Radio Show Leads The Way For Gaelic Comeback

by apichert | April 18, 2009 at 05:37 pm

110 views | 0 Recommendations | 0 comments

The name Seamus Blake says it all. Blake is the son of immigrants from Ireland and an “evangelist” of the Gaelic language. He has a weekly broadcast on WFUV-FM in New York that plays everything from Afro-Celtic funk to lessons on how to speak the language.

This article outlines the state of the Gaelic language from its UNESCO-appointed status as “definitely endangered” to it’s survival on Facebook. Blake’s passion for the language is a small part of a greater movement to keep Gaelic alive.

In the last two years, Blake's Saturday morning show has featured music ranging from Afro-Celtic funk to reggae, as well as storytelling and interviews _ all in the language that generations of Irish immigrants like his parents had once considered moribund.

"It has never been a dead language," Blake said, adding that one of the main goals of his show is to demonstrate how Irish Gaelic is used today. There are also on-air language lessons.

These days, the language appears to be on a rebound.