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00:00The Falls Road, stretching from Belfast city centre out to the suburban estates of Andersonstown.
00:10It's the archery of nationalist West Belfast.
00:13Over the past 20 years, the Falls has suffered some of the worst of the troubles.
00:18Whole streets disappeared in the flames of 1969.
00:21Yet locals say that while it's undoubtedly a troubled thoroughfare,
00:25it is not one without laughter and a personality all of its own.
00:30There was no way I was going to come on this journey without landing in Belfast.
00:43Belfast city, mouth of the river.
00:46People up here are incredible.
00:49The language, the song, the music, the traditions, the culture is strong as ever up here.
00:56In fact, stronger than ever, I'd go as far as saying.
00:59All the way from the Aureo traditions in South Armagh,
01:04and then you have these pockets up in the north of Ireland,
01:08particularly up in Derry, up in Belfast,
01:10who've held on to it for all of that time,
01:12surrounded by all the trials and tribulations that come with that,
01:16and have been proud to hold on to it.
01:18And I think we owe them more than anyone else.
01:23More than anyone else.
01:24More than anyone else.
01:25More than anyone else.
01:26More than anyone else.
01:27I would assume they would go as long as true.
01:34..I don't know what to do.
01:36I'm a bit old now.
01:39There's a lot of joy in the future...
01:42..that I have done in the future...
01:44..and I can't find myself...
01:47..but I'm a bit old...
01:50..and I have to learn...
01:52..with the whole language and the whole language...
01:55..and I've been able to learn...
01:57..and I've helped to learn...
01:59..and I've been able to learn the full story.
02:03I was very happy to meet you at the end of the day.
02:08I was very happy to meet you at the end of the day.
02:33starting as a Gale school teacher in Cross MacGlenn.
02:35This wee red-haired boy came into my class, five years of age,
02:38singing all the Dubliner songs.
02:40He knew all the words of every Dubliner song that I knew
02:43and was mad for singing.
02:45Oh, yeah. Looking back, where did the, like, singing thing come out of it?
02:49And so Dad, when I was about four, Dad gave me, like, a Dubliner CD.
02:53I think it's kind of in our house.
02:55I got a taste for the limelight and just couldn't help myself then, unfortunately.
02:59Oriel is like a Gaeltacht area in the north of Ireland
03:04that a lot of people don't talk about enough, I don't think.
03:07So the region of Oriel itself is, you're talking South Armagh,
03:11most of County Lowth, Monaghan,
03:13and it was an area of real historical significance,
03:17especially to music and song tradition of the country.
03:21It became significant then for another reason,
03:25because it was the last, sort of, outpost of Gaelic speakers
03:29in this side of the country, in the north-east.
03:32But it did die out.
03:34It was late enough on that there were collectors
03:37that understood that the language was dying out
03:41and that if they didn't act fast,
03:43something very precious was going to be lost.
03:45So there were these collectors, like,
03:47there was one man, Sean O'Hannon,
03:49he owned a grocery shop in Cross MacGlen,
03:51and at that stage the language was kind of dying out in the town itself,
03:55but the people that lived out in the countryside outside Cross,
03:58they still spoke Irish and sang songs.
04:00So when they would come in to get their groceries,
04:02he would get, like, sheets of wrapping paper,
04:04he would pull them down at the wall, flip them round,
04:06and he would ask them to sing the song,
04:08and he wrote down the words.
04:10And he collected, like, 150-odd songs this way
04:13that otherwise would have completely died out.
04:16There were other then really well-known collectors
04:18that collected in the area, Lorcan O'Murray, Luke Donnellan.
04:21You see, I was in a really fortunate position in the school
04:23that I could then spread these seeds with the younger ones and...
04:27Good woman.
04:28Yeah, and they talked to it just like ducks to water.
04:31If you look at people that's attended the school,
04:34like, really, like, real beacons for, like,
04:38there is that element of community behind it.
04:41There's three of us in the house and if we all had children,
04:43ten children...
04:44I would have...
04:45I would 100% be sending children to a gale school.
04:48I would say my brother would be the same,
04:51my sister would definitely be the same.
04:53So it would end up being the case there's another generation
04:55and it's expanding and expanding and growing naturally.
04:59What do you think of this revival of the Irish language?
05:03I think Irish medium education in the six counties especially.
05:07has been at the centre of a lot of that growth.
05:11Credit has to go to the people of Belfast,
05:13especially to the Irish language speaking community.
05:15I agree.
05:16We're from Armagh, but, like, they have a...
05:18Their slogan is,
05:20And they had...
05:22Not only did they not have any funding
05:24or did they not have any state recognition,
05:26they had opposition on every turnaround.
05:29So we look to them, like I say,
05:31the Irish language community in this city is very, very special.
05:35It's wonderful.
05:36Now, I want to hear some songs, please.
05:40I heard you rehearsing in the distance there
05:45and I'm going mad to hear more.
05:47So we're going to go with a nice light-hearted one.
05:49We're going to go with Tan Alive.
05:50So this is the Oriel version.
05:52And there's also another significance to it.
05:55It was the last song that was heard,
05:57sang by a native speaker in County Armagh.
06:01And that was...
06:02That's the story of Oriel,
06:03that the songs actually lasted longer than the spoken language.
06:06They were...
06:07It was like where the language clung to was the songs.
06:10And we held fast to our songs,
06:11even when the spoken language was gone.
06:13So it feels like...
06:14It feels like a good one to do.
06:15We'll give you a wee bit of that.
06:16Yes, please.
06:17PIANO PLAYS
06:22How are you in a spirit to learn?
06:25There is a 봐,
06:26there variables BS don't we need.
06:31How is that?
06:32Where are you becauseéner kwamba?
06:36Can you hear what's happening?
06:37Which means you can treat the kingdom of people?
06:39Actually, the children ofงema in some songs must
06:41be seen as the signs for the living of Tibet.
06:44Like you hear about different things.
06:46Mr. John's domestic and swimming,
06:47understand the endurance of your life together.
06:50Shona Mokki Shona Chokki Shona Chowil Al-Lanam
06:59Murawil Arigat edo fo khabulam bo
07:05Haris na padan nil ala
07:08Filagra nil ala
07:11Anabwelar maji nil ala
07:14Filagra vishar ba la jirinyala
07:19Carme molla o'ma focus
07:24Haring bae hirinyn caroonga do
07:27Poole ma siobelay da whore
07:32As jimmy ar son na thin pundan nil ala
07:36Filagra nil ala
07:39Anabwelar maji nil ala
07:42Filagra tradusibig o no ala
07:49Filagra
07:51Oh my god gorgeous
07:52It's such a light-hearted and gorgeous song
07:54I just got really emotional the thoughts of the language been gone more or less or unspoken and that it lived on through song and then this was the last song in the area. It's a very special place. Yeah absolutely.
08:13Like to tell Lily
08:14I hope you enjoyed this song and I don't know what they were doing now and I can hear them. But I hope you can enjoy this song and you'll have to call this song and this song as it is without a minute as long as well.
08:20I am very inspired by the young people
08:26and the young people.
08:28But I hope that the young people
08:31will be able to find the same way
08:33and the same way to the young people.
08:43I am a young man.
08:45I am a young man.
08:47and I was in a group of people.
08:49And they said,
08:52I'm all the people
08:53and I'm all the people
08:55who live in a new world
08:58and who live with the world.
09:12Ooh.
09:14Did you really ask me that?
09:15Yes, right there.
09:17It's not about, you know, and as Rowan said, it's between a waltz and a jig, you know, so it's just going between the two.
09:24It's intricate. I used to go to your gigs when I was a teenager. You were teenagers probably too.
09:31And one thing that you've always done is sing and speak on a scale. Were you raised with Irish or was it something that you naturally just, it was a natural way that you went into the world?
09:43Yeah. Couldn't speak English. There's no English in the house, you see. I remember when we were young, you know, like it wasn't always easy being a grail girl. Do you know what I mean? Like there was a bit of a, you know, to be told, everyone was looking down on you, you know, and you talk English loudly, but to keep it in house kind of thing.
10:05Isn't that awful?
10:06Um, I think, now my guess was, all right, this is a funny language. This is a family language. Everyone, loads of people speak about it.
10:14Quinine, with Adring, Hayne. We keep it in amongst each other and keep it on the low. That's how it went. So you could, but yeah, but, and then there was enough of us.
10:24We were in a bubble, you know, and there was another maybe 50 families spread around Dublin who were bringing their kids up.
10:31So, what can I say? We didn't know any better. Do you know?
10:36And were your parents dubs?
10:38No, Carlo, Limerick, they met in Dublin. I suppose they made the conscious decision.
10:46To raise you.
10:47Yeah, and to change their language to Gwilge.
10:51So, because their court and language was English.
10:54All right.
10:54And then when they got married, they decided, we're going to do this.
10:58It's amazing.
10:59Yeah.
11:00Like my wounds.
11:00What a gift.
11:01And the two of them were revolutionaries.
11:03They were dying, they were dying to go against the grain.
11:06Yeah.
11:06Everything. Oh, yeah.
11:07It's not expected, because this is the pale.
11:10Yeah.
11:10So it's not expected, come out with a gun, but you've been using that something deep-rooted could be here.
11:16I suppose that's what I've found in my life. People are really surprised.
11:19Black, yeah.
11:20Oh, hmm.
11:21And they go, yeah, there's loads of us.
11:23Your house was an oasis.
11:26It's like a little gout, yeah.
11:27A little gout that people could come to talk, to be themselves, and to...
11:31But in English as well, like, it was a bilingual house.
11:34It wasn't an Irish-language house, per se.
11:37Well, that was in our teens, but not again, we'd be young, you know, if you can't.
11:40Oh, yeah.
11:41Yeah, but your friends spoke her English.
11:42Yeah, but that was the worst thing.
11:44I mean, it was all great until you're trying to chat up a girl.
11:47You're expecting a phone call, and Dad answers the phone before you get downstairs, and I was learning to say,
11:53Greg, and you're like, I hear it, come on.
11:56You're not doing me any favors here, Sarah.
11:58You're like, Dad, I can't even chance, man.
12:02See, we're from the city.
12:04It's a restlessness.
12:08That's how I read it.
12:10There's a restlessness, you know?
12:11So it was fairly conscious.
12:14I wanted to drive Greg.
12:16I wanted it to be loud, proud, and un-step-backable.
12:20And I wanted to, you know, just go at it and bring it, you know, anything I heard.
12:25I wanted to somehow have the equivalent of anything I was met up in.
12:29So I wasn't thinking of the rest of the country, even.
12:31I was just thinking in Dublin.
12:33And it's nice when you sing, because getting to sing is a big curve.
12:37You have to go up your own little stairs inside yourself to be relaxed, making such a noise through a load of speakers, you know?
12:46So it takes a while.
12:47Like, it took me a long time to get there.
12:50But I was kind of writing anyway.
12:53Yeah.
12:53And I was writing on Gaelge, because.
12:55And then, weirdly enough, not weirdly, but Gaelge is a lot stronger and more direct, you know?
13:00I know.
13:01It works with the tunes we play and so.
13:03Absolutely.
13:04And I hope everyone else can get, and I hope you can get, to a place where it's even Stevens.
13:12And it's all you know?
13:13Yeah, you know, that's, for me, that's what I'd want for everyone, because.
13:17Because you ask it.
13:18Yeah, it's easy.
13:19It'd be nice if it was just like that, and you could, yeah.
13:23Dip into any language, whatever.
13:24Because we should be a bilingual society, in a way.
13:27Yeah, that's what I'd say.
13:28Here, we should be able to speak Irish English and flip with whatever you want to do.
13:32Beautiful.
13:32Are you going to play with us?
13:34Máá sáid aghalé?
13:35I, listen, I don't think I can ever play the baron up front of you, right?
13:41All right.
13:41Ah, he's mine.
13:42Listen.
13:43That's the way to think, but I remember, I think, when I first saw you playing the baron,
13:47I was absolutely lit.
13:48Yeah.
13:49I was absolutely lit.
13:50I was absolutely lit.
13:50So, now be a triddle of my nest, now be a triddle of my nest, yes.
14:07Take it to start a hair hall, nothing I would make.
14:10Take it to start a hair hall, nothing I would make.
14:15So, now be a triddle of my nest, now be a triddle of my nest, now be a triddle of my nest.
14:22So, now be the triddle of my nest, now be a triddle of my nest.
14:30So, now be the triddle of my nest.
14:35Oh!
14:58Oh, fair goal!
15:00On the arse!
15:02Oh my God!
15:04Oh, fun, fun, fun!
15:13Coming full circle, I'm meeting with the wonderful and very special Lilis O'Leary,
15:19whose early encouragement set me on this path.
15:22I'm so excited to share what I've learned with him.
15:25Tell me this now, how did you get on?
15:29I got on fabulously.
15:32It was a great journey.
15:34It's opened my eyes, you know, and I really appreciate you chatting with me and sending me on my way.
15:42I really, really did.
15:44You had that curiosity and you got over your fear.
15:49That was a big thing, getting over the fear.
15:51I think that's the main thing for anyone.
15:53Yeah.
15:54But what do you think of what's happening in Ireland at the moment?
15:59Well, I kind of like what's happening a lot around the language.
16:03There's a lot of positivity around the language that I don't remember from years ago.
16:08Mm-hmm.
16:09And I know kneecap are controversial, but a lot of it is coming from kneecap.
16:16And the fact that they are standing up for people's rights and that sort of thing.
16:21The whole idea of going into the Geltacht.
16:23Some people think, oh, that Croucher.
16:26God knows, they'll just skin you alive and send you home.
16:29But that's not the way, that's not what you found.
16:32Not at all.
16:33I found there was such a, just a lovely community.
16:38Yeah.
16:39What was your favorite song?
16:40I mean, Donalogue is the song that kind of haunts me the most.
16:46Right.
16:47I loved how, with Donalogue and Lo the songs, how each area claimed it as their own.
16:53And said that theirs was the best version.
16:55Yeah.
16:56And you had to choose then which version you liked best.
16:59Well, yeah.
17:01Well, I had to choose who I thought would get the least cross at me if I didn't choose theirs.
17:07And I tried to learn each song in a day.
17:14Mm-hmm.
17:15And I wish I had a week for each one.
17:18I think on Cooling, I might have put a bit too much pressure on myself.
17:23And I got a bit frustrated that I felt I wasn't able to do it justice.
17:28Not in one day.
17:29Cooling is not a song for one day.
17:31It's not a song for one day.
17:32I wish you had a song.
17:34I wish I had found that out at the beginning from me saying, what song should I not?
17:39It's good to set yourself a challenge.
17:41And also, the pronunciations in every place changes, obviously.
17:46And I knew there would be dialect.
17:49But dear God, like I go to one area and learn a bit thinking I was doing well and then move on to the next area.
17:56They'd say, oh, no, you don't say it like that.
17:59And then I'd get my head around that and then go to the next and the same.
18:03I've more of an understanding of what people did physically.
18:10Like when I talk to people about their parents and their grandparents collecting songs and how physical that is as well.
18:19It's climbing up a mountain with a battered piece of recording equipment that on the arm trying to get the last of these songs from generations who wouldn't be around forever.
18:34That's right.
18:35And the songs would be gone with them.
18:36I understand the importance of it more now.
18:43And you've dedicated so much of your life to it.
18:46And I've heard from people as I travelled how important that was.
18:51But I've gotten an understanding of how important the work is that you do.
18:57What's it?
18:59How are you doing?
19:01How are you doing?
19:02How are you doing?
19:03How are you doing?
19:04How are you doing?
19:05How are you doing?
19:06How are you doing?
19:07How are you doing?
19:08I'm doing it.
19:09I'm doing it.
19:10How are you doing?
19:11How are you doing?
19:12Not a bad start.
19:13Very good start.
19:19Well, thank you all for your time.
19:21My pleasure and my pleasure and pleasure to be with you for the future.
19:25And I'd like to thank people from the country,
19:28I would like to thank all of you and all of us to be able to thank all of you and all of us.
19:35Thank you for your support, your support and your support.
19:42Thank you very much.
19:58Oh, sorry.
20:10Sorry.
20:22Oh, and then I'll wait.
20:28Oh, I like that.
20:44Oh, I like that.
20:46I love it.
20:48Oh, yes.
20:50I love it.
20:52Oh, my God.
20:54Oh, my God.
20:56Dili no daws o daws, dili no daws o di, Dili no daws o daws o dili no daws o di.
21:07Khairat maroon khun su, khairat maroon muli, Khairat maroon khun su ngukion la dili no daws o di.
21:16Dili no daws o daws, dili no daws o di, Dili no daws o daws o di, Dili no daws o daws o dili no daws o di.
21:27Spooko le nir a nir, spooko le nir a far, Spooko le nir a nir a nir a skali no shleva va.
21:36Dili no daws o daws, dili no daws o di, Dili no daws o daws o dili no daws o di.
21:46Satsang with Mooji
22:16Oh, thank you.
22:23That was gorgeous.
22:26It was gorgeous.
22:35After travelling around the country and visiting most of the Gaeltacht
22:39I feel a renewed sense of almost ownership
22:43over my language.
22:45Our gorgeous language
22:48and the songs associated with it.
22:51As part of this journey
22:53I challenged myself to sing in all dialects of Ireland
22:56each one thinking they're the right one by the way.
23:00This was hugely difficult
23:02not only because of the differences in rhythm and pronunciation in each area
23:06but also because I attempted to learn and craft
23:09and feel each song within a single day.
23:15Despite the intensity of the process
23:18this has given me a deeper appreciation
23:21for the richness and diversity of these songs
23:25and the powerful role that music plays
23:28in preserving and reviving our stories of our people
23:34and our land.
23:36I think it's really important.
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