{"id":56481,"date":"2012-03-15T08:28:04","date_gmt":"2012-03-15T12:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=56481"},"modified":"2012-03-19T10:16:53","modified_gmt":"2012-03-19T14:16:53","slug":"fulbright-scholar-brings-irish-language-and-culture-to-life-at-uconn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/03\/fulbright-scholar-brings-irish-language-and-culture-to-life-at-uconn\/","title":{"rendered":"Fulbright Scholar Brings Irish Language and Culture to Life at UConn"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Fulbright<\/a>
Fulbright scholar Cuan O'Flaharta has been teaching Irish language and culture at UConn this year. (Dan Buttrey\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Everyone\u2019s a little Irish on St. Patrick\u2019s Day. But there\u2019s one man at UConn who\u2019s about as Irish as you can get.<\/p>\n

Cu\u00e1n \u00d3 Flatharta, an Irishman and native speaker of the rare language Irish \u2013 called Gaelige in the language \u2013 has spent the past academic year in residence in the CLAS English department on a Fulbright scholarship. His mission: to bring Irish language and culture to UConn.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsing the language is part of who I am,\u201d he says. \u201cI always knew I liked helping people, and I want to make sure Irish has a proper place here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in Dublin, \u00d3 Flatharta was raised by parents who both speak Irish, an unusual combination at the time and still unusual today. A history of oppression while under English rule, along with the potato famine of the 1850s, left the language with few speakers.<\/p>\n

But in the past 20 years, says \u00d3 Flatharta, Irish has undergone a revival. \u00d3 Flatharta works as a teacher in a Gaelscoil, one of many Irish immersion elementary and secondary schools established to revive the language and its culture. Today, estimates of native speakers max out at 80,000 people, or about four percent of the population of Ireland, \u00d3 Flatharta says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of these students have no Irish at home,\u201d says \u00d3 Flatharta. \u201cBut their parents are choosing the Gaelscoil because they\u2019re great schools and the kids get to learn through Irish.\u201d<\/p>\n

The country also celebrates its heritage with a Week of Irish leading up to St. Patrick\u2019s Day, when the language is spoken on TV and the radio to give it more exposure.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are really trying to use the language more,\u201d says \u00d3 Flatharta. \u201cToday, you can get jobs through Irish, like I have. It gives you opportunities that may not have been there before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bringing Irish to UConn<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the past year at UConn, \u00d3 Flatharta has taught two courses in Irish language, the second of which was so popular it was over-enrolled.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s rare to have Irish classes in the first place, let alone ones that are so popular,\u201d he says. Especially in New England, he notes, many people have Irish connections or an Irish background, so the interest is already there under the surface.<\/p>\n

\u00d3 Flatharta has also been instrumental in starting UConn\u2019s Irish Language Club. Senior Tiffany Touma says that his influence helped them really immerse themselves in the language.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe learn what feels like an enormous amount of Gaelige in a short amount time, but what\u2019s more, we all have a very fun time doing it.\u201d says Touma, who leads the club. \u201cCu\u00e1n\u2019s dedication and willingness to go the extra mile has ensured interest, passion, and further pursuit of Irish education.\u201d<\/p>\n

But perhaps the biggest Irish tradition that \u00d3 Flatharta has helped bring to UConn is its new athletic club: the ancient Gaelic sport of hurling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say it\u2019s the fastest field sport in the world,\u201d \u00d3 Flatharta says with a grin. \u201cIt\u2019s like baseball, lacrosse, hockey, and soccer all in one.\u201d The sport is just as big \u2013 if not bigger \u2013 than soccer in Ireland, he says.<\/p>\n

The Husky Hurling club has played other teams across the U.S. over the past year, and has made headlines in Irish media for being one of the up-and-coming teams in America. Especially around this time of year, says \u00d3 Flatharta, the sport reminds the Irish of their heritage.<\/p>\n

St Patrick\u2019s Day, There and Here<\/strong><\/p>\n

The surprising thing about St. Patrick\u2019s Day, says \u00d3 Flatharta, is that it didn\u2019t start out as a major celebration in Ireland. Although St. Patrick is the patron saint of the very Catholic nation, the first St. Patrick\u2019s Day parade took place in New York in 1762.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the Irish went abroad, mostly to America, they wanted a way to celebrate their heritage,\u201d \u00d3 Flatharta says. \u201cSo at first, St. Patrick\u2019s Day was bigger around the world than it was in Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Ireland begins its St. Patrick\u2019s Day celebrations a week in advance with the Week of Irish. On the day, parents take their children to look for shamrocks, and some people pin their shamrocks to their shirts. Every town, large or small, has its own St. Patrick\u2019s Day parade, and afterwards people flock to local and national hurling and soccer matches.<\/p>\n

Then, of course, people go to pubs. While \u00d3 Flatharta confirms that the Irish spirit of choice is usually Guinness, along with Baileys and Irish whiskey, he gives a spirited challenge to the idea that all Irish people drink a lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cShow me any society that doesn\u2019t drink!\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

And although he is excited to experience how Americans celebrate St. Patrick\u2019s Day on Saturday, there is at least one tradition he dispenses with summarily.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t eat corned beef and cabbage at home,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s just not a St. Patrick\u2019s Day tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n

After his year in the States, \u00d3 Flatharta hopes that the Irish studies connection he has made will continue to flourish at UConn. The English department will have a standing Irish Fulbright scholar visit each year, fleshing out the courses that \u00d3 Flatharta developed and branching out into others.<\/p>\n

So with a little luck, that Irish connection will endure, says \u00d3 Flatharta \u2013 who personally believes that four-leaf-clovers are real.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh yes, four-leaf clovers exist,\u201d he smiles. \u201cJust not on the street where I grew up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyone\u2019s a little Irish on St. Patrick\u2019s Day. But there\u2019s one man at UConn who\u2019s about as Irish as you can get.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":56485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[63],"class_list":["post-56481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-12 06:31:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56481"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56717,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56481\/revisions\/56717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/56485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56481"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=56481"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=56481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}