Charles-Rose (31) and Raine (29) Greenhart, from the US
Charles-Rose Greenhart (31) and their partner Raine Greenhart (29) moved from Seattle in the US to Dublin in April and are enrolled in an intensive Irish-language course.
Charles-Rose was adopted by American parents from Nicaragua and grew up in a tiny fishing village island called North Haven in Maine.
“I had a graduating class of eight, and we were a very big class. One to three is the usual maximum – three of the students in my year were my cousins.”
Raine is originally from Los Gatos in California. “We met in Seattle after the pandemic once we both had had our vaccinations,” they say.
READ MORE
The couple’s move to Dublin was prompted by Trump’s victory in the presidential election last year.
Charles-Rose says: “We were looking at different places but Ireland was definitely top on that list, and thankfully my wife was able to get a transfer from work to their Irish branch.”
“We both wanted to learn Irish as soon as we learned that we were going to move to Ireland because we thought that it would be a wonderful thing to do in general, and it’s a good way to learn more about Ireland and to feel a bit more at home here.”
Charles-Rose has not found learning Irish from scratch with Conradh na Gaeilge too challenging.
“Irish is not the most difficult language that I have ever tried to learn. It makes sense grammatically. There’s a few small things here and there but overall, it’s definitely not the worst.”
Spanish was Charles-Rose’s first language. They only began learning English when Charles-Rose was adopted.
“I have lived in Italy and Korea and I have learned a bit of Japanese and a few other things. So I have been exposed to a lot of different languages.”
Varya Fadieieva (28), from Ukraine
Varya Fadieieva (28) moved from Ukraine to Ireland in the aftermath of the Russian invasion.
“I stayed in Kyiv for the first nine months of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but then winter came and that was quite tough,” she says.
Fadieieva had a friend who had already moved to Dublin, which influenced her decision to move.
“I thought that I would probably stay here for a few months but I came to love this country, its nature, people and architecture. And later I realised that I can’t imagine my life now without Ireland.”
Before moving she had written a science-fiction book that featured a lighthouse in Ireland. “I have this feeling that God, through my art, led me here.”
She describes choosing to learn Irish as an “obvious” decision.
“As Ukrainians we know how it feels when your language is destroyed and banned for many, many years. I think language is so important. It’s a history of the nation that’s written between the lines and between the words. It’s a worldview just hidden in those phrases. The way we form phrases in different languages and talk about our feelings about everything – everything is kind of coded into language.”
But Fadieieva’s experience of learning Irish has not been straightforward.
“At first I was trying to learn [Irish] by myself, which was really hard. Later I went on some courses, but I didn’t learn much because although these courses say they are for beginners, most people already had some Irish. I was feeling kind of duped.”
“I was praying to St Patrick because he somehow learned this language even without courses and teachers, but in the end I saw this advertisement from Conradh na Gaeilge. I think it was advertised in some Ukrainian groups as well as it’s for people who had no Irish at all.”
Fadieieva is taking her third Irish-language course through Conradh na Gaeilge.
“I feel quite lucky because now we can ask any questions we want. And sometimes there’s events where we can attend to learn to sing something in Irish and use new phrases, which is cool.”
Fadieieva feels that learning Irish will be very significant in her future in Ireland.
“I would like to be a fluent Irish speaker, even just for myself. I just love how we describe things in Irish. It just feels right. I would love to give tours in Irish as well.”
Alongside her writing, Fadieieva works as a tour guide on the Jeanie Johnston famine ship.
“I really love to share Irish history with people. I love the Irish art of storytelling. I would love to make more people aware of Irish history and get rid of the stereotypes about what Ireland is and who the Irish people are.”
“In my writing I always use some small Irish phrases and I’m trying to share Irish in as many different ways as I can. I hope that in the future, I can write something in Irish.”
“In our Ukrainian Orthodox community here, people are interested in learning some prayers in Irish. There’s lots of ways that I can use Irish once I am really good at it.”
Ilyas Vekilov (29), from Russia
Ilyas Vekilov (29) has also been attending a Conradh na Gaeilge Irish-language course.
Vekilov describes himself as “made in Russia, matured in Turkey and imported to Ireland.”
Though Russian was his first language, his family moved to Turkey when he was 14 and he quickly learned the language.
“In September 2022 I moved to Ireland for work. I was interested in learning Irish then but I never had the chance and I did not know about the resources that are available. But then I started to do more in-depth research and found Darragh’s class.” He is referring to Darragh Humphreys, who runs the Conradh na Gaeilge beginners’ class.
Vekilov’s move to Dublin was prompted by a friend of his who moved to Cork for work in 2016.
“I started researching Ireland and it felt like a very beautiful country with an amazing culture and rich history. I was like, you know what? I would love to live in Ireland one day. But I never actively did anything for it because I thought it would be hard for a third-world citizen to move to a country like this. And then one day I was at home drinking wine with a friend and I received a message on LinkedIn from a Google recruiter in Ireland.”
That message led to Vekilov getting a job in Dublin.
“I remember getting off the plane, smelling the air and I was like, oh, I’m home.”
One of the reasons he decided to learn Irish was to further immerse himself in Irish culture.
“Interestingly enough, after such a short time here I do already identify as Irish. A lot of people laugh at me for that but I do.”
Vekilov watches children’s television shows in Irish in his spare time because he thinks that they use the cleanest and most grammatically correct language.
He is finding learning Irish difficult as “I don’t know any languages that are in any way similar to Irish and it doesn’t have that many borrowed words.”
“It’s been challenging but I do love a challenge.”
Misha Yerhidzé (11), from Ukraine
When 11-year-old Misha Yerhidzé from Ukraine is asked what led him to start learning Irish, he looks at his mother’s partner Donal O’Cathain and laughs.
“This one right here,” Misha says, pointing at him.
“That’s not entirely true,” says O’Cathain with a laugh, adding that Misha attends a Gaelscoil.
Misha moved to west Kerry from Ukraine with his mother and sister in November 2022.
“Donal started teaching me some words that I could use in school,” he says.
O’Cathain adds: “I suppose, we live in Baile an Fheirtéaraigh so he’s in an Irish-speaking area. He didn’t have much English either when he arrived, so he had to pick up two languages at the same time.”
Yerhidzé believes that maths really helped him to learn Irish at school. “It’s literally just going through the same thing again because I had done lots of the maths in Ukraine.”
“I have better Irish than most of my Ukrainian friends do.”
“Irish is the key for my future in this country. Irish helps me speak to my Gaelic team, it helps me speak to my teachers.”
Misha plays on the local Gaelic football team.
“[It] is a cool type of sport. It’s better than rugby. I just don’t like rugby, I don’t want to hurt anybody. I like being in goal and saving the ball. Sometimes I get the man of the match.”
In the summer the pair went to Croke Park to watch the All-Ireland football championship semi-final, where Kerry played Tyrone.
“Tyrone got thrashed!” Misha says enthusiastically.
When asked how he feels about his new life in Ireland, he says: “Well in Ireland it’s more peaceful [than Ukraine]. Ireland is like a peaceful country of farmers.”
