by Eibhlín Nic Eochaidh
Another way of saying focusing in Irish is Teacht le Chéile – Coming Together. And that’s what we did on the 21st May, almost the start of Summer, when Elaine Goggin hosted a focusing evening with and through Irish.
We who learned Irish at school hold memories, good and bad. To those who did not learn it, Irish is a foreign language. When I first heard Elaine express her deep connection with the landscape she lives in, the landscape outside her window, how it embodied her sense of being Irish, making her want to reconnect with the Irish language, it moved me.
To reconnect with the language, Elaine began learning Irish on Duolingo. I’d never heard of anyone teaching themselves Irish like that, but why not! Her commitment translated into a record run of uninterrupted Duolingo sessions. I was excited when I first heard of her plan to bring this into her Focusing life by offering Focusing evenings as Gaeilge.
When I began learning Focusing I was amazed at stories I heard of people at International Training days focusing with partners where neither person shared a common language. I was curious and intrigued. When Elaine offered the evening of Fócasaigh as Gaeilge I hoped I might get a taste of what that might be like.
It did, but not in a way I’d anticipated.
Elaine promised the session would be gentle and childlike. It was. On the evening we were from different parts of Ireland, north and south, and from different continents. English was a shared language but we all entered into the spirit of the evening, those with middling Irish, some Irish – cúpla focal, and none!
Elaine provided us with a Foclóir to help us, a dictionary of useful phrases to support us. It was the simplest phrases that resonated with me: something – rud éigin; like – cosúil; I am sad – Tá uaigneas orm.
Tá uaigneas orm: Sadness is on me, not I am sad; reminder of how a feeling is not who I am or all of me, simply a part. Each language is “a different way of thinking.”
I am not a native speaker of Irish, nor do I speak Irish very often. I surprised myself that evening how Focusing as Gaeilge came so easily. Somehow the simplicity of the words in Irish was freeing. What I also liked was how it removed the weight of my self-expectation to reflect “properly” to my focusing partner.
The whole evening returned me to Gendlin’s insistence that there is not one way we are meant to be when we focus together; what we are asked to do is simply be present, human to human.
In a funny way it made me realise that Language is not everything.
Recently reading through Elaine’s foclóir a typo jumped out at me:
Tiredness of the word in upon me – Tá tuirse an domhain orm – The tiredness of the world is upon me.
I think I prefer the typo!
It is Elaine’s intention to offer these evenings at the turn of the seasons.
Thank you Elaine for your generosity in sharing your journey in re-learning Irish with us. I look forward to the next evening of Focusing as Gaeilge.
