Ireland Travel

» Mike Gerrard - Lonely Planet Irish Language and Culture

I think you're being very unfair on the book. It's only a pocket-sized book, and is 256 pages. You say it isn't really to do with culture, yet there are 22 pages on food and drink, 16 pages on sport, and 48 pages on what it calls 'Lifestyle and society', covering such subjects as politics, current affairs, education, technology, money, religion etc etc. Another 24 pages deal with entertainment - the pub, music, dancing, festivals and movies, theatre and TV.

By my reckoning, that's almost half the book given over to culture, and as the title is Language and Culture, to have the other half given over to language is reasonable. The chapter on Slang is only 20 pages out of 256.

In terms of the content, on the very first page of his introduction, the authors say 'the Irish are masters of the English language'. They make it quite clear over many pages that, as you say, Irish is not English with a cultural inflection. It is not a book about Gaelic, it is a book about Irish English (as opposed to English English). I think the book deals with it thoroughly, and it's unfair to criticise it for not being to the traditional LP format, when that isn't what the book is about.

I'm glad you made your points, as others might agree with you, but I certainly don't agree that it is 'pathetic rubbish'.