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Cave skeleton is European, 1,300 years old, man says Archaeologist group wants a look at evidence Sunday September 29, 2002 By Rick Steelhammer STAFF WRITER MORGANTOWN — The man who first advanced the theory that markings carved on in a Wyoming County cave are actually characters from an ancient Irish alphabet has found human remains at the site, which tests indicate are European in origin and date back to A.D. 710, he maintains. Robert Pyle of Morgantown says that a DNA analysis of material from the skeleton’s teeth roots was conducted by Brigham Young University. That analysis, he says, shows...

Truly one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard.

Archaeologists are to return to the potential site of a lost Pictish monastery where Scottish Gaelic was written down for the first time. Archaeologist Alison Cameron and her team could be on the brink of making a discovery of national importance at land close to Old Deer in Aberdeenshire... For 10 years, a search has been made for the monastery that dates from the sixth century but disappeared around 1,000 years ago. Some believe the Book of Deer, a richly decorated pocket-sized book of gospels was created here with Gaelic notes on local life later written in the margins by...

While Christopher Columbus is generally credited with having discovered America in 1492, a 1521 Spanish report provides inklings of evidence that there were, in fact, Irish people settled in America prior to Columbus’ journey. […] In 1520, Peter Martyr d’Anghiera, a historian and professor, was appointed by Carlos V to be chronicler for the new Council of the Indies. Though Martyr died in 1526, his report, founded on several weeks of interviews, was published posthumously in a book named De Orbe Novo (About the New World). […] While interviewing Spanish colonists, Martyr took note of their vicious treatment of Chicora...

An ancient inscription discovered on a 14th century church in Spain's Galicia region has been identified as Gaelic; the first written evidence of the northern region’s Irish and Scottish heritage. For centuries it has gone unnoticed, weathered by Galicia’s incessant drizzle but still visible to those with an eagle-eye. On one of the granite walls of Santiago church in the small town of Betanzos, a small previously unintelligible inscription five metres above ground kept historians and epigraphists, or people who study ancient inscriptions, baffled for decades. Researchers working for a private association called the Gaelaico Project now believe they've finally...

St Patrick's Day has always been a time when Americans have acknowledged their Irish roots, whether real or desired, by celebrating Irish culture in a variety of ways. Some say there is no better window to understanding Irish culture than language. While the Irish language has struggled to survive alongside the more dominant English language, one man from Ireland is helping to lead a modest revival in the US. Through his efforts, a growing number of Irish Americans are forging stronger ties to their Hibernian ancestors. The BBC heard from Ronan Connolly who teaches Irish language classes at Catholic University...

MUSLIM scholars are working on a plan to find new followers in the Western Isles: they want to translate the Koran into Gaelic. They hope the £50,000 project will show Muslims' commitment to Scotland and Scottish culture and promote understanding between faiths. However, the move has received a cool reception from some Gaels, especially in the language's heartland, the emphatically church-going Western Isles. The project has been set up by a British-based Muslim publishing organisation, the Muslim Academic Trust, which is looking for Gaelic writers and scholars who can help them translate the Koran into the language. So far, they...

Growing up Irish in Queens and on Long Island, Daniel Cassidy was nicknamed Glom. “I used to ask my mother, ‘Why Glom?’ and she’d say, ‘Because you’re always grabbing, always taking things,’” he said, imitating his mother’s accent and limited patience, shaped by a lifetime in Irish neighborhoods in New York City. It was not exactly an etymological explanation, and Mr. Cassidy’s curiosity about the working-class Irish vernacular he grew up with kept growing. Some years back, leafing through a pocket Gaelic dictionary, he began looking for phonetic equivalents of the terms, which English dictionaries described as having “unknown origin.”...

The EU recognises the Irish language's resurgence The Irish language (Gaeilge) is set to get official status in the EU on 1 January, bringing the total to 23. The European Commission says Bulgarian and Romanian are expected to get official status on the same day, when the two Balkan countries join the EU. According to Ireland's 2002 census, 1.57 million of the four million population can speak Irish. The commission says the EU will not have to translate all legislation into Irish, "mainly for practical reasons". The EU will have a team of 29 translators and editors to handle...

See for example this thread first. It wasn't Ben and Jerry's plans for their new ice cream called "Black and Tan" to raise such a stink. (In Ireland, I think the name conjures dead football fans.)

A recent e-mail from a dedicated teacher illustrates a problem that has received far too little attention. In her kindergarten class was a little black girl who did well except for getting a very obvious question wrong. It turned out that the little girl had no problem with the concepts or the facts but had misinterpreted a word because it sounded like another word that she had heard used at home, where a "black English" dialect was spoken. Since the teacher was white, she knew that she was running a risk by getting into this issue. Opening this can of...

Irish is the 21st language to be officially recognised by the EU The Irish language has been officially recognised as a working language by the European Union.Ireland's national language is the 21st to be given such recognition by the EU and previously had the status of a treaty language. Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said he was pleased by the move, which was announced on Monday. "This affirms at European level the dignity and status of our first official language," he said. "This represents a particularly significant practical step for the Irish language, and complements the government's wider policy...

Caller from NORTHERN IRELAND on Rush, and he hopes Bush gets reelected!

Fri 17 Jan 2003 Gaelic-speaking 'ghost' caught on recording CLAIRE SMITH csmith@scotsman.com NEW evidence of ghosts in Edinburgh’s underground city have been recorded on tape by a radio producer. Debbie McPhail claims to have made a recording of a ghoulish voice hissing the words: "Get out" or "Go away" in Gaelic. Mrs McPhail described herself as "a cynical person by nature" - but said she had no explanation for the ghostly voice. The otherworldly voice ruined a recording she was making in Edinburgh underground vaults with the former rugby international Norrie Rowan, who owns a section of the underground city....

LONDON - Decades after it was thought to have been consigned to the scrap heap of history, the ancient Celtic language that is spoken fluently by only 100 people is making a remarkable comeback. Cornish has been granted official protection under the provisions of a European Union charter on "minority languages," paving the way for schoolchildren to be taught and speak it. Until recently, Cornish was thought by many to be an attractive curiosity ranking some way behind the region's beaches, smugglers' caves and cream teas. Dolly Pentreath, of Mousehole, Cornwall, the last Cornish monoglot, died in 1777 and at...