Old Irish Reading Group
County Kildare, Ireland
Convenor Dr Katrina Burge, School of Languages, kburge@unimelb.edu.au
The Old Irish Reading Group is an informal group open to interested students, academics and independent scholars. The group meets weekly, currently for an hour and a half at 10.30am on Wednesdays, to learn Old Irish and read short texts in the language.
Contact Katrina for details of the venue.
The learning component is based on Quin’s Old Irish Workbook, of which we can arrange copies for newcomers. The reading component ranges across short poems, legal texts and sagas. The current text is Scela Mucce Maic Datho – the Story of Mac Datho’s pig, which will be read from an edition with notes and vocabulary. The group is also embarking on a period of grammar revision. We choose texts by agreement, and try to give priority to texts which will be of value to individual members in their research.
The emphasis is on helping each other learn in a friendly and supportive environment. Previous knowledge of Old Irish is unnecessary; enthusiasm and a sense of humour are helpful.