By Amy O’Riordan, Community Manager for Wikimedia Community Ireland
Followers of our work and this blog might remember that last year, Amy (then our Oifigeach Gaeilge) spent a memorable week in Bari, Apulia, on a collaboration with Wikimedia Italia and the University of Bari, sharing Irish history, language, and cultural heritage with a very enthusiastic group of students. If you missed it, you can catch up here.
March has been an incredibly busy month – it always is with Seachtain na Gaeilge – but this year, we had something extra to look forward to on the other side of it!
Amy, Éinín (mascot plushie) and Lára ob board a train from Naples to Bari for the final leg of their travel to Bari, Italy
The journey was a long one. Amy set off from Waterford while Laura made her way down from South Armagh, the two of them converging on Dublin Airport to fly to Naples together.
From there, it was onward to Napoli Centrale (Garibaldi) for an evening train through the hills and mountains that make up the “ankle” of Southern Italy – or at least, that’s what we’re told. By the time we boarded, it was too dark to admire the landscape, and with no phone signal to tempt us into work, we did the sensible thing and slept. We arrived into Bari after 11pm and headed straight to our accommodation for bed.
Day 1:
For our first full day in Bari, Amy was delivering a guest lecture on Endangered Languages on Wikipedia and about some of the great projects across the globe that are working to share, document and provide information through small languages. Of course she spoke about the great work done on Vicipéid, Irish language Wikipedia, and how we try to support editors through our work at Wikimedia Community Ireland. Then students took part in a Wikithon – using the translation tool on Wikipedia after a guide form Amy on how the tool worked and best practice to use it.
Teatro Piccinni
(left to right) WCI staff Lára and Amy pictured with Ferdinando Traversa and Francesco at Teatro Piccinni for Fazil Say in Concerto
Day 2
Day 2 brought the first of our Irish language sessions with the students. The atmosphere in the classroom was electric; there is a unique joy in hearing the phonemes of Gaeilge echoed back with an Italian accent.
We brought students, many of whom already spoke three or more languages, through the basics of alphabet, accents, pronunciation, as well as a short overview of the history of the Irish language too.
Day 3
Day 3 was Irish language lessons in the morning with Laura, going into more grammar, an Aimsir Chaite (the Past tense) and sentence structures. Students got to practive with two dialects as Laura led the class with Gaeilge Uladh, and Amy provided dialectical variation with Gaeilinn na Mumhan.
Class was followed by something that quickly became a highlight of the whole trip: a traditional music session. We were joined by uilleann pipe player Rino Lorusso, the students, and the wonderful Pierpaolo Martino on bass guitar.
Uilleann pipe player Rino Lorusso
The group treated us to cover versions of Fontaines D.C., Enya, and The Cranberries. It was one of those evenings that reminds you why this kind of exchange matters – music crossing every language barrier without even trying.
University of Bari students, and lecturer Pierpaolo Martino on bass
Day 4
Amy and Lára (WCI) pictured with Professor Maristella Gatto and all the UniBa students who signed up for the extra-curricular Irish language lessons
Spaghetti all’Assassina is a masterclass in ‘burnt’ done right.
The final day of the programme brought the last Irish language session, and we want to say go riabh míle míle maith ag gach uile dalta – that you so so much to every student who signed up to learn Irish. We were blown away at the reponse and we look forward to stay in touch.
We said our goodbyes to the students before sitting down to one final meal with our wonderful hosts
A beautiful dinner out in Bari with Ferdinando Traversa (Wikimedia Italia) and Prof. Maristella Gatto (University of Bari). The dish of the evening was l’assassina – also known as burnt or fried spaghetti. This local speciality is unique; the pasta is cooked raw in a pan with spicy tomato broth until it carmelizes and “scorches.”
In Part 2, Lára shares their reflections as ILO, we go deeper into the Irish language programme, and we reveal what’s next for our Irish-Italian alliance – watch this space
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