha”, offer us a glimpse of how people related to the land, hinting at stories and special features of place.

Every word that once was spoken, echoes now if ears are open.

Éist….

Events | Imeachtaí

Contact me if you would like to schedule an event. I can offer Gaelióga : Yoga as Gaeilge – classes in schools and for groups with live music.