Irish and the Queen Elizabeths

May 24, 2011 10:59

This article was written in response to Queen Elizabeth II's visit to Ireland in May this year. It's about the first Elizabeth, a polyglot who decided to learn some Irish as an adult.

"Whatever her motivations for expressing a desire to obtain a basic grasp of the language [in the 1560s], Elizabeth would have had no shortage of help, as she was often surrounded by Irish-speaking courtiers, such as her distant cousin, the infamous ‘Black Tom’ Butler, Earl of Ormond. Instead, she appears to have turned for help to a teenage noble named Christopher Nugent, soon to be Baron of Delvin in Co Westmeath, but then a student at the University of Cambridge."

"By an extraordinary coincidence, Nugent’s primer is now housed in the Benjamin Iveagh Library at Farmleigh House, where Elizabeth II will be staying during her Irish visit."

Full article: http://www.irishexaminer.com/features/queen-spoke-language-of-irish-warlords-154773.html

Is awesome.

international, language(s), celtic, something irish, politics

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