Fáilte
Fáilte romhat go suíomh gréasáin Chumann Gaeilge na hAstráile. Is í príomhaidhm an chumainn ná teagasc (agus foghlaim) na Gaeilge. Bíonn ranganna ar siúl oíche Dé Máirt le linn na dtéarmaí scoile Victoria agus bíonn scoil samhraidh againn i mí Eanáir freisin. Más comhrá atá uait, tagann an ciorcal comhrá le chéile gach coicís. Bíonn ócáidí sóisialta eile ann i rith na bliana agus foilsímid nuachtlitir gach ráithe.
Anseo is féidir leat teagmháil a dhéanamh linn, clárú leis an suíomh seo agus páirt a ghlacadh san fhóram, ach más maith leat teacht chuig na ranganna is riachtanach ballraíocht den chumann a ghlacadh. Mar bhall den chumann, beidh réimsí eile den suíomh ar fáil duit freisin.
Welcome to the website of the Irish Language Association of Australia. The association’s primary aim is the teaching (and learning) of Irish. Classes are run on Tuesday nights during the Victorian school terms and we also have a summer school in January. If it’s conversation you’re after, the conversation circle meets fortnightly. There are other social events during the year and we publish a newsletter each quarter.
Here you can get in contact with us, register with the website and participate in the forum, but if you want to come to classes you will need to become a member. As a member of the association, you will also gain access to other parts of the website.
Ranganna · Classes
In normal times we run classes every Tuesday night during the Victorian school term (except public holidays), starting at 7:30 pm.
In 2020 we moved classes online and this will continue for Term 1 of 2021. There will be a Beginners class, an Advanced Beginners class and an Intermediate/Advanced class. When we do return to physical classes we will try to keep an online class (primarily for people outside Melbourne).
You are welcome to try a class first, but all students are expected to become members of the Cumann ($45 per year). In addition, we offer our teachers an honorarium for their hard work and to help finance that we will be charging students $40 per term. This is roughly equivalent to the money collected at physical classes.
Beginners
At the moment (end of January 2021), beginners classes are (more than) full. If you would like to join a waiting list, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we will get back to when things change. If you live outside Victoria, there might be a group closer to you that is providing classes.
Beginners classes are using the textbook Gaeilge gan Stró (Stress-free Irish) at the moment. We order these in batches and sell them at cost price ($60 + $12.20 postage).
Zoom
Although you can join a Zoom meeting using only a web browser, it is recommended that you get the Zoom app (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS). If you can manage it, headphones with a microphone will make it much easier to hear and be heard. Classes starts at the same time (7:30 pm), but run for about an hour and a quarter.
Payments
Payments to us by bank transfer…
Irish Language Association of Australia
Credit Union Australia
BSB 814-282 Account Number 10597015
or via PayPal. Remember to include a note saying what the payment is for and your name.
If you have any questions about classes please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., giving an indication of your level of Irish (beginner, intermediate, advanced). If you’re interested in helping with teaching, you’d be very welcome too.
Cúrsa Choláiste na Rinne ar líne • Online course
Tá Coláiste na Rinne ag reachtáil cúrsaí ar líne bunaithe ar chláir agus ábhair Theastas Eorpach na Gaeilge (TEG). Tá dhá leibhéal ann faoi láthair: cúrsa (TOSÚ) do thosaitheoirí agus cúrsa (FEABHSÚ) atá oiriúnach do dhaoine a bhfuil suim acu an teastas TEG B1 a bhaint amach (nó a bhfuil ag iarraidh an leibhéal sin a bhaint amach).
Tá uaireanta na gcursaí seo dírithe ar fhoghlaimeoirí sna S.A.M. ach b’fhéidir rang a chur ar fáil d’fhoghlaimeoirí Astrálacha más féidir cúigear daltaí a fháil a mbeadh toilteanach clárú. Sin an aidhm atá ag Jennifer Keogh agus James Krumrey-Quinn—cúigear daltaí a chlárú don chúrsa FEABHSÚ (TEG B1). Mairfeadh an cúrsa 8 seachtain ag tosú Déardaoin 6 Bealtaine (nó 4 Meitheamh) ag 7:00 pm AEST agus chosnódh sé €180. Ochtar an líon is mó a bheadh sa rang.
Coláiste na Rinne is running online courses based on the structure and content of the Teastas Eorpach na Gaeilge (European Certificate in Irish). There are two levels: beginners (FIRST STEPS) and a course (MAKING PROGRESS) suited to people interested in achieving the TEG B1 certificate (or getting to that level).
The hours of the courses are focused on learners in the U.S. but it would be possible to put on a course for Australian learners if five students could be found who were prepared to register. That’s the aim of Jennifer Keogh and James Kumrey-Quinn—to register five students for the MAKING PROGRESS course (TEG B1). The course would last 8 weeks, starting on Thursday 6 May (or 4 June) ag 7:00 pm AEST and it would cost €180. The maximum number of people in the class would be eight.
From Roscrea to Beagle Bay
A new book by historian (and long-term member of the Cumann) Dr. Val Noone is to be launched on St. Patrick’s Day. From Roscrea to Beagle Bay: Dan O’Donovan, priest and hermit is a tribute to a remarkable Irish monk who has lived much of his life in Australia.
An unusual Irish monk. Born in Berlin in 1934 where his father was chargé d’affaires for the Irish government, Father Dan O’Donovan joined the Cistercian order of monks at Roscrea, County Tipperary, and came to Tarrawarra Abbey, Victoria, Australia, in the 1960s, and in 1972 answered a call from the Benedictines of New Norcia to work in the Kimberleys.
Dan has spent the past 47 years in northwestern Australia, first as a Cistercian monk with approval to live outside his monastery, and later as a priest of the Broome diocese. Dan is exceptional for his stints as a hermit, living adjacent to and in friendship with Indigenous communities – six years at Lombadina and twenty at Beagle Bay.
This booklet is a tribute to Dan as he begins his third year of retirement at Germanus Kent House in Broome. In April 2019, urged on by friends of Dan, Val Noone of Melbourne travelled to Broome, interviewed Dan and spent some days researching his papers. This is the result: an introduction to Dan’s story.
University of Divinity, and Margaret Hill, cousin
contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Postage and packaging $5.00.
Aisteoirí ar aistear ~ Visiting actors
Le déanaí, thug beirt aisteoir Éireannach cuairt ar Chomhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann anseo i Melbourne. Thug Edwin Mullane léiriú ar “The Little Cloud” ó Dubliners le James Joyce, chun aitheantas a thabhairt do Bloomsday. Is comhbhunaitheoir The Corps Ensemble é Edwin agus tá sé ina stiúrthóir ealaíne don chompántas sin faoi láthair.
Is fearr aithne ar John Connors as an dráma RTÉ Love/Hate. Léirigh sé dráma aonair, Ireland’s Call, in St. Kilda agus Bondi le linn a thurais, cé nach raibh an bheirt acu san Astráil ach cúig lá!
I láthair freisin, bhí Éadaoin O’Reilly (Irish Film Festival Australia) agus iar-Uachtarán an Chumainn, Karolyne McDermott Paron. Bhain an lucht féachana an-sult as an seó.
Recently, two Irish actors visited Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann here in Melbourne. Edwin Mullane gave a rendition of “The Little Cloud” from Dubliners by James Joyce, as an acknowledgement of Bloomsday. Edwin is co-founder of The Corps Ensemble and the company’s current artistic director.
John Connors is best know for the RTÉ drama Love/Hate. He staged a one-man play, Ireland’s Call, in St. Kilda and Bondi, even though the two actors were only in Australia five days!
Also present were Éadaoin O’Reilly (Irish Film Festival Australia) and ex-President of the Cumann, Karolyne McDermott Paron. The audience enjoyed the show very much.
Dangerous diacritic in the hands of a child!
After a long period of cases and appeals in the courts, Fañch Bernard, two and a half years old now, was allowed to use his Breton name with a tilde (~) as it is spelled in that language.
When the young boy was born in May 2017, a government official refused to register his name with the ñ because the tilde wasn’t part of the French language and he wrote “Fanch” on the birth certificate. A more senior official reversed the decision, but prosecutors took the case to the Kemper (Quimper) local court and they confirmed the original decision again i September 2017. According to the local court, it would be a breach of “the will of our state of law to maintain the unity of the country and equality for all regardless of origin” to allow the little mark to be written officially.
By that time though, little Fañch already had a I.D. card and passport with the troublesome ñ on them.
In the end, the case came before the Appeals Court of Roazhon (Rennes) last October and they allowed the sign. They found that the tilde was not unknown in the history of the French language and in addition the name Fañch had already been accepted by a prosecutor in Roazhon in 2002 and a registrar in Paris in 2009.
There are a couple of well-known Breton writers with the name — Fañch Peru and Fañch Broudig. Also, the tilde can be regularly seen in the surname of the junior Minister for the Interior — Laurent Nuñez.
Fañch’s parents are happy of course — they only wanted to name their child after his grandfather — and the French Republic hasn’t falled apart.
Focail i mbarr a mblátha ~ In full Bloomsday
Performers celebrating Bloomsday at The Quiet Man
16 Meitheamh 2019
