Fadó, fadó bhí bál mór buí ann, ach ní raibh aon cairde aige…
When I went to Ireland in June, I found quite an unusual way to use my Irish. On the last day of courses at Oideas Gael there is usually a kind of talent show, which typically involves classes and individuals singing, playing instruments, dancing, reciting poetry, telling stories or performing in some other fashion. Performances that involve speaking or singing are often in Irish, which gives students a chance to show what they’ve learnt during the week.
This year, as well as joining in with the singing, I also did some juggling. To make my performance a bit more interesting, I made up a story about the Bál Mór Buí (Big Yellow Ball) and its search for other balls to play with. The Bál mór buí was my large contact* ball, which I used to do some contact moves in one hand, while juggling beanbags with the other hand. The story went down very well and was one of the most unusual uses I’ve found for my languages so far.
What unusual uses have you found for your languages?
*Contact juggling involves rolling balls or other objects around the hands, arms and other parts of the body.
As “níl ach beagán Gaeilge agam” I understand the second part of your sentence, which is (I think) “I haven’t got any friends”
but what does “fadó bhí” mean?
anyway “fadó” sounds familiar
I’m still very new to Arabic, but I’ve found that the little I do know never fails to surprise people who speak the language. In that sense, it functions as quite the icebreaker.
Laci – fadó fadó is a common way to start stories in Irish and is equivalent to ‘Once upon a time’ in English. It literally means ‘a long, long time ago’. ‘Bhí’ means ‘there was’. The second part of the sentence means ‘but it didn’t have any friends’. I haven’t got any friends would be ‘níl aon cairde agam’.
thanx 😀
my Irish is terrible as you can see
Liathroid is a ball, not Bál. To Irish speakers that is considered “Bearlacus”.