{"id":259826,"date":"2021-08-01T16:00:18","date_gmt":"2021-08-01T16:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/?p=1462390"},"modified":"2021-08-01T16:00:18","modified_gmt":"2021-08-01T16:00:18","slug":"a-heart-warming-message-in-irish-is-the-perfect-response-to-bigotry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/08\/01\/a-heart-warming-message-in-irish-is-the-perfect-response-to-bigotry\/","title":{"rendered":"A heart-warming message in Irish is the perfect response to bigotry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Earlier this week, the first ever Irish language pre-school (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/naiscoilnaseolta\/\">Na\u00edscoil na Seolta<\/a>) in loyalist east Belfast was forced to look for new premises. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/news\/education\/hate-campaign-forces-irish-language-pre-school-in-east-belfast-to-move-1.4633054?mode=sample&amp;auth-failed=1&amp;pw-origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Feducation%2Fhate-campaign-forces-irish-language-pre-school-in-east-belfast-to-move-1.4633054\">cross-community<\/a> school was to open at its original site in September. But following an online <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/news\/ulster\/2021\/0728\/1237843-northern-ireland-school\/\">campaign<\/a> of abuse, it had to change location.\u00a0A school statement said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Due to an ongoing social media hate campaign against some individuals and the integrated Naiscoil na Seolta, it is with great sadness that it is choosing to relocate to an alternative location.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The school premises in this area was only ever meant to be temporary, but the search for a new home had to be fast-tracked. The school said that the hate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/news\/ulster\/2021\/0728\/1237843-northern-ireland-school\/\">campaign<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>was started and fuelled by those who are not connected to the school, nor are parents of our school and who are clearly not interested in facts and truth<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But amidst all this, a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BelfastTuras\/status\/1421017452297826305?s=20\">heart-warming<\/a> animation showed the need for places like Na\u00edscoil na Seolta, and why fighting for its survival is so vital. Later in that week, the Turas project released a video entitled <em>LGBTQIA+ Irish language love story<\/em>:<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"TIirkeNvSEz4gVaZqCnu31Ow0PWARU9DstL5mGK6x28lfdjhbXoJFBpcQYHMy\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Thrilled to share Chris&#39; LGBTQIA+ Irish language love story. Third in our series, &#39;Ulster Gaeilge: It&#39;s Yours Too!&#39;  <\/p>\n<p>Chris had no Irish a few years ago. But it came to shape the most important moment of their life <img src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/13.0.1\/72x72\/2764.png\" alt=\"\u2764\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Happy <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BelfastPride?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BelfastPride<\/a>! Bain sult as an fh\u00e9ile br\u00f3id <img src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/13.0.1\/72x72\/1f3f3-fe0f-200d-1f308.png\" alt=\"?\ufe0f\u200d?\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" \/><img src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/13.0.1\/72x72\/1f3f3-fe0f-200d-26a7-fe0f.png\" alt=\"?\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" \/><img src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/13.0.1\/72x72\/1f389.png\" alt=\"?\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/gr%C3%A1?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#gr\u00e1<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yMiViwYU2w\">pic.twitter.com\/yMiViwYU2w<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Turas Belfast (@BelfastTuras) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BelfastTuras\/status\/1421017452297826305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 30, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/span><\/p>\n<h5>Celebrating diversity<\/h5>\n<p>The protagonist of this animation Chris Moore asks:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>How does someone go from having no knowledge of Irish, to proposing to their wife in Irish? This is what happened to Chris Moore, a gay Irish language enthusiast who, until a few years ago, didn&#8217;t have a word of the language.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Moore says:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>My upbringing would have been staunchly Protestant. I was from the wrong side of the tracks to learn Irish. I shouldn&#8217;t have been anywhere near it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Moore says she had always been interested in the Irish language. And when she heard about Irish language classes at Turas in east Belfast, she and her partner plucked up the courage to enroll. In the animation, she connects:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>the feeling they get from learning Irish as similar to the feeling of belonging they have with the LGBTQIA+ community<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h5>&#8220;It meant everything&#8221;<\/h5>\n<p>But Moore got a lot more from the language than that feeling. Because it gave her a way to propose marriage to her partner. She asked her friends how to say &#8220;will you marry me?&#8221; in Irish. To know her partner&#8217;s response, you&#8217;ll just have to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BelfastTuras\/status\/1421017452297826305?s=20\">watch the video<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Moore says:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It meant everything to me to be able to propose to my wife in Irish. It meant more for me to ask her in Irish than to ask her in English because it was like marrying the two sides of me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>She added:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I can&#8217;t separate being Irish from being gay. And for the two of them to fit, means I&#8217;m home, I&#8217;m safe and I&#8217;m happy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h5>Love wins over hate<\/h5>\n<p>Moore&#8217;s story was launched to <a href=\"https:\/\/belfastpride.com\/events\/\">coincide<\/a> with Belfast Pride. And her animation, along with <a href=\"https:\/\/queensfilmtheatre.com\/Whats-On\/Ulster-Gaeilge\">others<\/a>, tells &#8220;the stories of the many diverse learners at Turas&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Linda Ervine of Turas, who is also one of those behind the Irish language pre-school, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I love Chris&#8217; description of the cosy jumper and feeling at home. I&#8217;m delighted that Turas has been able to create such a welcoming space. Chris is a fantastic learner, and we are thrilled to have played a small part in their wedding journey.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It also comes at the end of a week when so much disgusting hate was expressed online. Moore&#8217;s animation is the perfect response.<\/p>\n<p><em>Featured image via <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BelfastTuras\/status\/1421017452297826305?s=20\">Twitter &#8211; Turas Belfast<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>By <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/author\/peter-kearney\/\">Peadar O&#039;Cearnaigh<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/feature\/2021\/08\/01\/a-heart-warming-message-in-irish-is-the-perfect-response-to-bigotry\/\">The Canary<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Earlier this week, the first ever Irish language pre-school (Na\u00edscoil na Seolta) in loyalist east Belfast was forced to look for new premises. The \u2026 <\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/feature\/2021\/08\/01\/a-heart-warming-message-in-irish-is-the-perfect-response-to-bigotry\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<\/a><\/div>\n<p>By <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/author\/peter-kearney\/\">Peadar O&#8217;Cearnaigh<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1542,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32929,4682,16671,32930,1628,32931,1396,7717,32932,1395],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259826"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1542"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259826"}],"version-history":[{"count":63,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":271013,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259826\/revisions\/271013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}