Every time we tweet about Peig there’s some bright spark in the comments telling you it wasn’t Peig, it was the bad teachers and every time we tweet about the teachers some unsung hero swoops in to tell you they’d have learned the conditional tense were it not for Peig

Maybe the problem is you, Darren?

The complex, post colonial relationship Ireland has with its language is never going to be minimised into one book or one teacher or one person’s lack of a penchant for language acquisition. So stop trying to do that? Maybe?

Blaming an illiterate woman who told her story in her own words when asked for it for your/a nation’s internalised guilt about its lack of ownership of its language is a) misogynistic and b) West Brit behaviour.

The greatest thing colonialism ever did was colonise minds. Because if you can get the people to believe, and continue to believe that their way of life and culture is wrong or bad or uneducated, you’ve not a single need for any Penal Laws. You’ve internalised those prohibitions

And this isn’t me saying “it’s the Brits’ fault”. Yeah, they started it off. But we’ve had control over our language a fair while now and those narratives remain. We’re at the point as a nation where we can wilfully reject the notion that our language is dead or useless

But that’d take have a good, long and painful look inwards. And it’s far easier to blame Peig and Mrs Murphy, isn’t it?

I have had three (3) coffees today, I am ready to fight your Da now

This thread is not an invitation to tell leaving your experiences with Peig or Irish teachers, I will immediately block you.