The first thing you’ll need to learn before signing up for Cumann Gaelach Tír Chikasha’s 10-week course in Gaelic is what the heck all those strange-looking words mean.
“Cumann is club, and Gaelach means Gaelic. Tír is land or country, and Chikasha is Chickasaw,” says Chris King, chairman of Cumann Gaelach Tír Chikasha (or Irish Club of the Chickasaw Region).
The club, which promotes the Irish language through classes, entertainment, and social events, will begin its weekly classes on Saturday, September 14th, in Germantown. The course ends on November 16th.
By then, King says, you will have learned to carry on a basic level of conversation in Gaelic.
“You’ll learn things like telling time, counting, giving commands, some idiomatic things that the language does, and how words change in the presence of one another,” King says.
It’s the first time Cumann Gaelach Tír Chikasha has offered a full course in Gaelic, although they have offered informal classes from time to time. King says the club plans to hold two more multi-week courses in more advanced Gaelic once students graduate from this session. They also plan to hold some Irish movie nights for students enrolled in the course.
A little more than 100,000 people in the Memphis metro area claim Irish roots, and another 22,000 or so say they’re of Scots-Irish lineage, according to Cumann Gaelach Tír Chikasha.
Cumann Gaelach Tír Chikasha’s Gaelic Course, September 14th-November 16th. $150. Call 230-1336 or
Email MidSouthIrish@gmail.com for location information and registration.
