Monolingual Irish Speaker 

Thank you to everyone who has visited this video. I have no idea why it went viral, and I'm sure most of you are here by random chance so allow me to put it into perspective for those of you who are unfamiliar with Ireland and its history. The Irish language (Gaeilge) is the native language of Ireland, and up until the early 1800's was the majority spoken language of the island. As time passed - English was slowly adopted as the working language of the country. What John Henry represents is the last of a dying breed. Back in the day, it wasn't uncommon to come across a person who spoke only Irish. But as time passed, such a person became less and less common. Under British rule, Irish was prohibited in schools. The Irish famine which saw a million people die and a further million emigrate hit the Irish speaking regions of the country very hard. Irish migrants during this time saw the English language as a means for gaining work abroad in America and England, so they taught it to their children. All this combined had a large impact to the number of Irish speakers and Irish speaking communities. Within a generation, Irish was relegated to some sparsely populated communities from the south to the north-western coast where it still to this day operates as a community language. I hope this puts this video into more context and explains why John Henry's life and death was a poignant moment in Irish history. I suppose it reflects a story that has been shared many times over around the world, where an indigenous language has been replaced by the language of its coloniser. It is not unique to Ireland. A few points to note: * Every child in the Republic learns the Irish language in school, but due to poor teaching methods (too little emphasis on conversation) - competency is poor. * There are schools (gaelscoileanna) where subjects are taught through the Irish language, which results in higher competency of the language. These schools however only makeup a small percentage of the total number of schools. They exist in both the north and the south and are in high demand. * There are communities (An Ghaeltacht) - where the Irish language is still the main language of the community. Thank you all for watching.

"His only audience is the tape recorder, a sure sign that the tradition is nearing it's end" my heart is breaking

Seán Ó hEinirí who lived in Cill Ghallagáin (1915-98). He's thought to be the last one who never learned English. But his knowledge of the local tradition was unmatched.

Wales is pushing for the Welsh language to be part of the curriculum which I think is outstanding. I think it would be fabulous if Ireland and Scotland made their languages mandatory. No country should ever lose its mother tongue. And the Gaelic languages are so lovely!

when its more impressive to only speak one language than two edit: guys this was not meant to start a shouting match

I grew up in a Welsh speaking family and spoke only Welsh until I was about 5. My education continued in Welsh until I was 11 and then bilingual education until I was 16. It was a lovely time, all the family gatherings were in the Welsh language with barely a word of English heard. I really miss those days.

Watching this made me cry actually. Imagine what he must have felt, having younger people come to him to record his stories in his language so they would live on. Coming to him over and over for more stories. I hope it gave him hope and fulfillment.

My great grandmother Grace Gallagher from Co. Cork spoke no English till arriving in New York in the mid 1850's. Working as a domestic servant in a fine house there, and meeting Patrick and married in 1866.She learned a bit of English , but spoke only Irish to her husband. We have a photo of her taken in 1916 in a place of honor in our home.

An Irishman who speaks only Irish. Holy shit.

I’m not even irish but the Irish culture needs to be preserved, it sounds beautiful

"A sure sign the tradition is nearing its end." That killed me. Its the same here in Hawaii. 'Olelo Hawai'i was banned in schools. My grandma told me stories of how they beat kids if they spoke Hawaiian. Now its hardly here.

Real Irishman. Refused to speak English his whole life to preserve the Irish language. That is amazing and it makes me happy that people fight to preserve their culture.

This sounds so different from the Gaelic spoken by L2 learners, even Irish ones. The accent doesn't immediately strike me as "Irish", and the total lack of English loanwords is refreshing.

I see the same type of idea with us Native Americans here in the states. Our elders' first language usually wasn't English, and these stories are passed down through oral tradition as well. It really touches my heart to see elders across the globe speaking their language and sharing stories passed down

Besides the special relationship the Irish and my tribe the Choctaw share. I’ve always said the Irish are such an example of how to resist colonization and maintain their identity throughout such long colonization as they’ve endured.

I now why this vid went viral: It's completely real, authentic, unpretentious as well as being moving and reminding us all of how much we must never forget our past. Thanks for showing us.

Just as fascinating as the Ancient/Byzantine Greeks that still live in southern Italy, and speak a more ancient version of the language.

In the Isle of Man lives Robert McCondrill. He speaks English, but he is also the last man to speak Manx. He is determined to not let it die out, although when interviewed recently, he said for all the good it was doing he might as well be talking to himself.

The fading of these traditions is an incomparable tragedy. As these storytellers leave us, the recordings kept by archives and scholars will become more and more important. Never forget that the violence of colonialism doesn't just kill people, but entire ways of life. Whole cultures wiped off the face of the Earth.

Brings a tear to me eye hearing our native language spoken like that. I wish I had kept on my conversational skills after my grandparents died. 😢

This language, spoken like this, makes sense of the Irish accent. It sounds so good. Like its speaking to my cellular memory.

There is a big difference in sound from someone who lives in a genuine Irish speaking area (Gaeltacht), and someone who grew up in a city and learned it through an Irish medium school. He has a more authentic sound - as would many others living in the area.

This is exactly the kind of video that RU-vid was designed for.

Storytellers leaving without being able to pass their stories to a living Teller breaks my heart. And Irish is such a beautiful language, but it deserves deliveries like John's.

This is a real Irish speaker. I can speak Irish but I learned in Dublin. Dublin/Leinster Irish is textbook Irish. There's no dialect in Leinster. That guy is as OG at it gets... Deadly to hear it, sounds beautiful.

It is a tragedy to see unique languages disappear in absolute indifference.

I can see the way my Grandfather used to tell stories in the way this man does. It would take him ages to describe just a small part of the story, but he was so descriptive and eloquent, you would never get bored of listening.

His storytelling is so melodic it’s almost hypnotic. Truly a beautiful language

being a Scottish Gaelic speaker I had a stroke trying to understand this

How impressive. Thank God they recorded that “just in time” before it would become lost forever!

I'm very grateful to you that you have put this on RU-vid, otherwise this storyteller would have gone largely unnoticed. Professor O Cathain published a bilingual book and tape of a collection of some of the shorter stories told by John O Henry called Stories of Sea and Shore, which is now available on-line. The story he is telling here is a much longer one, obviously in the great tradition of hero stories. It's called 'Martin of the Bright Salmon', which is now in the Archive of the Irish Folklore Commission, though unfortunately it's not readily available to the public. The other important story he told was Loinnir Mhac Leabhar na Leann. Of course, John O Henry wasn't the only storyteller in this part of Ireland, but sadly he was the last of his kind. Go raibh maith agat, a chara.

There’s a sing-song quality to the intonation that reminds me of Swedish.

Me: "I'll need subtitles for this" Subtitles: "Love shuffle choke before the comeback we different snow I can see particle ball in the ground get all shaky TV"

Weird how natural and pleasant Irish really sounds. I don’t like the sound of modern Irish at all, but that gentleman had a lovely accent and made the language sound majestic.

I had a friend whose grandad was from Nova Scotia. His family from Ireland. He was born around 1900. Not sure when he came to the U.S., but he could speak Gaelic. He died in the mid 90s. I wish we had recorded him. He was a great character.

Everyone: LEARN ENGLISH Him: NE!

He reminds me so much of my grandfather -- he was also a storyteller. In U.S. language revitalization, I've heard it said that a language does not die -- it goes to sleep. It can be woken back up. I think we're seeing that now with Gaelige and I hope it continues!

He speaks irish without an english/irish accent. Sounds like the real stuff

When a language dies so does the troves of knowledge and wisdom that is carried with it.

Big thanks to Dr. Seamus Ó Cathain for preserving Seán Ó hEinirí's stories to the best of his ability.

My cousin in the US just posted this......my family come from this village, and I spent many summers in the pub with those men....it is still an AMA point place, beautiful and wild, and the Irish language continues to flourish. My grandmother took in teachers and priests to teach them colloquial Irish.....while she was knitting Aaron sweaters....I am so lucky to have these memories.

The sounds nothing like the Irish spoken by bilinguals today. He's kept the real Irish pronunciation instead of the English accent which has ruined the Irish spoken today

Gotta love the algorithm sometimes for reccomending things like this. Glad to see such a piece of cultural history being preserved like this

I remember how excited I was when I learned Ireland had it's own unique language. It just keeps getting better the more I look into it. I'm an American of Irish heritage, and it's a wonderful thing learning where my family originated. Thank you for sharing this!

Irish is a very beautiful and surely an underrated language. I am learning it right now, táim ag foghlaim Gaeilge faoi láthair. Beannachtaí ón Rúis, a chairde! 🇷🇺❤️🇮🇪

From a Scots Gàidhlig speaker who's had many a conversation with some Irish family, this is almost impossible for me. His accent is probably the thickest I've ever heard!

Man, imagine being the last of the people who speaks a language that few understand. It would be lonely.

The Irish are very good talkers and poets. I can only imagine what magic is in their language. Same for all Gaelic tongues.

I'm Lithuanian and this video makes me proud we preserved our language after so many ordeals, my son speaks it too, even though we live not in Lithuania.

Amazing how there were many Celtic peoples at some point, France even Spain had a lot of Celtic and Celtiberian cultures, in the end only the ones in the British Isles remained and even now their languages are disappearing, quite sad.

The narrator makes this sounds like not the 9 o'clock news

The old man reminds me of my own grandfather who was born in the west of Galway in 1904. He passed away in 2006 at the age of 102. Never spoke a word of English.

I love the cadence in his storytelling. It just sounds like he's telling you something you need to know.

Absolutely precious. Maith thú Seán and thank you so much.

I'm French and live in Paris. I'm tired of this city. I want to tell stories and live by the shore

What a treasure of a man. We need people like him to keep the culture alive. Thanks for posting :)

Not gonna lie, this video showed up on my recommends and I read the title hilariously incorrectly; MONGOLIAN Irish speaker. It still intrigued me nonetheless, so I gave it a watch. Like someone else already said, the quote "His only audience is the tape recorder, a sure sign that the tradition is nearing it's end" really hit like a brick.

"his only audience is the tape recorder a sure sign the tradition is reaching its end" ain't that the truth. The Celts never wrote down their history or myths, not because they were illiterate but because they believed by writing it they would become lazy and their memory weak I think they had a point

This is every English speaking Irishman on a Friday night after a couple of pints.

In college 10 years ago I (a US citizen) met an exchange student my age from Ireland. I lamented to him that in high school I had to take Spanish classes when I wanted to “learn something cool” like Gaelic. He lamented to me that in high school he had to take Gaelic classes but wished they had “offered something more useful” like Spanish. I still think that was such a funny and real exchange. Grass ain’t always greener, and everyone around the world is all the same.

I am grateful for the opportunity to hear this ancient language. Twelve years after posting, it is still reaching new people and keeping his memory alive.

This man, this video and those audio recordings are absolute treasures.

We met a monolingual Gaelic speaker once in the Aran Islands, a lovely old lady. One of the best presents life has given me ❤️

It sounds like a mix of Russian and Arabic. This is why diversity and different cultures/traditions are beautiful and need to get protected. I'd hate to live in a world where we all mix together and sacrifice our traditional values in favour of suppressing everything that is considered not in line with the world...

"I hear you're a racist now, Father!"

My grandmother was Irish, though lived in England most of her life. As far as I know she didn't speak Gaelic. I was born in Ireland but left when I was two years old, and grew up in England. Even with these tenuous connections, and some very dear Irish friends, this video touched me deeply.

the language almost sounds like the shoreline with the rising and falling

There were some southern preachers who spoke English, but they had the same sing songy lilt to their voices. I never knew where that came from until now.

My youtube recommendations are like walking on the beach and seeing what the sea has left on the shore.

Reporter: "They resemble Homer in their style of speech." Irishman: "you'd get frostbutt"

I'm not an Irish, never been to Ireland. Hell, never met any Irish person in person. My only connection to Ireland was through the writings of James Joyce and JM Synge and Oscar Wilde. But that was enough. Enough for me to fall in love with this beautiful people and culture. God bless Ireland🇮🇪...

You can read more about Seán Ó hEinirí (John Henry) here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Se%C3%A1n_%C3%93_hEinir%C3%AD

I've seen this video so many times. I was born in the late 90s but I wish so much I had been there to hear those stories. There's a beauty and a light in them.

This docuseries is absolutely one of the all time best I've ever seen. I remember this scene quite well.

My granny spent her childhood in Mayo and she could only speak irish (she learned english in school). Now she can't remember a word of irish and only speaks english. I always thought that was strange.

Are we just not gonna talk about how RU-vid decided to recommend this 9 years later I-

I'm an American of Ulster Irish descent. I'm learning to speak Irish, because I feel like it's a beautiful language of my ancestors, and I both want to protect it, and to connect to them.

The Irish gov and Dublin University did so much good in recording the songs and stories in other languages too. The last recordings of Manx only exist because the President of Ireland wanted to record it.

What is not made clear is this is from a bbc programme on the Ilyiad. The heroic tradition of the indo-europeans is astonishing, but basically is “ good man kills bad man”. Or “man kills monster with (magic) weapon”. He was just going through the beautiful nature descriptions in these stories as in the iliad.

Tbh the world needs more monolingual Irish

My Mum's from the Isle of Barra and didn't speak English until she was seven. In the film (the "fillem"?) "Whiskey Galore", the woman who plays Duncan McRae's mother, so my Mum tells me, could not speak a word of English. I've been meaning to learn Gàidhlig for years… mebbe now's the time. Thanks for the reminder. _Alba gu bràth!_ ❤️

The world is such an interesting place with all its different peoples, their cultures, languages and beliefs. I am happy to hear Gaelic for the first time. Peace unto Mr. Henry, his people and all the people of all the world. Thank you for posting this video.

Our beautiful heritage, may it continue a bit longer ! I thank the man who memorized the old stories as so few were written down on paper.

Can't wait to see you all again in a year when this is on our recommended.

Beautiful language and a truly beautiful thing to see there are still monolingual Irish speakers

I'm German, and I've started to learn Irish. Dia Dhuit? Dia is muire dhuit.

Thank you Seán Ó Heinirí for your tales and words. Ten summers of recordings, wow. That's huge for Irish Gaelic

I still have the "In Search of the Trojan War" series on VHS. A marvellous work. I have never forgotten scenes such as this, and the Armenian bards who could sing and play for hours.

Thanks for posting this. It's touching to see. Especially from the home county.

Being from Wales but only learning the Welsh language, I'm amazed at how different this sounds to Welsh. Welsh has Ch and LL sounds which are guttural and prominent in use but there are not many (any?) here. Given the geographical proximity, and knowing that there are some shared words between the two languages (mor for sea, for instance), I'd expected something different in the sound. Love to hear this and learn.

I love the rhythm of this man’s voice.

He has such a beautiful voice ! I hope this dialect lives on !!! ❤

Fascinating! So heartwarming. Thank you so much for sharing this treasure!

thank you for preserving this.

Wow, thank you for this. I'm a mixed race New Zealander but have more Irish ancestry than anything else. I just started learning Irish on Duolingo. I realise Duolingo isn't perfect, but with over a million people learning at least the basics of Irish on there, that is surely encouraging :)

As a Danish born person of Iranian heritage it sounds like a mix of a scandinavian tongue and Farsi/Kurdish. Love it

My mother was born in Mayo.... her Mother had the most wonderful stories and would go on for hours in her rocking chair with all the grand kids huddled around her, it was a special time in my life. I still hear her voice and wild laugh in my head.

As a welsh speaker its crazy to hear something that sounds so similar to welsh and shares some words but yet so diffrent and foreign to me too

It still amazes me how much diversity, drama and history can fit into this group of not very tropical islands of yours. Cheers from Moscow!

My wife is from a very rural and remote part of Mayo... like more rural and remote than slightly less rural and remote parts... and after spending a lot of time there I can 100% confirm there are places where irish is commonly peoples 1st language and a language you hear spoken on the street. Even when they're speaking "english" lots of the old boys at the pub sound exactly like this man. Many times my wife has had to translate for me either because I literally couldn't understand the words or I understood the words but in the order they were said they made no sense to me haha.