I’ve scheduled another SuperValu grocery delivery this morning, and before 9:00am I received two calls from them. At first I thought it might be Vodafone calling about the internet box that I’m anxiously awaiting… but alas still no word from them. The first caller was a male voice, and I honestly didn’t understand a word he said and asked him to repeat himself twice. I finally caught the words “SuperValu” and “substitution,” and with this context, I realised the purpose of the call. I said no substitutions necessary, as I had indicated on my online order, thank you. About 15-20 minutes later another call came through, this time a female voice, and I was able to gather she was also calling from SuperValu but I still didn’t catch why she was calling. She slowed down a bit and I discerned the word “substitution” again, and I said oh yes someone else just called and I told him no substitutions were necessary, but then she mentioned soda bread (actually I had to ask her to repeat this twice as well), and I said oh well yes you can substitute for that. Were these two people uncoordinated in their efforts or just being thoroughly thoughtful?
Both these exchanges go to show that there still is a language barrier here, which was made evident even before my arrival. The movers who packed up the SF house were Irish, probably in their 30s or early 40s. I didn’t have much difficulty understanding the main guy, Dave, but when the other Irish guy spoke I just stared and blinked at him dumbly. I got the sense they were both from more rural regions of Ireland, and when I shared that my grandfather had come from Ballybay in County Monaghan (a very rural part of Ireland known for hunting and fishing), they got a real kick out of that. In one passing exchange, the 2nd Irish guy said he tried to get back home to see his mum every year and that (jokingly?) he missed the smell of chicken shit.
I haven’t had any trouble understanding my landlord, who seems well traveled and educated, which perhaps makes a difference. It probably goes without saying, but the Dublin accent is far less difficult for Americans to understand. I recall in 2007, during the big family trip to Ireland over the holidays and also my first time visiting, how some accents in different parts of the country were more challenging. In particular, the steward at the bed and breakfast in Ballybay where I stayed one night had such thick brogue I could barely understand him when asked me how many pieces of toast I wanted in the morning.
On the topic of urban vs. rural… the population of the Republic of Ireland is 4.9 million, with Northern Ireland adding an additional 1.9 to the island’s inhabitants. The greater Dublin area has a population of 1.9 million, Belfast has 333,000, and then next biggest urban area is Cork at under 125,000. I’ve noticed that some Dubliners look down on the rural population, sometimes referred to pejoratively as “culchies.” Not sure how all this contributes to the number of Irish accents, and there are probably other places in the world with greater a diversity of accents, but it’s an interesting topic worth diving into further at some point. For starters, I just learned from some preliminary searches that Irish English is academically referred to Hiberno-English; there’s a lengthy Wikipedia article with a lot of info on the linguistic nuances of different accents. I also came across a fascinating map of clans color-coded by place of origin:
At any rate, in terms of understanding accents, it doesn’t help that I’m slightly hard of hearing, and even in the U.S., I often ask soft-spoken people to repeat themselves, especially if they’re not on the side of my good (right) ear.
One of my projects during my free time is to learn some Irish Gaelic. I’ve looked up the occasional phrase here and there, but nothing more than that yet. I’d like to start making more of concerted effort using the Duolingo language app, which boasts that there are more people learning Irish on their platform than there are native Irish speakers (must be all those Americans trying to get in touch with their Irish roots).
I just received another brief text from the Irish government (gov.ie) kindly reminding me about the 14 day self-quarantine requirement. I had previously received similar text messages on Friday and Sunday. I also received a call from a real person on Monday (?) to check up on me. The woman’s name was Pauline, and the “conversation” consisted mostly of her reading hurriedly over a script of precautions and where to get more information. Before starting her spiel, she informed me that would be recorded, and after she had finished I joked that I should have been the one recording the call so as to capture all the information. That got a small, polite chuckle. All in all, though, it was a pleasant experience and not at all invasive. And I had no trouble understanding her.
Earlier this week, I was listening to the national Irish radio station (RTÉ which stands for Raidió Teilifís Éireann) on coverage of the further COVID restrictions being imposed uniformly across the republic by the government, including the strong recommendation that people not travel outside their counties. An interview with a representative of the Garda (the national police force) focused on the fact that the additional restrictions did not give any further enforcement powers to the police. Citizens who chose not to follow the restrictions would be given a polite reminder, and that’s about it. However, there have been additional check points along highways that have caused traffic delays and served to discourage the citizenry from unnecessary travel. In contrast, at the early onset of the pandemic, I heard that the police here would issue fines to people on the street who could not show a legitimate reason for being out and about (e.g., a first line responder going to work). There have been some anti-lockdown gatherings in Dublin (and probably other cities/towns), but as far as I know they have been calm and peaceful. The government seems to be walking a fine line between imposing restrictions for the sake of public health and trying not to push people too far. Many people have been pushed to the limit already, especially small business owners whose livelihoods are at stake. There’s a perception, too, that imposing the same restrictions on all parts of the country is unjustified, given that the infection rates in smaller, rural places are lower than in urban centers. I suppose that ties back into the urban versus rural topic earlier, so my stream of thought in this post isn’t entirely random.
