Scéal Grinn
Collected by Cait Ní hÉigheartaigh from her stepmother, An Chruach Bheag, Co. Dhún na nGall, 1938. Preserved through the National Folklore Collection, UCD.
Following the Famine, with the death or removal of over a million Irish speakers, the language rapidly became a source of pity and scorn. Michael McCarthy remembered in 1912: “When they said of a man that ‘he had no English,’ they spoke pityingly as if he were blind or deaf.”(1)
Research by Karen Corrigan has shown that letters returning from the United States discouraging Irish were an instrumental force in the anglicization of Ireland. One such letter states:
“I gcuntas Dé múin Béarla do na leanbháin is ná bídis dall ar nós na n-asal a theacht anseo amach.”(2)
“For God’s sake teach English to the children and don’t let them be blind like the asses that have come out here.”
Althouth this story may be from a different time, this seems to be what is happening here. It is a humorous story about a bumbling adventure of misunderstandings, while also being a warning to those monolingual speakers listening.
Ravenhill, L. 1910. Mr. Punch's Book of Sports. The Educational Book Company: London.
Bhí dhá fhear ann aon uair amháin, agus smaoinigh siad go rachadh siad ‘un Oileán Úir. Ní raibh focal béarla ag ceachtar den bheirt. Bhí siad ag siúl lá amháin ar sráid san Oileán Úr nuair a bhuail an t-ocras iad.
D’iarr fear acu ar an fhear eile gabháil isteach i siopa agus builbhín aráin a cheannach, agus a thabhairt amach fhad leisean.
Chuaigh an fear isteach agus d’íarr builbhín i nGaeilg. Ní raibh a fhios ag fear an tsiopa caidé bhí sé a’ rá agus ansin thoisigh an fear ag cur a láimhe suas go dtí a bhéal a thaispeáint go raibh ocras air.
Goidé bhí sa siopa seo ach siopa bearrthóra. Thug fear an tsiopa leis é agus chuir sé ‘na shuí é istigh i gcathaoir, agus thug sé leis rásúr agus bhain sé an fheasóg de, agus ansin thug sé leis siosúr agus lom sé an ghruaig uilig de. Nuair a bhí sin déanta aige d’éirigh an fear a bhí sa chathaoir agus chuaigh amach fhad leis an fhear eile. D’fiafraigh an fear sin dó an bhfuair sé an builbhín. “Ná labhair ar builbhín nó ar aon rud eile go bhfágfaidh tú an baile seo” arsa an fear eile.
Bhí go maith is ní raibh go holc. Shiúil siad leo giota eile. Dúirt an fear eile go rachadh seisean isteach i siopa eile go bfeicfeadh sé an bhfaigheadh sé builbhín. Chuaigh sé isteach agus d’iarr sé builbhín aráin i nGaeilg. Ní raibh a fhios ag an siopadóir goidé bhí a dhíth air agus thoisigh an fear ag cur a láimhe isteach in a bhéal ag tabhairt comhartha go raibh ocras air.
Goidé bhí i fear an siopa ach fiaclóir agus ‘sé an rud a shíl sé go raibh an fear ag tabhairt comhartha dó na fiacla a bhaint as. Chuir an fiaclóir é ‘na shuí ar chathaoir agus cheangal sé crios thart fá chom an fhir agus thoisigh sé gur tharraing sé an méid fiacla a bhí sa bhéal amach as.
Nuair a bhí siad uilig tarraingthe aige d’éirigh an fear a bhí sa chathaoir agus chuaigh amach fhad leis an fhear a bhí ag fanacht leis ar an tsraid.
D’fiafraigh an fear sin an bhfuair sé an builbhín nó aon ghreim aráin. “Ní bhfuair” ar seisean, “agus ná labhair ar builbhín nó ar aon ghrrim aráin go bhfágfaidh tú an baile seo nó ní fhágfaidh siad aon fhiacail istigh i do cheann agus tá sé crua a bheith gan béarla fosta nuair a fhágfas tú an tír seo.”
There were two men once, and they thought that they would go to the New World. They didn’t have a word of English between either of the two. They were walking one day on a street in the New World and hunger hit them.
One of them asked the other man to put in to a shop and a loaf of bread to buy, and to bring it out to him.
The man went in and requested a loaf in Irish. The man of the shop had no idea what he was saying and then the man started to put his hand up to his mouth to show that he was hungry.
What was this shop but a barbershop. The man of the shop brought him with him and he put him sitting in a chair, and he took a razor and he shaved the beard from him, and then he brought scissors and shore the hair entirely from him. When he had done that the man who was in the chair got up and went out to the other man. That man asked if he got the loaf. “Don’t talk about loaves or anything else until you leave this town” said the other man.
It was good and it wasn’t bad [traditional storyteller device]. They walked for another while. The other man said that he would go into another shop and he would see if he could get a loaf. He went in and he requested a loaf of bread in Irish. The shopkeeper had no idea what he needed and the man started to put his hand in his mouth to give a sign that he was hungry.
What was the man of the shop but a dentist and it was the thing he thought that the man was giving a sign to him to extract his teeth. The dentist put him sitting on a chair and he tightened a belt around the waist of the man and he began until he pulled all of the teeth that were in the mouth out of him.
When he had pulled them all the man who was in the chair got up and went out to the man who was waiting for him on the street.
That man asked if he got the loaf or any bite of bread. “No” he said, “and don’t speak about loaves or any other bite of bread until you leave this town or they won’t leave a single tooth in your head and it is harsh to be without English also when you leave this country.”
Adapted from: “The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1042, Page 222-223” by Dúchas © National Folklore Collection, UCD is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.
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McCarthy, Michael J.F. 1912. The Irish Revolution. 1. William Blackwood and Sons: London. 336.
Corrigan, Karen P. “I gCuntas Dé muin Bearla do na leanbhain.” The Irish in the New Communiies. 1992. O’Sullivan, Patrick. Ed. St. Martin’s Press: New York. 150-151.
