‘What’s that in Irish?’ my son asks, quite often. Now that he’s started reading and writing, he’s drunk on the power of words and cleaves to the small, cardboard-backed books of Irish gifted to him by his nana, a keen Irish speaker.
Teaching him to read has been enlightening. He’s already begun correcting how I pronounce words like ‘cow’ and ‘now’ (which I do so in the correct, Northern Irish way), much to the mocking glee of him and his mum. The wrinkle of him also wanting to learn Irish has complicated things further.
