Cork City Co Cork Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Cork City Co Cork Female Conversation

Conversation

I'm from Cork in the south of Ireland. Em… so I've-- I'm-- English would be our first language at home but I learned Irish like most people when they start at four in the schools. But my parents would both speak Irish as well, so we would have had the facility to speak Irish at home. And so that was, you know, not everybody has that because, you know, some people are, you know, far and against Irish. But my parents would've been quite positive about Irish so I guess that kind of influenced, you know, where I am today and stuff to do. So, gosh. 

But because my parents are actually from the west of Ireland-- My parents are both from Claire, Country Claire, which is just below Galway, which kind of makes them say kind of things that, you know, sound very like the country. You know? Like shticks and shtones. You kind of have that, kind of, you know, the-- the hard st, which doesn't really appear in any other part of the country; it's a very-- it's very distinctive, that region, actually.

Male: Does that happen in Galway as well?

It would do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is, you know, it's a typical west of Ireland kind of thing. Sometimes you see direct translations from Irish. So you have what is called Hiberno English, which is the English spoken in Ireland, which is slightly different to the English spoken in England because you have-- You see in Ireland that even the way you greet people is very different in English. Like in Irish you have like "dia dhuit" is the way you say "hello" in Irish, which means like "God be with you." And you have this huge, you know, religious references really, like if someone sneezes you say "dia leat," which is, you know, it's "God at you." and "God be with you." Like if you're saying "good luck," you'd say-- that's why a lot of people say good luck actually when they're saying goodbye, they say like, [speaks Gaelic], which is "May the road rise to meet you." Another one is "May you get on brightly," [speaks Gaelic]. So [speaks Gaelic]. People often say 'good luck" actually in Ireland when they're saying "bye." You know? Which is kind of a strange phenomenon really, but--

In Irish there is no way to say yes or no. Right? You know the way in English you just say yes, no. In Irish, the way you answer yes and no is in the positive form of the verb or the negative form of the verb. So like, for example, "Were you there?" would be "an raibh tu ann'" right? "An reibh tu ann." And the form positive form yes would be "bhi me" or "ni riabh me." So it comes with the stem of the verb. It's not just yes or no. You have to say, "yes, I was...no, I wasn't." So you say "I was" or "I wasn't;" that's the way you answer yes or no. So you'd see that very commonly that Irish people won't just say yes. 

"Were you at the shop?" "I was." That's the way you say the affirmative form of it. You know what I mean? So you'd see that very commonly. You will also see that when Irish people ask questions, it's often followed by another question. Like, I don't know if they just don't want to answer it or what. But it's like, [speaks Gaelic], "Oh, [speaks Gaelic]," "were you there?" "Oh, were you yourself there?" You know what I mean? 

This is another thing. The present participle here. "He does be working every day." And the-- the verb "to be" in Irish, there's a -- a present habitual, which means like [speaks Gaelic], and which would mean like "He does be working every day." So you see that coming in to the Hiberno English, which sounds terrible in English but it's, you know, again a direct translation.

And with Irish people, always say "well." It comes from B-H-- B-H-U-E-L in the Irish, which means, you know, "well." You know, Irish like, "Well." So that's a very common word at the start of sentences if you're waiting. It's kind of like, "mmm," you know, in English.

Bothar is a road. Bothareen would be a little road, like where the place name where I live at home is called Boreen. I don't know if you've ever heard boreen, B-O-R-E-E-N is the English way of spelling it. It's like boreen, but it literally means bothareen, which is a little road. So the I for the ending word there is the diminutive form.

So, like-- You know what-- We have a little chateen would be like we'll have a little chat. You know? So you see that-- You see that in-- I have a friend from Connemara who says we'll have a little cuponeen tea, which is a little cup of tea. You know what I mean? So they use that very commonly. We do-- We use that commonly as well.

I met-- There's a woman in my class actually, from the Bronx, and she says growing up that they used to have little balls out the street they used to play with. You know? And they used to call them Spaldeens because the company that made the balls was Spalding. And like, you know, this is, you know, in the Bronx, like you know, 30 years ago using the I for the end diminutive form of straight from Irish. You know? It's quite-- It's phenomenal really. You know? That's-- You know, Spaldeens and they're out playing in the street with them. You know? It's funny. So the I for the end is very common in English as well. 

The other thing that is different from English speakers is the TH. People-- I think some Americans sometimes mock our people's-- saying like they can't say things like, you know, thirty-three-and-a-third. You know? Because in Irish, the way we count is like a haon, a do, a tri. A tri, right? Where it's like-- it's not like three, it's tri. So it's like the sound is going straight through your teeth almost. You know? You put your tongue up to the back of your front teeth and you say tri. You know? And it's a very kind of, fricative kind of sound. But Irish people will apply that to the TH in English, so they never really say it correctly. So it's like, you know, non-native speakers of English, the TH sound in English is one of the most difficult sounds for them to conquer. Like French people say like zuh; they find it very difficult to say the. And I think Irish people are the same in that we'd say duh. We almost say it like dee. Like it-- this doesn't apply for everybody now. If you speak very well, you know you'll do it right, but the majority of the people would-- it's not as close to the English the where you put the tongue right in between the two teeth, an interdental, right? We just don't do it that way because we've, you know, counting from the number three, it's just a-- it's a different shape of making the TH.

Another thing was I was trying to teach my class, actually, how to say- like in Irish the verb "to be" is [speaks Gaelic]. Right? [speaks Gaelic]. And I was like, saying to them, "Oh, it's like, you know, a thaw in the ice" And they were just starting laughing at me because I was saying "a thaw in the ice." And they were like, "It's not a thaw in the ice, it's a –"

Male: Thaw.

See, we don't have that in-- I can't-- I can't even do that sound. Like, I don't think any Irish people actually make that sound in their everyday speaking. Like, thaw. It's not like I can’t even-- Like, it takes so much energy for me to think about that sound like, because it's so unnatural to me, You know? A thaw in the ice. Like-- and that's me really trying to do TH like-- you know what I mean?

Male: Yeah.

It's funny, like-- So.

Rossmore Co Cork Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Rossmore Co Cork Female Conversation

Conversation

The West Cork, which is about forty miles west of Cork City, pure country little village I was born in Rossmore. There's about – there’s the Catholic Church, there were two schools and there were eight homes. A small, a little, a little hamlet really. It wasn’t a village, it was a hamlet. But it was, it was a glorious place to live because we had great freedom and you know you could go out and sort of do anything you wanted and you were never in danger and we ran wild when we would get out of school for our holidays – we’d just run completely and absolutely wild and, I mean we would come back for our midday something but, our lunch or something, and then gone again you know. My mother never saw us for all the weeks – we were gone, we rambled through fields and woods and there was no, nobody was scared and it was – I know of course that’s sixty-eight years ago since I was born so I suppose there’s a lot of changes there since. It was, it was a glorious place to live and everything was free and safe and you could do what you liked. I had a brother who was younger than me and I was the bane of his life. I probably, I was full of adventure – I always wanted to be doing things that were different and I would bring him out for outings and then of course when we got home my mother wouldn’t know where we’d gone to – where…we would…she would, she would really reprimand us like because we’d disappear and never said we were going anywhere and we’d go out on this adventure because I wanted, I was the one that wanted the adventure and he’d just tagged along and he said to me recently “you know”, he said “you always got me into trouble because you’re always leading me astray.” Anyway, he was good – he always came with me. I said “well, you were very easily led.” But anyway, he’s – I have four sisters who are older than me and then he’s younger. We were, I suppose, a crazy family really because you know nobody, none of us knew what the other was doing, you know – that sort of way.

But we had, my father was a shoemaker and was quite – he loved poetry and recitation so we were reared listening to my father reciting and his poems, well I suppose four of the six of us, you know can still recite all his, all the poems he recited. And then I was just, I was just, there was a book I got the other day from home that one of the native’s sons wrote recently about – it’s called “Then and Now” and its comparing the old days, like he would be older than us now – this is Michael Donovan. He would be – he’s 84 I think he said, yes in his book - and he was writing his memories and the things that you’d forgotten about, you know he wrote – and yet he forgot a lot of things that I could remember, things that he didn’t and I was very annoyed with him about things he had forgotten. It was like oh my god, he forgot that – how could he have forgotten that like.

He should remember that because of course it was something that the Dailys were involved in, that I was annoyed with him he had forgotten because talking about drama, when I was, I was about nine at the time and you know things, that would be nineteen forty-nine and really things were miserable because it was after the war and there was no recreation of any description. So one of the local young men, he was – he worked in the creamery and he decided that we would start a little group, a drama group, in the farthest corner of west Cork and there were quite a few plays produced which like was out of, out of the ordinary completely. I always remember my father and mother were part of the troop and there were about I suppose maybe nine or 10 people involved and they’d put on plays across – now I’m sure they would be, they would be laughed at now if they were seen – but they did quite, they did one I’ll always remember – they had one called Cartney and Kevney and there was The Lord Mayor and there was Cough Water, which was a one-act play. I’ll always remember – you see we were, we were the prompters – we were the ones that prompted. The Dailys would – because we were too young to be acting in the plays so we were prompting and they were, I suppose they were very poorly produced but it was great for people because it got people together and the plays were, they would learn the plays and you know and practice the plays in our kitchen.

So we were the centre of everything – the Daily house – and then there was an old hall in the village and the plays were put on there. I’m sure that – there was, it started something because to this day Rossmore is the centre of drama in west Cork. I’ll actually show you the book and you…I’m sure you could pick it up on internet. There’s the Festival of West Cork and it has been West Cork Drama Festival. They actually even went to Israel with the play one time and one time I was at home on holidays this group came from Israel and they put on a play which was tremendous. I was actually at the play and it was, they were like, they…it was so funny because the people that had been to Israel – here they were like hosting the return team, the Israelis and they were all the best of friends like and it all just, because it was like they knew everybody, knew everybody and we had a little reception afterwards and the hall has a you know, they do a little bit of catering there as well, and there was a lovely, a lovely little party afterwards and it was lovely to meet all these gorgeous people like and there were, they all stayed at some of the members’ homes because they did the same when they went to Israel, the people – the Israelis – they entertained them and you know acted as hosts and then in return when they came to west Cork, the locals kept, you know they stayed with them. So it was, that a most interesting experience I thought well how far, what a far reaching thing to have happened that what my father and mother and Michael Manny, who was the man who started to the group, he started – they started all this like in very humble circumstances like nobody would expect could have happened and yet in the meantime of course now they were different – there was a group called The Young Farmer’s Association. They had a, they started – I think they took up where Michael Manny had left off and they did a lot of plays and we’ve several plays and they won, they won the All Ireland for, in their group, like there were an association and then in two years ago the west Cork group, the Rossmore – Kilmeen they call themselves now, they won the All Ireland Drama for the first time.

Cobh Co Cork Male Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Cobh Co Cork Male Conversation

Conversation

I was born in Cork, Cobh, Cobh Island. The small island on the south just outside Cork. It’s the last place that Titanic came. The first and last place the Titanic came before it sank. There’s a huge heritage center down there – it’s huge and it’s a real – it’s the second most natural harbor in the world. At that time, you see, everyone immigrated, after school. You couldn’t afford to go onto college because most people’s families had an immigration within the family, you know what I mean? So a lot of fella’s brothers and sisters ended up immigrating anyway. So their parents were always constantly, at that time everyone was…there were a lot of big families. Just take my family: I have six brothers and three sisters. So at that time everyone immigrated for work – there was no work here and I had friends who had gone to Holland – they came home and they said “oh, we’re going to go over.” They’d go for a week, you know what I mean – a weekend actually and I wasn’t going and all these lads, friends of mine said “oh, I went off and go to Holland” and they said to me at the last minute “come on, come on” so I went over at the last minute and when I got over to Holland – I went over and I was looking around and I thought to myself “you know, there’s more to life than stuck in the job I was at in Ireland,” you know what I mean? So I came home then and I gave the guy two weeks' notice, got a one-way ticket, I flew back to Amsterdam and I was getting more, my first job in Amsterdam – I was there about four days and the first job I got was washing dishes in a hotel. I was there actually two weeks and I couldn’t get work and then I got registered because the whole system contradicts itself. You can’t, even by today’s standards, at that time you couldn’t get a bank loan unless you were a resident and you couldn’t get residence unless you were registered and you couldn’t get registered without the bank loan and having a residence. So everything contradicted itself, you know what I mean? So…what happened then, then I ended up with a guy, a Dublin fella, he was a character. He used to play the bodhran, and we’d be singing in the bar and I’d sing a few songs and strum away – the bodhran, and he used to strum the guitar, and we had a bit of craic, like. So I end up staying with him for like – he said “there’s a room in attic,” he said “you want to stay in it” because, but I stayed with him then for a few months and fortunately I got registered and I got work and the first job I was washing dishes in a hotel, in the Royal Hotel in Amsterdam and I was making more money washing dishes than when I was in my everyday job here at the time. Is that hard to believe? I made more money washing dishes.

Male: So this was before the Celtic Tiger, I assume?

Oh yeah, yeah. This is back in nineteen…nineteen ninety… nineteen ninety, nineteen eighty-nine, nineteen ninety, yeah. But, uh, that was the first job and then after that there was a… I used to do a bit of work in the bars, and that kind of thing, like, and then there was a job they went to look for a carpenter on a ship started rebuilding a ship that I went down and started. Fella on the ship started rebuilding this top sail schooner, a Dutch guy and three Russians, and it was quite an experience. There was a German, an East German guy who thought he was in East Germany - he’d escaped from East Germany and that time the wall was still up – the Berlin wall didn’t come down till nineteen.. was it eighty-nine or nineteen ninety but he still thought he was living behind the wall so he wouldn’t turn the lights in a room you know where he was staying in an apartment. He couldn’t stay on the ship because he was afraid because he'd get caught. So he would stay in this apartment – he wouldn’t turn on the lights by night. He wouldn’t lock the door – or he wouldn’t open the door. He just, when he went indoor he wouldn’t come outside. He was just you know fanatical about getting caught by the Stasi's, you know what I mean? But now I’d say his head, he's probably mental then, but I, so that's what I did, and I started there and I spent – I came home the following Christmas and went back to Holland again and then I spent – that was the same thing, the same pattern every year – coming home for Christmas and I end up giving eight years to the continent to Germany - Belgium, Sweden, Denmark and the UK and a small, I worked in Paris for the Euro-Disney but…

Male: And you said at some point you got into construction, yeah?

Yeah, well I was – I had left, when I had left I went on the ship to rebuild the ship – they were rebuilding the ship - it was a fishing trawler and they converted it to a schooner. So the whole lot had to be, it had to be a whole refit, you know what I mean? So I started doing the refit end of it with the Dutch boat, and then I started working direct for the Dutch companies Shortrink, formwork. You know what formwork is? All – we're doing columns. All these big, in the eighties commercial buildings, they’re all mass concrete – floors, walls, beams, columns.

Male: So it’s all pouring forms?

Yeah, and I got into that and I started doing that then for a couple of years and then along the way I started doing renovation jobs as well and by the time we finished, after eight years, the last job we worked on in Berlin was Planet Hollywood was one of them and the second one was the Hotel Adlon. That was the last place that Hitler – that was Hitler’s – when you went through the Brandenburg Gates on the right hand side is the Hotel Adlon and in the old time that was, that was – after the war that was flattened but they rebuilt it back to what it was in the eighteen hundreds style or seventeen hundreds style. So all the features that went back into it were crafted in factories and brought in and then all the features were brought back and they were brought back to that standard. The Germans, when the Germans, after when they moved the capitol from Bonn to Berlin they had no expense back. They pumped money into it. I mean the quality of materials they used was next to none. They had for, you know they really went all out and they done a fantastic job on the whole city. You know if you think about it, they’re rebuilding a whole city because they moved the capital from Bonn right up and they just went in and refurb this whole city, you know. But the funny thing is when I was in Berlin one of the things was I never got – now I was in the East and it was all cobblestones, all the streets were cobblestones so when you drive the car your dashboard would be swinging, you know? Bbbbbb. The whole way, everything went bbbbb. So that when you come into the pub you know everybody goes bbbbbb. Instead of saying “hi, how you getting on” that was, to carry on, bbbb, because they were shaking so much with all of the cobblestones, you know?

Cork City Co Cork Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Cork City Co Cork Female Conversation

Conversation

Okay. I’m originally from Cork City so I tend to speak just a small bit more melodically than most and a lot faster. And then when I was about twelve my family all originate from here in Dingle, out in Lispole and then so I have a mixture of both Cork and Kerry in my accent. And…

Male: Has it changed much since you’ve moved?

It would have changed slightly, yes. I tend to put maybe additional letters onto the end of words like if – when I was in Cork I would say “ouch” but now because I’m in Kerry I’ll go “ouwa”. So…

Male: Because of the Irish?

I think yeah, probably the Irish would have had a great influence on how you would speak. Sometimes the phrasing can be quite different as well. Whereas you would say something quite easily in English, you try to shorten the amount of words that you would use in a sentence to be more correct in English but in Irish, in the Irish language, druids and those, they would have had to try and be as creative as possible and try and fit as many descriptive words into a sentence and that would be the best form of poetry in the Celtic times.

Male: Can you give me an example of how you noticed that coming into your own conversation?

Sometimes in Irish everything’s kind of written backwards so sometimes instead – some of the local people – I don't say it now, thank God – but they use double negatives a lot and what they can do as well is instead of saying “I will go down there” they say “ I do be down there” at times and it’s irritating if you like well spoken English but you can find it a lot. The word “donkey” as well tends to change as well into “dunkie”, which is quite funny and…there’s a number of those little differences you’ll notice.

Male: Yeah, sound differences as well.

They sound, sound differences, yeah, very much and sometimes they’ll thrown in an occasional Irish word like “Íosa Críost” which means Jesus Christ but it’s actually because in our language as well we would say, like if we say “hello” we go “Dia is Muire dhuit,” which means “God and Mary be with you,” but if you – if then, if somebody replied – when you reply to that you go “Dia is Muire dhuit is Padraig” – so “God and Mary be with you and also St. Patrick.” So you have to add in an extra saint there when you’re replying. So it’s not that when Irish people will tend to use the Lord’s name in vain very often but I don’t believe it’s because they actually – not that they mean to, it’s just it’s part of our culture actually and it’s in our language very much so. They would have brought it in in early Christian times, in about the sixth century, I believe. Yeah.

Male: Why did you move to this area?

My family were all from here. My grandmother was from here and I have just…my home, my real home would here with my relatives. So my family moved here in the year two thousand.

Male: Can you give me any sense of how you tend to speak more in Cork when you were at Cork City when you were relaxed and...?

No, I just speak a lot faster. I could be just talking absolutely really quickly and…what…

Male: And you talked about the melodicness of it?

Yes, it’s very melodically. Like in Cork you’d like, my little cousin - my name’s Ashling but my little cousin called me Ashling, which is – yeah, so it’s a lot more melodic than it would be here in Kerry and they use a huge amount of different words as well. Like they’d use the word “scanty” which means to be kind of mean. They have a lot of kind of words that you – Travelers would use – Travelers have their own words, they have their own language actually and it’s kind of like Irish backwards, if you can imagine and…I forget the name of it again…but it’s a very, very interesting language to look at as well and that kind of was brought into the Cork dialect very much as well. You can see that very often – like the word “bhor” which means a girl, believe it or not, and a “flah” is somebody who’s good looking, believe it or not and yeah, there’s lots of those little words that creep into the Cork dialect very much. Really, you just have to meet somebody from Cork – they go “Ashleigh, how are you girl?”, that’s kind of how they talk, yeah and then in Kerry it’s a lot more, you know a bit more farmerish like this the whole time.

Male: It’s a lot flatter.

It’s a lot flatter and stuff.

Male: But then the Cork is going to get up and down a little bit more.

Yeah, they go up and down. Yes, exactly, yeah. And then as you move up the country you’ll see it changing more again but Donegal is much slower than Cork. Donegal’s speak very, very slowly and we don’t have a clue what they’re saying cause in fact they have a different form of Irish nearly entirely. So we don’t actually understand them.

Male: So even when they speak Irish it’s a very different, it’s an incredibly different…?

We actually can’t understand Donegal Irish at all. In Donegal, in Irish you’d say “[speaking Irish]” but if you speak to somebody from Donegal, they go “[speaking Donegal Irish].” It’s completely different. [speaking Irish]. Yeah, it’s completely different. It’s fascinating really and as well the Connemara Gaelics speak different as well.

Cobh Co Cork Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Cobh Co Cork Female Conversation

Conversation

I was born in a town called Cobh, which is in Cork Harbor in County Cork, and that's in the south of Ireland. And I lived there for the first 25 years of my life. And I went to school there and from there went on to university in Cork City. I had two sibling, two girls, two sisters. And they both still reside in Ireland. They both live there still. And one of them is still in Cork and the other in the north of Ireland.

And my husband worked with Esso in the UK, which is Exxon here in America. And he came here as part of a foreign assignment with his work. And we were originally supposed to come here for three years, that was extended into five and now being extended for quite a long time. We're probably just going to go for our green card pretty soon. So we're looking towards long term, living here for the ten years or so anyway and maybe then to retire to Ireland. We're not sure.

We have three children. Our eldest is fifteen, and our second child is twelve, and our youngest is nine. We have-- Our eldest is a girl and then the two younger ones are boys. And they're all going to school here in Kingwood. And Aiden's just started freshman at the high school this year. And Connor is in seventh grade, and Rory is in fourth grade at the Pines Montessori School.

I would say not that much this time around because we had been in New Orleans from ninety-one to ninety-four, and so I got used to the dollar and the money and how things were run and how the banking system was here and the different terminologies, the different words and different vocabularies. So the second time around was a lot easier. The first time, a lot of things were very foreign and very new, and took me a while to understand what people were saying. And I think I had to explain myself when I was speaking to them because we seemed to speak a different language. But having come back a second time I found it a lot easier to fit in.

I go back to Ireland at least once a year, usually twice. I would go back with the family once every year and then I would take a trip of my own maybe once also. And I like to do that with the children to keep them up with their background and their Irish culture, and getting them to know their cousins and living so far away from them I would find it hard for them not to have a relationship with their cousins. So it's nice for them to go back and build up friendships there. So we do try and get the children home as much as we can and we're going back again next summer, for about three weeks maybe. And we have people coming over Christmastime. So there's a lot of to-ing and fro-ing all the time. You know, serving our families back home. 

There was always a big link between Ireland and America. When I was growing up Ireland was still a, largely a poor nation; it was just coming out of being a poor nation, becoming more economically developed. And so I would say when I graduated from university, my year was probably the last year that-- of people who really had to go abroad to work. I did a Dairy Science degree, so there was-- It was an agricultural country in those days, so I would have had work at home. But my husband was a geologist and there was no work for geologists in Ireland, so he did go to England and joined an American company as such. But it was no surprise to me that I was going to leave Ireland, although I was-- I would have hoped expressly to not have had to do that. But with the degree my husband had done, it is pretty sure-- a surety that we were going to have to leave. And I didn't, didn't like it, but I got used to it over the years.

S Cork City Co Cork Male Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

S Cork City Co Cork Male Conversation

Conversation

Okay, so grew up in Cork. Born in Cork. Until I… Stayed there until I was eighteen, but I wouldn’t have… I really wouldn’t have a stereotypical Cork accent, I don’t think, which is probably good. Cork is very much subdivided into accents. You can, between, you know, two kilometers down the road it really is a very different accent. And it’s not just geographical. It’s also like by class, so I think part of that is because it’s… English has had so long to gestate to Cork. It’s had a lot of time to kind of develop into different kind of subparts. So yeah, I wouldn’t have a stereotypical Cork accent, except when I get probably emotional maybe or angry. And then it comes out on the phone a little bit. But yeah, apart from that. I’m tryin’ to think. Anything else? I think that covers kind of all the bases. Can I thicken up my accent? Oh, what do you think? What’s a good Cork phrase now to give them?

Male: Come on boy, will ya?

Come on boy, will ya? Yeah, that’s kind of a… Like I suppose a Cork accent would be pure lyrical. Do you know what I mean? Very up and down and all. You know, you’re constantly… It’s very fast, you know what I mean? Well, that’s a bit of the West now, but it is… it’s very lyrical. Do you know what I mean? And it’s easy to think about. Like the hills in Cork. You know, it goes up and it comes down. You’ll always get to the end of the sentence eventually, do you know what I mean. But you can’t really understand it. I can’t understand the thick Cork accent. I can’t understand your family half the time, but that’d probably be the thick Cork accent. Yeah, yeah. But closer to… Is that more kind of South or West Cork maybe?

Male: Oh, for you. 

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Male: Yeah, but don’t forget for the school you went to now is...

Well, that’s it, yeah. So the… I suppose secondary school kind of pushed a lot of the heavy accent out of me, if you know what I mean. Which is probably for the better. Lookin’ for jobs, you know. In northside. Yeah, Blackpool in Cork. Yeah, northside of Cork, very working class. 

Male: Northside of the city.

Northside of the cityside. Very working class. Or at least that’s traditionally what it was. It’s changing now. But that’s probably your area of expertise, is it?

Cork City Co Cork Male Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Cork City Co Cork Male Conversation

Conversation

From Cork City. I was born and reared in Cork City. I still live there. I’ve spent half my life in the northside of the city and the other half on the southside, where I live now. I have traveled a good bit, but I’ve never… but it’s only been for short periods, if you know what I mean. Six months was the longest I was away. I was in South Lebanon with the Army. But I’ve traveled all over Europe. I’m actually in the navy, so I travel all over Europe to different cities on a ship. But it’s only for about a week at a time. A week in each spot, and then home again. 

Four main Cork accents. You would have the northside of Cork City, southside of Cork City, you have East Cork, and you have West Cork. Okay? So definitely the strongest of the four, I think, would be the northside of Cork City. And then you would have West Cork as a strong accent. The southside of the city, there would be slightly more softer spoken. And the same with the east of the county. And you’ll find lots of similarities between East Cork, well Cork, Waterford, and the counties bordering Cork. They would all speak similarly if you know what I mean? Yeah. 

Cobh would be East Cork, but the thing about Cobh as well, is it’s a very strange place, you see. Because for seventy-odd years that the Navy’s been in existence, you’ve people from all over the Ireland comin’ to join the Navy, and in… if they marry and they live in Cobh, so you’re comin’, you’ll come across a lot of different accents that’s in Cobh. I’m not sayin’ there isn’t a Cork accent in Cobh, but it’s muted by other people comin’ in. Whereas if you went to Midleton, which is about twenty miles away, there would be less Navy people, so you wouldn’t see the range of accents that you would see in Cobh. Delighted there is genuinely a lot of… Like the thing about the Army is like that especially now, let’s say if you have a Dublin unit, it’d be all Dubliners. Alright?

If you’ve a Galway unit, it’ll be all West of Ireland people. Same in Cork, with the Navy, we take ‘em from all over, so we’ve every sort of accent down there. And it all sort of blends in after a while, you know, that sort of way. You do hear fellas with the strong and you… accents, and you know straight away where he’s from. But you do find a lot of fellas would lose, so you moderate. You know... Well, I would think the two that are off base are the ones where were always drinkin’ and were always fightin’. And it does happen, but not to the extent that, you know, I would say it’s a rare thing like in my opinion. Which ones are true? Good talkers. And I don’t know is it necessarily a good thing or a bad thing, but a lot of people see black and white. I think Irish people are good at seeing the different shades of gray in the middle and quite happy to settle for a shade of gray.

Cork City Co Cork Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Cork City Co Cork Female Conversation

Conversation

I’m from Cork City in Ireland. I grew up in Cork City. And went to school here. My parents still live in the house where we grew up in and which is like five minutes from city center. I have lived in Dublin and in Middle East and U.S.A. and New Zealand over the years. But in the last three years, I am back in Cork, and it’s really nice to be back around family and friends that I went to school with and grew up with and just know and love. My city of Cork is a city of a population of approximately two hundred fifty, three hundred thousand. It is considered the second city of Ireland, with Dublin being the capital. However, the locals, the local Cork people will always refer to Cork as the real capital, and will inform tourists of this very same fact. Cork people are very uniquely proud of their identity, and have a very marked difference in accent and in attitude. We think we’re friendlier and more welcoming. We have an accent that some people describe as lilting or sing song or... It does vary throughout the country. It differs strongly from West of Ireland and differs from Dublin and Northern Ireland accents, but quite pleasing to the ear, I think, anyway. 

Cork City is divided into to northside, southside. There are branches of the River Lee, so there’s a very strong identity of North and South of Cork. People on the northside have a very unique way of talking and culture versus people of the southside. And there is quite a friendly rivalry there, which has been in existence for many years. In fact, my parents, my mother was a Northsider and my father was a Southsider, so they married across the river, so to speak. My father’s ancestors came from West Cork. Mom’s came from also further West Cork, so we have a very long background in Cork or Cork City and county. I do believe there is some Spanish in my ancestry further back, but that’s a project investigating that, which is for another day. 

Cork people are in general very friendly. Cork City is a very nice city to visit. There’s lots to see and do for a tourist. The English Market in the city center is a hub of artisan bakeries, meats, fish stall, artisan foods. And it’s quite a bustling center in the city and has become more and more popular with tourists since the British Queen Elizabeth visited there a number of years ago and had quite a nice time there joking with one of the fishmongers. Which made the international headlines, the Queen joking with the fishmonger photograph went viral. And obviously increased the amount of tourists who… with the market in the city. So sometimes it’s almost impossible for local people to get in there to go shopping ‘cause there’s so many tourists there. But it’s nice, and everybody really enjoys the atmosphere. Cork is… has a number of cathedrals, religious institutes, lots of churches. We have a national university, of which I am a graduate in medicine. Which is a world-renowned university, which has an amazing campus, and very, very beautiful to visit and another landmark on the tourist trail. North of Cork, Cork County is the largest county in Ireland of the thirty-two counties. It is divided into North Cork, East Cork, West Cork, and of course, south of Cork City is the sea. Cork is on a port, and it’s one of the most safest natural harbors in the world, and it’s quite a busy port and has been for many, many centuries. West Cork is, of course, huge on the tourist trail, being a coast of dramatic, natural beauty. Beautiful coastlines, amazing mountains, valleys. Lots of foodie trails, including Kinsale, being a big gourmet festival center. Also, there is an awful… quite a lot of artisan people would migrate towards West Cork, and we have a lot of tourists are… who have come from Europe who’ve actually ended up makin’ their homes in West Cork. Very creative, arty writers, painters. It draws quite a number of creative people, West Cork.

In Cork City center, there is… the accent is described as maybe sing-song or lilting, and does vary markedly from the accent that you would find, for example, in Dublin or in Kerry or West of Ireland or North of Ireland. My own accent is kind of tempered by years of living abroad, but when I’m talkin’ to other Cork people, it does fall into sync. There are words used in Cork that would not be heard elsewhere. We have a lot of terms that, you know, people not from Cork wouldn’t really understand. Some of them are actual derivatives of Gaelic language, and some are unknown. 

One word, well, one word that is often heard in Cork is the word langer. Now langer is a word which has some rude connotations as well. It can mean, you know, calling somebody langer means they’re like an idiot. But it also is used in terms of if somebody was drunk. A Cork person might say, “He’s langers.” Also, it can be used in terms of amount. So for example, as a poster on one of the walls in Cork says, it’s got a picture of an octopus, and it says, “Definition of langer. An octopus has a langer-load of tentacles.” Meaning an octopus has a lot of tentacles. So this word has a multitude of uses and it may be heard around Cork. Dublin people wouldn’t really get it. 

And there are other individual words that are used in Cork that people in Dublin don’t get. Like for example, my… in my parents’ time, to be stood up. So if they were going on a date and the date never showed, it would mean they got a fifty. So getting a fifty means that you got stood up. So there’s a lot of interesting little words that have been passed down through the years of queery unknown origin. But they make the language and the culture of Cork quite rich. And it is quite pleasant. Although, it can be very confusing for tourists, hearing words that, you know, they don’t know what they mean really, but it’s quite fun when they find out or if they find out by accident or whatever. 

The Gaelic language does pervade a lot of English in Cork and in Ireland in general. So for example, a lot of words that are actually Gaelic would be used in common conversation in English. You know, for example like, uisce beatha is… means whiskey, and sometimes you’d hear people asking for that. Or you know, three sheets to the wind, you know, is another phrase that would be… would have derived from a Gaelic translation. It means that, you know, maybe you’ve had a little bit much too much to drink. Now I realize I’m talking about drink-related things, and it doesn’t mean that drink is a very common thing in Ireland even in spite of the stereotypes. I think people in Ireland enjoy a drink and enjoy the camaraderie and the pub scene and the music scene in Cork and in West Cork is quite something to behold and it’s one of the big draws for tourists, and for us as well. I mean, you know, there’s nothing like people coming into their local pub where everybody knows them and it’s quite a social occasion. Lots of music takes place in pubs. Lots of local artists would come along and bring a, you know, an instrument and just have a random music evening. So it is quite a nice social event, not just a drinking scenario. 

Theatre in Cork is quite active. I’m involved in a university players group where we put on some plays twice a year. There’s a very, very vibrant theatre scene and art scene in Cork. Lot of music, lot of theatre, lot of opera. Cork people are renowned for their love of music and particular of the opera. My parents would both have sang in the opera choruses in their youth and still enjoy seeing… going to see opera and listening to opera. It’s a very, very… Cork people have a very, very deep love of music, and art and culture. And also, in the last ten, twenty years, we’ve embraced a lot of cultures from overseas, and it brings a unique blend to Irish culture to have an amalgamation with, you know, with cultures from Europe, Asia, Africa, India, Middle East. So it’s become quite a melting pot of cultures, which is always lovely. And Cork is a fantastic place to visit, and I would encourage anybody to come and see it.

Sallybrook Co Cork Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Sallybrook Co Cork Female Conversation

Conversation

I’m originally from Cork. Cork is in the South of Ireland and that. I’m from the country, not the city, which is, would be ten miles of a difference. And in the ten miles of a difference, there’s a huge difference in accents. The Cork City accent would be the end of certain words. They raise the pitch, they raise the tone in it. Oh yeah, the country is just that bit different in that. So around there’s some beautiful spots actually to visit in Cork. You’ve got Kinsale, a beautiful area for seafood. Fishing town and that.

Male: You have a nice castle  

Oh yes, Blarney Castle is absolutely fantastic as well in Blarney. In Cork, that’s a huge tourist spot in that. You’ve other places like the Inniscarra Dam, which is if you’re into your geography and that, then there’s loads of historical places. So I’m living in Killarney now. So Killarney, different in accents are very different in Killarney. People from the country, they’ve a very pronounced accent. It’s very, very different, do you know. And there’s some beautiful areas here to visit. You have Torc Waterfall. You’ve Ladies View. Muckross Park and Gardens. You have the Domain, where you’ve all that wildlife and every whole thing. The Ring of Kerry, and it’s a huge tourist town. Huge, huge tourist town.

Carrigaline Co Cork Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Carrigaline Co Cork Female Conversation

Conversation

From Cork in Ireland. I’ve lived in Cork my whole life. I love Cork very much, but I would love to move to Australia. That’s where I’d love to be. I’m from Carrigaline in Cork, which is just outside of Cork City about twenty minutes. And I’ve been working in this show, Aunty Nellies Sweet Shop for just about a year now, but I’ve been working with Aunty Nellies for about three years. I was in the Carrigaline shop before here. Yeah, so that’s me. 

Though I am from Carrigaline, so this is my accent. This one here is from Togher, and that’s a much more thick Cork accent. Yeah, I suppose there would be… there’d be another very thick accent would be North Cork. Much, much thicker than mine. Much, much thicker than hers. Around Ireland then I suppose the best accents in all of Ireland is Dublin I’d say. Dublin would be the best accents. 

In Cork? The market, the English Market is a good place to go. Shandon Bells as well is another good place to go. Okay, so there is a pub just around the corner from here called Fred’s. It’s a rock pub. That would be my favorite pub. There is also a place called Crane Lane, not far from here. That’s also a really good pub. Sometimes they do a tango and things like that on the… during the week, which is a lot of fun. Nightclub then I suppose, there’s a nightclub called the Voodoo Rooms. That’s a brilliant nightclub. That’s three floors in there, so it’s a lot of different things going on there a lot. So yeah.

Carrs Hill Co Cork Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Carrs Hill Co Cork Female Conversation

Conversation

So I’m from Cork. I worked here for a year in Miss Daisy Blue in Cork before I moved to Brussels, and I came back and now I’m working here full-time. The shop is a vintage shop with articles of clothing from all around the world, specifically from the United States. We have men’s wear and women’s wear dating from the nineteen thirties to the nineteen eighties. The shop has been open for ten years and the main message of the shop is that it’s sustainable and slow fashion and it’s better than shopping in High Street because it’s more environmentally friendly, and it’s better to recycle clothes rather than buy new ones all the time. 

I’m from Cork originally. I went to university here. So the accents in Kerry are much stronger because they’re rural accents, so… and they don’t pronounce their t’s very well. So they’ll say, “This, that, these, and those,” rather than, “This, that, these, and those.” And then in Limerick. Limerick and Kerry are quite similar, but Limerick has more of a Leinster twang than Kerry does. So the city is really nice. My favorite part of Cork is down west, especially places like Kinsale and stuff, but you need to drive there. It’s not in walking distance. And there’s some nice art galleries around, like the Crawford and… which is beside the opera house. There’s also some really nice churches and cathedrals that are scattered around the city.

Clonakilty Co Cork Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Clonakilty Co Cork Female Conversation

Conversation

I’m here in Cork. I’m not from the city. I’m from Clonakilty, which is about thirty miles away. There’s lots of different accents. Even in Cork County, there’s about five or six different accents, but I could tell exactly where a person is from if I heard them speaking. What am I doing today? I’m just up here shopping today waiting for my car to be serviced, so collecting that shortly. And well, hope y’all have a good time. 

Oh, in this area? Have you been down to Cobh? It’s like you can get a bus and down there. It’s where the boat that went down in the iceberg. Lusitania? Was last, remember, it sailed from there? And there’s a big center down there for that. So it’s good to see in where all the immigrants went years ago from Ireland to America. So that’s a good spot to see there. And you’ll probably hear lots of different dialects there, too. Or even West Cork is even better. But anyway, I’m biased ‘cause I’m from there. 

Well, here in the city you get a few different accents. You know the English Market? Have you been in there? And listen to the people in the shops there, they would have a kind of a city accent, you know, a very Cork City accent. So here in the city, that’s about all really, because everybody else is city here. You get people coming in from the country like me as well. Slightly different accents I suppose, but that would be the best place, I think, the English Market. If you’ve done it, you’ve done it.

Gurranabraher Co Cork Male Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Gurranabraher Co Cork Male Conversation

Conversation

I’m from Gurranabraher. I, oh, recently. But I’m… that’s about fifty years ago. I’m in Mayfield now. Pubs and all that, is it?

Female: Well, there’s one there across the road.

I know. That’s a very popular one. ___. I don’t really. We don’t drink in town, do you know what I mean? We go to maybe Cotton Ball now and all them places. Cotton Ball, well, I might just come in town, oh, ten o’clock.

Female: Ten o’clock this morning and had your breakfast and you didn’t know if there was… 

Got up and walk in town and have a bit of lunch here. Walk around. Just waste away the day this. But I’m caught now. That woman was born and reared in Clare.

Female: I’m from Clare.

So that’s the different. They got a flatter like. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some people, they have trouble understanding the Cork people now, alright. So some people talk very fast as well in the Cork, you know what I mean? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But otherwise, everyone was sayin’ I’ve no difference. Even if the two of us were together nowaday, you could say anything, do you know what I mean? You can…

Female: Yeah, yeah.

People wouldn’t know whether you’re from Clare or Cork.

Female: Ah, they would, they would, they would. 

Well, they would?  

Female: Oh god, yeah, they would, yeah. They would.

I’ve spent fifty years down here. The flat accent, is it? Where would… what would they say? Stay. One of the oldest places, the oldest... I was born and reared in Gurranabraher. That’s it, yeah, there. All the houses up there, all the people are all born and reared up there, do you know what I mean? So they’re all kinda flat alright, do you know what I mean?

Female: I’m just...

Ha, no, I know. For the Cork accent.

Female: Yeah. Ah, yeah, I’m talk… With the Galway accent, would it be thicker than Cork?

I don’t think so, unless you got a really flat kinda Cork person nowadays. Some people have a trouble understandin’ ‘em, do you know what I mean? So I drive on anyway, that’s how it goes. 

Dunmanway Co Cork Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Dunmanway Co Cork Female Conversation

Conversation

I’m from West Cork originally. A town called Dunmanway. It’s about forty miles from the city, but I left when I was about sixteen. So I lived in Cork City while I was training to be a nurse, and I lived in New York for about six, seven years. And came back to Ireland, and I’ve been in Cork since. So that’s it really. 

Oh, in Cork City, you would… they would have a different accent up in the northside of the city. It’s kind of but it’s a little bit rough. And they just kind of… It can vary, but they would have a stronger Cork City accent than maybe other parts of it, do you know what I mean? Kinda towards the west. Bishopstown now would be more neutral, and then kind of you kind of go… It’s called the northside of the city. You’d go there. Now they’d be stronger accent, you know. And then if you went down to West Cork, which is the countryside, they’d have different accents again down there. 

You could go up to the Cork City Jail. You could go up that way. I’m tryin’ to think of. Kind of around Fitzgerald’s Park kind of, you know. And I’m kinda not sure where else to go. They’d be the kind of the main two I’d say. There’s a good one near here called Scoozis. It’s just kind of down a side street near here. And that’s very good. It’s actually quite near down that way. That’s always good.

Togher Co Cork Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Togher Co Cork Female Conversation

Conversation

Hi, I’m Rebecca. I’ve lived in Cork City my whole life. I’m from Togher. That’s where I grew up. I’ve got a job in Aunty Nellies last Christmas that I’m still part of and have a favorite boss in the world. Yeah, it’s a lovely area. We’ve a few tourists now at the moment with the summer comin’ in, so there’s loads of tourists around. So loads of different accents, and great. The best place to visit is the market, ‘cause it is very traditional. If you ever hear of a program called The Young Offenders. It’s a film that they go around and they shoot parts of old Cork, but mainly the market’s where they focus. So there’s an awful lot of cameras in there, so it’s the best place to visit. I wouldn’t… 

The Long Valley would be the one. They do gorgeous sandwiches, and they’ve been here a long time. But for me personally, the restaurants I go to is a place called the Wilton. Which is if you’ve ever been into the Wilton Shopping Center, it’s just by the hospital. That’s a lovely place for food as well. But the Long Valley is my favorite. I’m going shopping. Going to see my mom for the weekend, ‘cause I’m off. Just busy doing orders. Yeah. We have a thousand cones to do, so we’re trying to…

Female: What’s in the cones?

So in the cones is a mix of jellies, and it’s for a new hotel that’s opening up in Dublin.

Kinsale Co Cork Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Kinsale Co Cork Female Conversation

Conversation

I’m from West Cork, and I live in Cork City now. So I hope you like the city. Is it your first time… So welcome to Cork. I hope you like it. And I’ll just explain the map to you. So now we’re here. Here is the cathedral and the fort. And this is the market. And this is the public park. Yeah, so this is the historic area of the city, so you have lots of old churches and buildings to visit. And also this side of the city, the northside, is also historic. The Shandon area. And you have the city center, which is on an island, so if you think of the two channels of the river, this is the River Lee. So this is an island. 

Definitely the northside. It’s kind of mixed because people are from different parts and everyone moved to the city center, so it’s a bit mixed. Yeah. 

Yeah, so I work here in the tourist office, and I get to meet people from all over the world every day, so it’s really cool to work here. And I love meeting new people, and yeah, everyone’s really happy to be on their holidays and yeah. 

Yeah, so there’s different dialects in each city, so the city center tends to be they speak a little bit clearer and in the countryside is more broad. So kind of more country accents come across they’re harder to understand, but the city ones are more easier to understand.

Mallow Co Cork Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Mallow Co Cork Female Conversation

Conversation

I am from Mallow in County Cork, which is about, oh, forty miles away from here. And lovely places to visit in Cork. You have Kinsale. You have Clonakilty, Blarney. Loads of places. 

Female: Clonakilty you should visit.  Because it’s really, really nice. Music. Pubs. Everything.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I lived in England, and they asked me was I from Wales because my accent was… Well, I suppose it’s changed now as I’ve got older. Yeah, they’ve… Kerry, well, some of it is probably like mine.

Female: Very droll.

Do you know what droll is? Kind of… What is it? quaint. Old-fashioned, I suppose, yeah. Yeah.

Male: The broadest accents.

I’d say southwest Cork I’d say, is it? Bordering on Kerry, is it? Southwest Cork I’d…

Female: I’d say go to West Cork.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Female: West Cork, Skibbereen, Clonakilty, that kind of...

Yeah, yeah, they would have a…

Female: Yeah, very broad.

Very broad around Kerry is the accent as well, you know.

Female: Yes. Very broad.

Yeah. Our day? We’re just out for the day relaxing. We’ve just brought Brida and her sister and we just had something to eat. And it’ll be a nice day. Killarney’s always nice.

S Cork City Co Cork Male Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

S Cork City Co Cork Male Conversation

Conversation

I’m from Cork, just outside the city originally, so the southside. Yeah, my… half my family is from the southside and half my family is from the north. The north is probably where you get the like stereotypical Cork accent where it’s like slightly higher pitched. There’s a lot of like likes and byes and like casual slang thrown in. And then the southside would probably be more like myself. Really good places to find accents would probably be the English Market, which is right in the heart of town, Cork City. It’s like great for like artisanal food and stuff but also the sellers are from the country. A lot of them are like farmers and organic growers or… I don’t know how you describe ‘em, but they… So they’d have a lot of different people from all across the city. If you wanted to get a really nice flavor of the accent, I would go there first because, yeah, that’s kind of like a hub. And then you have the Fitzgerald’s Park which is just by UCC. The university is a really nice place, and you’ll find people kind of just strolling around there, talking like that. 

So the other accents around the country. Ireland’s like really unique in that regard, because it’s like you can go ten minutes down the road and get a completely different accent. Like I think Kerry is kind of the… I see the face. Yeah, Kerry’s kind of like the iconic Irish accent. And I find it hilarious, because I’m able to understand it and understand how ridiculous it is. But a lot of people from… who aren’t from around the country, won’t be able to pick it up. Like there’s a really famous interview with, have you heard of the O’Donovan Brothers? Yeah, an interview with them where they’re on like some talk show, and no one is able to understand what they’re talking about. I’m able to understand it, and they’re like… they’re actually really funny and the accent helps. But no one is able to understand what they’re saying, and it’s just kind of hilarious. And then Dublin then is similar to Cork in that there’s two very distinct accents between north and south. Yeah, I think it’s the same in there where north would be sort of more casual slang and then south would be slightly more like mine. 

I might not be the best representative of the Cork accent, because I’ve heard I don’t have a thick Cork accent or a thick Irish accent, but yeah, I think there are a lot of diverse ones. Like Cavan is another really interesting one. There somewhere in the Midlands. Yeah, Wexford and Limerick as well. Limerick is kind of like an extension of the Northern Cork accent slightly. In my experience anyway. In my experience from people with Limerick anyway. It kind of goes in that same general direction anyway. 

So my day. So I study in college, but I’m on my summer break. And so I’ve gotten into a really bad habit of waking up really late, so I think I woke up at around twelve, one o’clock today, and then I’d work here at the sushi bar at five, so I was kind of just hanging around all day, reading some comic books, texting some friends. That kind of thing. Nothing too intense. But at the moment I’m planning a camping trip with some of my friends. We’re going by the sea to Garrettstown, which is past Kinsale. It’s a really nice place where I spent a lot of my summers when I was a kid. Yeah, we need to… What we’re trying to figure out now is a place where we can camp and we’re not gonna get blown away or flooded by the sea. We went to a really nice place down past Youghal and Ardmore last year and on a really nice cliff, but we had really bad heat waves the last year. Which is really funny because it, like it was kind of just weather that was par for the course in a lot of other European countries, but we were totally unequipped to deal with it. So all of like farm crops and like greens kind of dried up and died. Like I know that there was like a field by my house and it went completely yellow last year and we weren’t prepared for it at all. And as a result, where we went camping last year, it was just completely dead and kinda burnt over.

Millstreet Co Cork Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Millstreet Co Cork Female Conversation

Conversation

I come from Millstreet in County Cork. My name is Brida. I’m out with my friend, Hera, for the day. Places to visit in Cork, definitely Clonakilty, Skibbereen, Blarney, all those. But Clonakilty would be my favorite. Lots of pubs and culture. But yeah, you’ll meet lots of accents there. And yeah, in Skibbereen, Clonakilty, they will have loads of different because of all the variety of people around the place. You know, some people around living there are from Kerry, actually from Kerry living in… and from Bantry and along those places. You’ll definitely find a big lot there. No, nobody using it anymore. Alright. It was when we were going to school because we did everything through Irish. I was working for a while, I was using it as a tour guide, and then there’s nobody using it anymore so we don’t. Very little now. Sometimes I try to read up a bit of it, but it takes a bit to get to understand it again.

Glanmire Co Cork Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Glanmire Co Cork Female Conversation

Conversation

I’m from Cork. Born in the city, just outside. I’m working here for four years now almost. It’s Wicked Vapes. It’s a vape shop. We were the second to come into the city. We’re four years old now. I’m a very proud Cork woman. You’re currently on Oliver Plunkett Street, which is one of the oldest shopping streets in the city. You can see by the architecture that it’s quite old in parts. Other than that, really, the weather is terrible. Can’t think of anything else. 

Down this direction, there is the G.P.O., the General Post Office. And just, there’s a little side street down from that, and on that side street there’s a pub called Canty’s. It’s one of the oldest pubs in the city, and it’s where Cork people go. It’s really a good pub to check out. There are great bar staff in there, and they’ve great personalities. Other than that, I suppose if you’re in Cork you have to go and see Shandon Bells. If you get an opportunity, go to Cobh, Fota Wildlife Park. There would be my picks. 

It’s hard to sort of differentiate. I’ll always pick out someone who’s from Kerry. And I’ll pick out someone who’s from Limerick. A visitor to the city wouldn’t, and within Cork, the northside of the city would have a much stronger accent than the people on the south of the city. We’d sway it’s the posh part and the poor part. Kerry would be very much rural, so they speak incredibly fast. And they sometimes have a language all of their own. You really have to listen to Kerry people. And Limerick people, then it’s completely different. But again, you’d have to listen very closely to get used to it. It’s the cadence, it’s really fast. Irish people don’t sort of say go left or go right, they’d say go north or go west or go south or go east. But they say it in, “Go east. Go west.” So again, it’s all about you really need to listen, but incredibly fast. So that would be my take on it.

Douglas Co Cork Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Douglas Co Cork Female Conversation

Conversation

Yeah, from Cork in Ireland. Douglas. I’ve just been on holidays in different places in America. I’ve been to Spain. I’ve traveled a few different places in Ireland like Galway, Limerick, Killarney. Lots of places. 

I think all Cork, I don’t know, I suppose the northside of Cork can be a bit strong, and then I think my Cork accent isn’t strong. I don’t know, maybe it is. There’s country kind of Irish accents, that would be very, very like different to the way I’m speaking now. But I don’t know, I think they’re all kind of the same, to be honest. Yeah. So Blarney Castle is lovely. That’s, well, in Blarney but it’s in Cork. Where else?

So it’s an Austrian company. Swarovski Cork. The swan is the symbol for Swarovski. Symbolizes beauty, purity, elegance, things like that. So all our jewelry is like crystal based, so it’s Swarovski crystal, and it’s like it’s made of rhodium, so it’s the most precious metal. It’s more precious than silver and gold. It won’t tarnish, won’t go off color or anything like that and it never loses sparkle as well.

South Cork City Co Cork Male Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

South Cork City Co Cork Male Conversation

Conversation

I’m from Cork City in Ireland. No, I’ve always lived there. They differ a fair bit, but the Cork accent, this is the best, I suppose. The Pub Waiter. My day has been pretty good, besides a sort of wreck in my head. Weekend, I’d say it. No, a bit of football later. ___.

Cork City Co Cork Male Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Cork City Co Cork Male Conversation

Conversation

Well, I’m from the city, of course. Of Cork City, yeah. The shop is here since eighteen twenty-eight. Been the same business since eighteen twenty-eight. Fishing, shooting, sports goods. There’s no more. That’s it. 

Oh sure, it’s full of good spots. Blarney would be the best known of all, of course. And all the seaside places. We’re within ten miles of all the seaside places. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, County Kerry, of course, would have much better scenery. Much more natural scenery. Cork County would be a lot more built up than it is in Kerry, and therefore, you know, you’d have a much better chance for the natural scenery in Kerry with mountains and lakes and rivers and that than you have here. 

Today? Well, today has been quite normal day in business. I mean, we’re quite busy with fishing tackle because this is the start of the fishing season. And people are doing a lot of sea fishing, river fishing. In the sea fishing they’re mainly after mackerel and pollock and fish like that. It keeps ‘em going.

North Cork City Co Cork Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

North Cork City Co Cork Female Conversation

Conversation

They sound like they were from Ireland, but actually they were speaking another language. So their accent. Your accent gets handed down to the generations. You know, you don’t learn, we don’t consciously learn your accent, so it’s just instinct with the migration into Ireland. Oh, Okay. So the Normans and the Vikings, for example, coming from other countries. The Dublin accent is so distinct compared to the Cork accent. I just think it’s fascinating area. 

Well, I’m from Cork. I was born and bred in Cork. In the suburbs. And then as an adult, once I married, I moved out to the country, in Blarney. So they’re slightly different accent out there, but I have a fairly typical strong Cork accent. Okay, so ___ Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral. The English Market. Shandon. The Bells of Shandon. Blarney Castle. The jail, the women’s jail. 

So we’re here nineteen years. We opened nineteen years ago. My husband and myself, who has passed away since. So I’m keeping it going. We sell bean to bar, we specialize in bean to bar chocolate from around the world, so we’re the only shop of our kind in Ireland. Or actually even in England you’d be hard pressed to find this range. And that’s it. Our busiest time is Christmas.

Cobh Co Cork Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Cobh Co Cork Female Conversation

Conversation

Female: I’m from Cork in Ireland. No, I haven’t. I’ve holidayed in America and Mexico and stuff, but I’ve always been in Ireland. So. Yeah, it’s the longest running ECCO store we have. ECCO is from Denmark and this has been around for about twenty years. And yeah, it’s great to work for, and I love it. 

The English Market is great. Patrick Street. Saint Patrick Street is the main hub of Cork City. And I suppose everything else would be kind of the suburbs, so it would be outside the city maybe ten, fifteen, twenty minutes. Yeah, I would think I have quite a strong accent, but then when I hear maybe Dublin and Kerry, I would think I’ve a very light accent compared to them. So I think Cork has a better accent. 

Probably the countryside. So like Bandon, Clonakilty. Like West Cork, a lot of West Cork would have really thick, heavy. You mightn’t be able to understand them a lot of the words. Yeah, so I’m doing nothing for the weekend. Just we had a party last weekend, but other than that I think this is going to be a very quiet one. Maybe go to the pub and socialize, but that’s about it.

Fort Hill Co Cork Female Reading

Reading

The Rainbow Passage

When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Fort Hill Co Cork Female Conversation

Conversation

I’m from Fort Hill. Born and reared in Cork. I live in the northside of the city. Married with three kids. Oh yeah, married with three kids. Work in the English Market. Love workin’ here. And all Cork people say like or bye at the end of everything. And I have an awful saying of, “How many of ‘em do you want?” Not and to ___ and to ___. That’s what we say kind of is a thick Northside accent. “I will yeah,” means, “I will yeah,” in Cork means, “No, I won’t.” You know like, “Are you going out tonight?” And stuff like that. Or, “I am, yeah,” means no. But that’s really all I know about. 

Shandon. Blarney Castle. Cobh is beautiful. Where else would be nice to visit in Cork a little? The English Market. Well, they’re in English Market. Fitzgerald’s Park is beautiful. Fitzgerald’s Park is beautiful, and Bishop Lucey Park across the way. Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral. They’re lovely spots. There’s lots of places to visit in Cork. Thanks love.