Craic Baby: Dispatches from a Rising Language

Description

From the author of the bestselling Motherfocloir, Non-fiction Irish Book of the Year. A TLS BOOK OF THE YEAR. What do we talk about when we talk about Irish? When we talk about saving or supporting a language do we mean the musical combination of syllables, or something more profound? How do new words enter a language, and what is the relationship between that strange dialect called Hiberno-English and its parent language? Craic Baby picks up exactly where Motherfocloir left off and explores the very new and very old parts of the Irish language from a personal perspective. While Motherfocloir was steeped in memory and a father-son relationship, Craic Baby hinges on the beginnings of a father-daughter relationship, and how watching a child learn to communicate changes how you think about language. Craic Baby will share more Irish words and issues connected to the language, in the same style as Motherfocloir, but treated with greater confidence and more depth.

Darach O'Seaghdha is the author of popular twitter account @theirishfor. He lives just outside Dublin, where he works as a civil servant during the day and explores language at night and in the early morning.

Darach O Seaghdha's observations and reflections are intelligent and interesting * Irish Times * O Seaghdha wasn't keen on learning traditional Irish language when he was young. Inspired by his dad, he later made it his goal to help preserve it * The Big Issue * A wonderful blend of rudeness and erudition * TLS Books of the Year * I'd stray away from my beloved fiction for [Craic Baby] Darach O'Seaghdha's follow up to the brilliant Motherfocloir * Irish Times Books of the Year * Darach O Seaghdha has a gift for bringing Irish to life, through humour and through fascinating stories of why it is the way it is * Irish Daily Mirror * In Craic Baby, O Seaghdha wants to address fundamental points about language in Ireland on a longish agenda. And he does it brilliantly * Irish Examiner *