Analysis: Whether in placenames, folklore, songs or poems, sources for Irish food history are abundant and often hiding in plain sight (tá leagan Gaeilge den alt seo thíos)
By Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire, TU Dublin and Dónall Ó Braonáin, Ollscoil na Gaillimhe
Food permeates every aspect of our lives from the new-born's first suckle to the food traditions associated with Irish wakes and funerals. Research on Irish food history has been gathering pace for over two decades. The Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein noted that the limits of one’s language meant the limits of one’s world. In 1993, Seamus Heaney famously stated that "not to learn Irish is to miss the opportunity of understanding what life in this country has meant and could mean in a better future".
Languages are a window into different cosmologies, a way of looking at the world differently. This especially applies to Irish food history and much can be learnt from the Irish language about our ancestors’ cattle-based economy and transhumance traditions, influenced by Ireland’s temperate climate, where regular rain meant grass grew nearly all year round. Consider the etymological richness of ‘Bóthar’, the Irish word for road (from ‘bó’—cow), defined in width by the length and breadth of a cow, a signifier of the long affair of our bovine past; extending also to our ‘buachaillí’ (boys) and ‘cailíní’ (girls), meaning, respectively, cowboy or herd boy and little herder, the suffix ‘ín’ denoting the diminutive.
The Irish public, partly due to our maritime island culture and temperate climate, has a long history of being preoccupied by and fascinated with the weather. In 2019, An Post issued a stamp designed by the Stone twins celebrating the many words, in both English and Irish, we regularly use for rain. There was ‘a soft day’ (a mist), ‘spitting’ (a few drops of rain) and ‘lashing’ (diagonal hard rain), and, as Gaeilge, ‘ceobhrán’ (drizzle), ‘brádán’ (misty rain), ‘croabhmhúr’ (slight shower), ‘bús báistí’, ‘ragáille’ or ‘clagairt’ (pelting) and ‘forlacht’ (deluge).
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Countrywide, Hannah Quinn Mulligan how the Irish words that describe life on the farm have become woven into everyday life beyond the farm gate
There has been a growing interest and awareness in Ireland in recent years of our own linguistic cultural heritage, and the richness of our native language. Equally, there has been a growing recognition of food as part of Ireland’s intangible cultural heritage.
In his iconic book Cladaí Chonamara, Seamus Mac an Iomaire gave Irish names and descriptions for 43 different types of seaweed from his native west Galway. Extending this descriptive profusion, rabharta means a spring tide (which provides an abundance of cast-up seaweed), and the word garbhshíon or scairbhín na gCuach (rough weather of the Cuckoos) refers to a particular time between late April and early May when rough or harsh weather throws up seaweed on the coastline, which is also gathered for fertilising potato beds.
Inherited wisdom and knowledge of nature’s cycle has been preserved by multiple generations of our ancestors within specific words, sayings, proverbs and triads in the Irish language. Folklore collected in Killorglin, Co. Kerry noted that ‘an scairbhín’ was the name given to the period from the middle of April to the middle of May, and laethanta na bó riabhaí (the days of the brindled cow) is the name given to the few particularly cold days at the end of March into early April.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Today with Claire Byrne, Manchán Magan on his new book Tree Dogs, Banshee Fingers, and Other Irish Words for Nature
The triad ‘Turscar, Prátaí, Páistí’ (cast-up seaweed, potatoes, children) reinforces the historical interconnectedness between the weather, cast-up seaweed / wrack, potatoes, and population growth in coastal parts on this island. The adoption of the potato as a staple food directly influenced the dramatic population growth in Ireland from one million in 1590 (roughly coinciding with the introduction of the potato) to 8.4 million in the 1840s.
The Irish word for generous is flaithiúíl, which stems from the word ‘flaith’ or prince, so in Irish to be generous is to be princely. The Irish for the Department of Justice is An Roinn Dlí agus Cirt—literally, the department of the law and what is right: the Irish language separates the law from what is right or just. The Irish saying ‘Fáílte Uí Cheallaigh’—the welcome of the O’Kellys—carries memories of an exceptional hospitality event that happened seven centuries ago in east Galway / south Roscommon, but is still preserved in today’s speech.
Various legal tracts, annals and indeed even reports from foreign visitors have all highlighted the central tradition of hospitality within Irish culture, the importance of being flaithiúil. William Sayers’ chapter in the forthcoming Irish Food History: A Companion on the eleventh or twelfth century Aislinge Meic Conglinne emphasises the power of satire, with the young scholar, Aniér, writing quatrains against Manchín, the Abbot of Cork, for the lack of hospitality shown to him on his arrival.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Ray D'Arcy Show, Manchán Magan on his search for Irish words from the coastal areas of Ireland
Aislinge Meic Conglinne is arguably the earliest vernacular European deployment of this conceit of a land of plenty, derivatives of which are found in the later Land of Cockayne of English and French tradition, and the German Schlaraffenland. One of the most powerful tools of protest in Ancient Ireland was 'fasting to distain', where an individual would go on hunger strike outside the home of their transgressor to draw attention to an injustice.
The ‘extraordinary hospitality’ of the Irish gentry and ‘the conviviality of their manners’ was frequently the first thing to strike an English traveller here in the 18th century, yet Ireland is depicted in history more for its famines and food shortages. Darra Goldstein noted in her foreword to ‘Tickling the Palate’: Gastronomy in Irish Literature and Culture that this focus on deprivation presented ‘an obstacle to the exploration of Irish food. All too often the story begins and ends with potatoes or famine’.
A pernicious fallacy that continues to be peddled is that Ireland does not have a rich food tradition, or varied food culture, often based on historiography that has neglected to engage with any sources in the Irish language. For example, the Harvard historian Hasia Diner stated in Hungering for America: Italian, Irish and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration that ‘Irish writers of memoir, poems, stories, political tracts, or songs rarely included the details of food in describing daily life’ unlike those of other peoples.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's History Show, Rhona Tarrant talks to people in Kerry about Easter food traditions, while Catherine Cleary discusses the history of Irish Easter food
But it is clear that Diner did not consult with any source in the Irish language nor indeed with many English language sources. The correspondences of Daniel O'Connell, the letters of Jonathan Swift, the diary of Humphrey O'Sullivan and the travel narratives of John Gamble are all rich in food and beverage related discussion.
The American food historian Ken Albala points out that the first thing a cultural historian should do is learn the language of the culture being studied. In The Popular Mind in Eighteenth-Century Ireland, Vincent Morley notes how the failure of so many historians to use Irish language sources had a remarkable effect on our official history. In a review of Morley’s book, Declan Kiberd noted that ‘it would be hard to imagine French people paying much heed to a history of their country, written by someone with no working knowledge of its language; but they do (or did) things differently in Ireland’.
There is an abundance of Irish language sources for the study of food history, ranging from food-related placenames, folklore archives, to dictionaries, many of which have been digitised in recent years. This article originated in an email from Rossa Ó Snodaigh during the Covid-19 lockdown concerning the wealth of different words for potatoes in Father Patrick S. Dinneen’s Irish-English Dictionary.
From RTÉ Brainstorm, why Irish people go mad for floury spuds
The food motif within Irish songs and poems has been previously explored including the rich vein of food imagery in the work of the blind poet Antaine Ó Raiftearaí, the writings of Sigerson Clifford and some classic ballads such as Biddy Mulligan the Pride of the Coombe or The Auld Skillet Pot. Recent research by Dr Anke Klitzing in TU Dublin applied gastrocriticism to the field of Irish literature, highlighting the richness of food themes in the poetry of Seamus Heaney, the novels and short stories of Colm Tóibín, George Moore, Maeve Binchy, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne and the literary non-fiction of Helen Lucy Burke.
Manchán Magan’s Thirty-two Words for Field inspired the title of our forthcoming chapter ‘Seventy-Two Words for Potato: Irish Language sources for Food History’ in Irish Food History: A Companion. In the coming days, as you travel about, pay attention to the Irish place names you pass. Remember the etymology of the words ‘bóthar’, ‘buachaill’ and ‘cailín’.
A pernicious fallacy that continues to be peddled is that Ireland does not have a rich food tradition, or varied food culture
The true meaning of placenames such as Clonmel (Cluain Meala—meadow of honey), Cappataggle (Ceapaigh an tSeagail—the tillage plot of the rye), Glenageary (Gleann na gCaorach—the valley of the sheep), and Kanturk (Ceann Toirc—headland of the boar) are all food-related and can only be unlocked through an understanding of their Irish language origins. Whether in placenames, folklore, songs, poetry, memoirs, diaries, novels or short stories, sources for Irish food history are abundant and often hidden in plain sight only awaiting a little decoding.
The full in-depth version of this article, titled Seventy-Two Words for Potato: Irish Language sources for Food History, has been published in Irish Food History: A Companion (EUT+ Academic Press; Royal Irish Academy).
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Dr Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire is a senior lecturer in Culinary Arts at the School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology at TU Dublin. Dónall Ó Braonáin is a Development Editor with Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge in University of Galway.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
72 focal le haghaidh prátaí: stair shaibhir na n-ainmneacha Gaeilge le haghaidh bia
Cibé i logainmneacha, béaloideas, amhráin nó dánta, tá foinsí do stair bhia na hÉireann go flúirseach agus go minic i bhfolach sa radharc soiléir.
Le Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire, Ollscoil Teicneolaíochta Bhaile Átha Cliath agus Dónall Ó Braonáin, Ollscoil na Gaillimhe
Baineann bia leis an uile chor den saol ó thugtar an chíoch dúinn den chéad uair nó go gcuirtear i gcré na cille muid. Tá borradh mór faoi thaighde ar stair bhia na hÉireann le fiche bliain anuas. Ba é an fealsamh as an Ostair Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889—1951) a dúirt gurbh ionann srianta an tsaoil agus na srianta a bhaineann lenár dteanga féin. Sa mbliain 1993, 75 bhliain nó mar sin i ndiaidh fhoilsiú thráchtas mór fealsúnachta Wittgenstein, bhain ráiteas Seamus Heaney (1939–2013) cáil nach beag amach '[n]ot to learn Irish is to miss the opportunity of understanding what life in this country has meant and could mean in a better future' is é sin, go gcaillfí an deis meabhair a bheith againn ar bhrí shaol na tíre san am a caitheadh agus sa lá geal amach romhainn, mura dtabharfadh muid linn an Ghaeilge.
Is ionann teanga agus léargas éagsúil a bheith againn ar chosmeolaíocht, seift eile le brí a bhaint as an gcruinne. Is é an dála céanna i gcás stair bhia na hÉireann é. Is iomaí sin léargas a thugann an Ghaeilge dúinn maidir le geilleagar ár sinsear a bhí bunaithe ar bheithígh, an buailteachas mar shampla, a bhí faoi thionchar aeráid mheasartha agus na báistí rialta a chinntíonn fás breá féir, beagnach ar feadh na bliana go léir. Is fiú cuimhneamh ar saibhreas sanasaíochta 'bóthar', arb ionann é tráth agus fad agus leithead bó, siombail den chaidreamh fadbhunaithe idir an duine agus an beithíoch; agus ba iad ‘buachaillí’ agus ‘cailíní’ a bhíodh ag seoladh na mbeithígh tráth den saol, dhá ainmfhocal a dhealaíonn lucht fosaíochta óna chéile ar bhonn inscne.
Tá dúspéis ag pobal na hÉireann i gcúrsaí aimsire le fada fiarach an lá de bharr go bhfuil cónaí orainn ar oileán mara in aeráid mheasartha. A shliocht sin ar an stampa a dhear muintir Stone in 2019 do An Post, inar cuimsíodh iliomad focal, i nGaeilge agus i mBéarla, a bhaineann le báisteach: cuir i gcás, 'ceobhrán', ‘brádán’, ‘craobhmhúr’, ‘bús báistí’, ‘ragáille’ nó ‘clagairt’ agus ‘forlacht’.
Le blianta beaga anuas, is mó an spéis atá á cur sa dúchas agus sa saibhreas teangeolaíoch atá ag an nGaeilge in Éirinn féin. Agus tá méadú ar an spéis atá á cur san oidhreacht bhia atá mar dhlúthchuid d’oidhreacht chultúir dholáimhsithe na hÉireann. Thug Séamus Mac an Iomaire (1891–1967), as Iorras Aithneach, ainmneacha Gaeilge agus cur síos cuimsitheach ar 43 chineál feamainne a bhí le fáil ar chósta iarthar na Gaillimhe ina leabhar cáiliúil Cladaí Chonamara. Níl aon cheal ar an nGaeilge sa réimse téarmaíochta seo: is éard atá sa rabharta ná taoide mhallmhara (a mbíonn bord mór feamainne mar thoradh air go minic) agus bíonn garbhshíon nó scairbhín na gcuach ann i dtrátha na drochaimsire i ndeireadh an Aibreáin agus i dtús na Bealtaine, tráth a mbíonn cuimse feamainne caite aníos ar an gcladach go hiondúil.
Is minic a chuirtear an fheamainn seo ar iomairí fataí mar leasú. Buanaítear gaois na muintire agus fios ar thimthriall na beatha sna leaganacha cainte, seanráite, seanfhocail agus sna triaid. Thugtaí an 'scairbhín' ar an tréimhse idir lár an Aibreáin agus lár na Bealtaine sa mbéaloideas a bailíodh i gCill Orglan, Co. Chiarraí, agus tugtar laethanta na bó riabhaí i gcónaí ar an aimsir fhuar athraitheach a bhíonn i ndeireadh mhí Mhárta agus i dtús an Aibreáin. Déantar dearbhú ar an gceangal idir an aimsir, raic feamainne, fataí agus borradh faoi dhaonra an chósta ar an oileán sa triad 'Turscar, Prátaí, Páistí'. Ba é cothú an fhata mar phríomhábhar bia ba chionsiocair le borradh mór faoi dhaonra na hÉireann ó mhilliún duine in 1590 (cothrom an ama, a bheag nó a mhór, a tugadh an fata isteach go hÉirinn) go 8.4 milliún sna 1840idí.
Tá samhail na gnaíúlachta – flaithiúil – bunaithe ar an bhféile a shamhlaítí le 'flaith' nó tiarna fadó. Is mó i bhfad a thugann teideal Gaeilge na Roinne Dlí agus Cirt le fios ná loime an téarma Béarla, ‘justice’. Maireann dea-cháil na féile i seancheantar Uí Mhaine (oirthear na Gaillimhe/deisceart Chontae Ros Comáin) le seacht gcéad bliain anuas go dtí ár linn féin sa leagan cainte ‘Fáilte Uí Cheallaigh’. Féachann an t-alt seo le haird a tharraingt ar shaibhreas na bhfoinsí Gaeilge do lucht léinn stair an bhia in Éirinn agus an chothroime léargais a thugann na foinsí céanna ar scéal an bhia in Éirinn. Foilseofar alt méadaithe dar teideal ‘Seventy-Two Words for Potato: Irish Language sources for Food History’ sa saotharIrish Food History: A Companion a chuirfear amach go gairid (Cló Acadúil EUT+; Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann, 2024).
Tá trácht ar thábhacht na féile agus na flaithiúlachta i gcultúr na hÉireann i dtráchtais dlí, sna hannála agus sa litríocht úd a scríobh taistealaithe chun na tíre seo. Baineann caibidil William Sayers in Irish Food History: A Companion le téacs mór le rá ón 11ú nó an 12ú haois Aislinge Meic Conglinne ina bhfuil léargas ar chumhacht na haoire. Scríobhann an scoláire óg as Ard Mhacha, Aniér, rannta ina ndéanann sé ceasacht agus cáineadh ar Ab Chorcaí, Manchín, de bhrí nár caitheadh go cóir leis nuair a bhaineann sé an mhainistir i gCorcaigh amach. Meastar go bhfuil Aislinge Meic Conglinne ar cheann de na heisleamáirí luatha atá tagtha anuas de thalamh na flúirse, samhail choitianta i dtraidisiúin Eorpacha eile e.g. land of cockayne i mBéarla, pais de cocaigne sa bhFraincis agus Schlaraffenland sa nGearmáinis. Ba mhór i gceist an troscadh (<troscad) in aimsir na Sean-Ghaeilge mar bheart agóide chun aird a tharraingt ar éagóir éigin.
Ba mhinic le Sasanaigh a bhí ar cuairt chugainn san ochtú haois déag suntas a thabhairt d'fhéile 'extraordinary hospitality’ agus gnaíúlacht ‘the conviviality of their manners’ na n-uaisle Éireannacha cé gur treise i bhfad an tráchtaireacht staire a dhéantar ar an ngorta agus an ghannchuid. Áitíonn Darra Goldstein ina réamhrá le ‘Tickling the Palate’: Gastronomy in Irish Literature and Culture go mbíonn róbhéim na tráchtaireachta ar an nganntanas agus an díth ina constaic ar iniúchadh cóir a dhéanamh ar stair bhia na hÉireann agus nár mhiste droim láimhe a thabhairt do shamhail chúng na bhfataí agus an Ghorta Mhóir. Bréag dhíobhálach is ea an mhíthuiscint nach ann do thraidisiún éagsúil ná saibhir bia in Éirinn: is minic a bhunaítear léamh dochrach mar sin ar staireagrafaíocht nach dtéann i ngleic le foinsí Gaeilge ar chor ar bith.
Cuir i gcás, sa mbliain 1991, mhaígh staraí de chuid Ollscoil Harvard, Hasia Diner, ina saothar Hungering for America: Italian, Irish and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration nach raibh ach trácht fánach ar shonraí bia i gcuimhní cinn, filíocht, scéalaíocht, tráchtais pholaitiúla nó amhráin na hÉireann a rinne cur síos ar ghnáthshaol na muintire agus nach raibh an scéal amhlaidh i gcás tíortha eile. Is léir nár cheadaigh Diner foinse Ghaeilge ar bith ná foinsí iomadúla Béarla amhail comhfhreagras Dhónaill Uí Chonaill, litreacha Jonathan Swift, cín lae Amhlaoibh Uí Shúilleabháin nó litríocht thaistil John Gamble a bhfuil mionchur síos iontu ar cheisteanna a bhaineann le bia agus deoch. Is é áiteamh Ken Albala, staraí bia as Meiriceá, gur mithid don staraí cultúir teanga an chultúir a shealbhú ar an gcéad dul amach.
Níor phléigh líon mór staraithe le foinsí Gaeilge sa tír seo féin agus bhí tionchar as cuimse dá réir ar scríobh na staire oifigiúla sa tír seo, dar le Vincent Morley. I léirmheas ar shaothar de chuid Morley, scríobhann Declan Kiberd go mba dheacair a shamhlú go dtabharfadh muintir na Fraince aird dá laghad ar stair a dtíre a bhí scríofa ag duine éigin nach raibh cur amach gairmiúil acu ar a dteanga ach nach mar a chéile in Éirinn é – 'they do (or did) things differently in Ireland'.
Is iomaí sin foinse Ghaeilge atá ann maidir le léann stair an bhia in Éirinn, idir logainmneacha atá bunaithe ar bhia, chartlanna béaloidis, agus fhoclóirí, agus tá digitiú déanta ar chuid mhór acu le blianta beaga anuas. Bunaíodh an t-alt seo ar ríomhphost ó Rossa Ó Snodaigh le linn phaindéim Covid-19 maidir le líon na bhfocal éagsúil a rinne cur síos ar an bhfata/práta/préata i bhFoclóir Gaeilge-Béarla an Duinnínigh Irish-English Dictionary.
Tá scagadh déanta ar mhóitif an bhia in amhráin agus filíocht na ndaoine, i saothar Antaine Ó Raiftearaí (1784–1835), i scríbhinní Sigerson Clifford, agus ina cheann orthu siúd, i roinnt bailéad clasaiceach amhail Biddy Mulligan the Pride of the Coombe agus The Auld Skillet Pot. Tá taighde dochtúireachta déanta le gairid ag an Dr Anke Klitzing in Ollscoil Teicneolaíochta Bhaile Átha Cliath inar baineadh úsáid as gaistchritic maidir le litríocht na hÉireann, agus inar pléadh saibhreas na dtéamaí bia i bhfilíocht Seamus Heaney, scéalaíocht Choilm Colm Tóibín, George Moore, Maeve Binchy, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, agus saothar liteartha neamhfhicsean Helen Lucy Burke.
Ba é teideal shaothar Mhanchán Magan Thirty-two Words for Field a spreag teideal na caibidle Seventy-Two Words for Potato: Irish Language sources for Food History sa saothar atá le teacht Irish Food History: A Companion. As seo go ceann laethanta beaga, agus tú i mbun taistil, tabhair na logainmneacha Gaeilge mórthimpeall ort faoi deara. Cuimhnigh ar shanasaíocht na bhfocal ‘bóthar’, ‘buachaill’ agus ‘cailín’.
Ní féidir meabhair cheart a bhaint as logainmneacha bunaithe ar bhia nó saothrú táirgí bia fearacht Cluain Meala, Ceapaigh an tSeagail, Gleann na gCaorach agus Ceann Toirc d’uireasa na Gaeilge. Más logainmneacha, amhráin, filíocht, cuimhní cinn nó scéalaíocht atá i gceist, ní lia foinse Ghaeilge ná léargas saibhir éagsúil ar stair an bhia in Éirinn. Amach romhainn atá siad agus leagfaidh muid orthu.
Tá 28 gcaibidil le saineolaithe ar ghnéithe éagsúla de stair bhia na hÉireann ón réamhstair go dtí an lá atá inniu ann in Irish Food History: A Companion, arna chur in eagar ag an Dr Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire agus an Dr Dorothy Cashman. Tá rochtain oscailte air ag Cló Acadúil EUT+ agus foilseoidh Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann cóip chrua den leabhar.
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Is Léachtóir Sinsearach é Dr Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire i Ealaíona Cócaireachta ag an School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology ag an Ollscoil Teicneolaíochta Bhaile Átha Cliath. Is Eagarthóir Forbartha é Dónall Ó Braonáin le Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge ag an Ollscoil na Gaillimhe.
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