YESTERDAY THE EUROPEAN Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso wrapped his gob around a few words of Irish during a press conference in Dublin.
Standing alongside gaelgeoir Enda Kenny he made an impressive stab at:
Tá sé ar fheabhas a bheith ar ais in Eireann
It came out as…
Tá sé ar fheabhas cun bheith in Éireann
… which is a pretty decent attempt.
We’re thinking Barroso must have got wind that The Queen and Obama are old hats at the cupla focail, and he was damned if they were going to show him up!
Queen Elizabeth
The Queen must have felt like she could have discarded the rest of her speech completely during her visit to Dublin, such was the round of applause she got for her five opening words as Gaeilge.
YouTube/RTÉ
Barack Obama
When in Ireland in 2011 US President Barack Obama decided to adapt his Yes We Can motto to suit his audience, chanting ‘Is Féidir Linn’ to rapturous applause on College Green.
YouTube/Bernie Goldbach
Chris Hadfield
ISS Commander Chris Hadfield created a stir when he sent a tweet as Gaeilge from space last week.
He got such a great response that he even tweeted a ‘go raibh maith agat’ tweet later. Sure he’s practically one of us.
