One of the ex No groups from the Lisbon campaign has launched a web forum that can be viewed entirely in old Irish script.
The Midlands Branch of the People's Movement, in consultation with other groups locally, has drawn up a special web forum which will hopefully serve to bring together the scattered remains of the defeated Lisbon No campaigners and help them coordinate matters and decide together what direction should now be taken. This is explained in the FAQs of that site avaible here: http://antilisbongroups.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=f...ad=13 .
In any case there are lots of webforums, old and new, that help to co-ordinate these groups - not least indymedia - but luckily this site has a gimmick which might send it on its way!lol This is, afaik, the first site on the web where a forum is provided entirely in old Irish script, the ancient way of writing Irish which was current in printed and manuscript Irish until the 1960s. Details are available here: http://antilisbongroups.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=f...ad=15 , and to clarify if you want to view the site in normal script just register (thats 'clárú') and in your preferences change your skin back to 'default'. It should work on most browsers but Firefox users should download the Gadelica font and install it on their computers first, its available here: http://www.iol.ie/~sob/gadelica/ .
That old script is really remarkable and uniqely historic and worth checking out if you haven't seen it before.
Comments (3 of 3)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3I installed it on my computer (A Mac) and it works fine, except it won't take fadas on capital letters only lower case letters and the dot over the letter (buailte) won't work. I tried to insert it from symbols no joy. I installed in on a pc and it works perfect.
I know indymedia is not a software consult site, but hey, if you know of a version for Macs that works fine or what the problem is, let me know.
Gearóid Ó Loingsigh
Thats surprising, I think maybe the browser has to code to Unicode fonts for it to work, which I thought most did anyways but I guess not. Btw don't forget to try it out in different browsers too. This whole area btw is massively complicated! but maybe if you install the Irish keyboard layout for the Mac it might help, described here: http://www.evertype.com/celtscript/ga-keys-x.html and here: http://www.evertype.com/celtscript/celt-keys.html .
I don't know how much people know about the history of the Irish type (they call it Cló Gaelach btw as opposed to Cló Romhánach) but as far as I know the only recorded defence of the old script by a public figure, when it was being abolished in the mid 60s, was by Richie Ryan TD in the Dáil in 1965:
It is really pleasant to note that an increasing number of people are realising that we are in great danger of losing a unique and graphically-beautiful West European language. I can recount my own feelings on the vandalism perpetrated on the Irish language, by those who should have known better, in the past 60-odd years. Firstly, in the late 1930s, there appeared an official condonement of phonetic spelling, followed by the "Romanisation" of the script in the late 40s. I recall a neighbour, who was born and raised in the Aran Islands, remark in the mid-50s that the "Irish" which her children learned at school, was as foreign to her as French or Spanish. At school I learned that the letter "H" was not really in the Irish alphabet - a fact that even today can be confirmed by opening an Irish dictionary and noting how relatively few entries begin with this letter. Ironically, considering how potentially divisive one's pronouncing of the letter can be - "Haitch" or "Aitch". I found after leaving school in 1950 that my considerable interest in the language ( I actually, as a schoolboy, posessed a typewriter, a Royal if I remember correctly, with a Gaelic typeface) completely evaporated with the change of font, it became too slow to convert the words mentally to the more familiar spelling and the beauty of the language had gone. At least the Greeks managed to keep their script! Long live the revival! Billy Bonzo.
Indymedia Ireland is a media collective. We are independent volunteer citizen journalists producing and distributing the authentic voices of the people. Indymedia Ireland is an open news project where anyone can post their own news, comment, videos or photos about Ireland or related matters.