My own wee shack below Knockatee

My name is Brenda Uí Chléirigh. I am a secondary school teacher, a member of Laochra Loch Lao and a teacher in Glór na Móna. I am married with two daughters, both of whom we are raising through the medium of Irish.

When my youngest daughter, Fódhla, was approaching her first birthday, we bought our own wee shack below Knockatee in Rannafast in the Donegal Gaeltacht. Teach Mhary Phádraig as it’s better known. One of the things that attracted us to the the house wasn’t just where it was situated, or the fact you could see the top of Errigal from the kitchen window, but that there was enough space that it would sleep a crowd.

To tell the truth, we did have another objective when we bought the house. We wanted to share our love of Irish and of the Gaeltacht with our extended family and friends.

I remember our first summer there. I think we counted 21 people staying there at one point. People were sleeping on the floors, in the shed and on the sofas.

We spent many a long summers day on Carrickfinn beach, walking along the shore in Gweedore, fishing and swimming, climbing the rocks and hills. We certainly had some craic and music around the fire in the cosy evenings, just as it was in that very same house in years gone by.

I have no doubt that they fell in love with the language and culture in those days they spent with us and that Teach Mhary Phádraig played a huge role in instilling this love.

Although the majority of our friends didn’t speak Irish, they heard us talking to our own kids and nieces in Irish, but more importantly, they heard their own kids speaking Irish fluently and naturally amongst us.

This certainly impacted some of them, who went on to study Irish at A Level in school, and one of them is even attending university now and studying to become an Irish teacher. I have no doubt that they fell in love with the language and culture in those days they spent with us and that Teach Mhary Phádraig played a huge role in instilling this love.