Sir, – Recently President Catherine Connolly sought to promote the idea that our native tongue is endowed with a greater facility than our spoken language when it comes to delivering the right word for the occasion. Our ancient language is more descriptive, honed in living and in nature. The late Manchán Magan, of course, would have agreed; nuance was his life’s calling, an teanga Gaelach his passion.
A case-in-point validates an t-Uachtarán’s poignant observation. A friend’s brother died in recent days and in “condolences” I summoned recollections of “an outgoing, happy-go-lucky, affable guy” – a mixum-gatherum that fell short of pinning down the deceased’s winning ways as I remember him.
A Dingle relation, however, nailed it in a word, the entry penned entirely as Gaeilge: “Fear gealgáireach uasal ab ea é.”
“Geal” is bright; “gáireach” is drawn/inclined to laughter.
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My scrambling effort condensed, with a punch, in a single word. To assimilate “gealgáireach” is to see one’s late friend’s face before one, never mind the passage of time since we’d met. – Yours, etc,
OWEN MORTON,
Sutton,
Dublin 13.
