WHAT's THE CRAIC?
*Craic means "fun" in Gaelic, and the phrase means" How are you?"
Republic of Ireland is a Western European country with only 477 millions of population. I guess most of the Asian know very little about their history or perhaps may be confused about the territory of Ireland. But surprisingly said, we did notice that some of the Europeans especially the British like to make fun of the stereotypical Irish traits: red hairs, freckles and big families.
Among all, here's a few questions that are most frequently asked:
1. Did Irish has their own language?
2. Is Northern Ireland part of Ireland?
3. What is funny about red hair?
Well, If you have noticed, their road signboards are actually naming in two languages, the top one is "Gaelic" and the bottom one is English. "Gaelic" is a Celtic language that also known as the mother tongue of Irish but, unfortunately it has already became a dead language because they barely speak. However, in order to preserve it, the Irish government has made “ Gaelic” as the compulsory course in their education system, and all of the nouns that related to the government are named in Gaelic, for example: “Taoiseach” means “ President”, “Gardai” means “ Police” and etc .
So, the question came in again: What language did Irish speaks?
The answer is 90% English + 10% Gaelic. If you have an Irish friend, he/she will probably greet you like this “What’s the craic?” ,which roughly means “ How are you? Do you have fun?”. And as far as I know, only the Irish in Northern Ireland speaks purer Gaelic nowadays .
So, the second question came in: Is Northern Ireland part of Ireland?
The answer is no. Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England are part of The United Kingdom, but yes the Northern Ireland used to be part of Ireland.
According to the Ireland’s history, the English invaded it in year 1169, and completely annexed it by year 1800.During the colonial period, The Irish cultures has been sabotaged and replaced by the English cultures, meanwhile 200 millions of Irish had died or fled to other countries due to the massive potato famine.
In 1916, the "Easter Rising" against the English broke out in Dublin. With the rise of the Irish national independence movement, the British government and Ireland signed the British-Ireland Treaty in December 1921, allowing 26 counties in the south to establish a "free state" and enjoy autonomy. But the six northern counties (now Northern Ireland) will remain in the UK. On December 21, 1948, the Irish Parliament passed the law and declared to leave the Commonwealth. On April 18, 1949, the British admitted its independence, but refused to return the six counties in the north. After Ireland’s independence, successive Irish governments have adopted the unification of North and South Ireland as an established policy.
As a matter of fact, Irish dislike English in general and they are sensitive when any English tried to interpret their cultures, for example: there was critics laid into Ed Sheeran’s ”Galway girl” for “cultural theft” of entire Irish folk tradition last year, in the meantime the first phrase of the lyrics("She played the fiddle in an Irish band, but she fell in love with an English man.") somehow irritates the Irish too.
As for the last question, I assumed that most Harry Potter fans will agree with my guessing that J.K Rowling indicated “The Weasley” family as Irish. Remember the stereotypical Irish traits that I mentioned earlier? Red hairs, freckles and big family, if you recall back the first line that Draco Malfoy said to Ron Weasley, you will probably get what I mean.
“Red hair and a hand me down robe, you must be a Weasley.”-----Draco Malfoy
The fact is based on the hair colour which was defined according to the white people’s complicated bloodline theory. Simply put, “redhead” is the earliest aboriginal people in the UK, which is also a variant of the Nordic Aryan. After living in the UK for a long time, they met Anglos and Saxons, the second group of conquerors who moved to England. The Anglo-Saxons are typically blonde and are a very belligerent and capable race. After arriving in the British mainland, the British red-haired natives were driven to Scotland in the north and Wales in the west, and the British mainland was renamed “England”, which means "the land of the Anglos". So, “redhead” has gradually become a trait of conquered race, second-class citizens, and have been discriminated against. But of course, nowadays, when people are joking about red hair, it’s not always malicious. And frankly speaking, I do like red hair and think it's pretty:)
Moreover, traditional Irish families are mainly Catholics and cannot be contraceptive or take abortion, so they have a lot of kids to raise and thus, seemed to be “poor”. Obviously, that’s why Malfoy make fun of Ron of having a “ hand me down robe”.
( *This article is written based on my experience while study exchange in University of Limerick, Ireland. Special thanks to every Irish I met who willing to tell me their stories. If there is any wrong part of mistake, anyone is welcome to correct me.)
