Faugh a Ballagh
| 15:13 UK time, Thursday, 30 October 2008
After much effort by Sinn Fein, Irish is finally catching on in loyalist areas, not least East Belfast.
Take a trip to Stormont, along the Newtonwards Road and you can't miss the words: Faugh a Ballagh.
These Irish words are festooned from almost every flagpole and lamp-post, as part of a newly sighted flag. It seems the flag - royal blue with a union jack in one corner and the Irish words at the bottom - has been raised to mark this weekend's Homecoming parade for the Royal Irish Regiment and others who haved served in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Faugh a Ballagh" is the motto of the Royal Irish Rangers, which was incorporated into the RIR.
As Caitriona Ruane - Sinn Fein's Irish speaking education minister - will well know, these Irish words translate as "Clear the Way."
Perhaps, Sinn Fein's opposition to the parade has had an unexpected boost for her beloved mother tongue.
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Faugh a Ballagh...
Perhaps the sign above the Members Room in Stormont should be changed to " 6 weeks to sort out your differences or Faugh a Ballagh for a new intake, existing members will not be re-admitted"
In the meantime may the home coming parade be given a warm welcome and full support from all who attend.
Hopefully not too much egg on the faces of the SF supporters who have anything else in mind.
Finally a chance for Gregory to acknowledge there is a place for the Irish language after all.
Níl aon tintéan mar do thintéan féin
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Martina,
Talking of Irish Language maybe you would ask Sinn Fein how an Irish Language act will pay peoples oil bills this winter. I can’t work it out. Maybe we should take John Dallat's advise who said “It would also be a really good idea if people who are likely to be in that group of 160,000 made a copy of their next heating bill and sent it to their nearest Sinn Fein office or representative along with a polite little note requesting an early meeting of the Executive. They dug themselves into a hole by handing vetoes to the DUP but there is no reason why the rest of us should sit in it with them any longer.”
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I hope the faugh will indeed be ballaghed for the soldiers on Sunday. I for one will be there to welcome them home.
As for the shinners, if they are opposed to the UN-sanctioned NATO action in Afghanistan, they should chose another day to protest about it.
Unless of course they are actually protesting against British stuff for the sake of it, in which case they are a bunch of children.
Or maybe they are actually pro Al Qaeda, which wouldn't be surprising either, given their support for the Nazis and the communists last century.
The bigger the evil, the more likely Sinn Fein will want to give them a helping hand.
At least we can be safe in the knowledge that like the shinner's previous two friends, Al Qaeda will also end up on the losing side.
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@Martina - thanks for explaining that. I wondered when I saw it in a window on Sunday morning. All is way more clear now.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
Mark,
Hail the biggest show in the country!!
On Thursday Stephen Nolan asked Barry McElduff 4 times how many times Sinn Fein have had a protest on the ground in America against the American troops? On each occasion he couldn’t give an answer. Instead he said he was writing to Shaun Woodward. Why? Is Shaun Woodward an American Politician? Why is Sinn Fein insisting on protesting against the MOD when they wouldn’t dream off it in America? Maybe the Americans would cut their money? Where would they be then? Working hard in Stormont!! I think not. After all Sinn Fein have millions and millions in America from fund raising.
Hail the biggest show in the country!!
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Whoops... Only meant to make a comparison of the 18th Century spelling of Faugh a Ballagh and the modern Irish version.
Faugh a Ballagh comes from one of the RIR's antecedent regiments, the Royal Irish Fusiliers, and was first recorded in 1798.
Strangely nowadays Irish speakers will use a different spelling, which anyone can look up if they wish cos I'm not going to make the same mistake and post it here!
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Fag an bealach
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Nice to see the Irish language been used even if in unexpected quarters.
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You can also see Latin, the language of the Vatican, widely used in UDA murals and posh schools in England.
At the end of the day it's only a language, like Chinese and Spanish. Well actually Irish probably has more in common with Latin, Aramaic and Egyptian heiroglyphs, but my point is that uttering a couple of words of it does not infuse your brain with Irish nationalist beliefs.
My only objections to Irish are its impenetrable spelling, and the fear of covering my co-converstants with phlegm. (If I could find a co-conversant, that is)
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Welcome home to the lads of the Regiment have a great time with your families and friends you made an old soldier proud as i served in the Regiment for 23 years and still miss the comadeship
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