(le Róislín)

We recently had a ceist (question) about some terms having to do with inimirce (immigration).  Seo samplóir téarmaí: 

port eisimirce, emigration port, mar shampla, An Cóbh, Co. Chiaraí

port inimirce, immigration port, mar shampla, Filideilfia, Pennsylvania

A similar term is “longphort iontrála,” lit. ship-port of entry

That last term introduces “long,” the word for “ship.”  A few samples with “long” or its possessive form “loinge”:

lastliosta loinge, ship’s manifest (lit. “cargo-list of ship”)

Can you figure out what types of ships these are?  See clues below.

long chogaidh, long fhada, long Lochlannach, long sholais, cathlong, and lastlong

Getting back to the word “port,” it’s quite well established in Irish.  It shows up clearly in a variety of place names, such as Port an Dúnáin (Portadown), Port Láirge (Waterford), and Port Stíobhaird (Portstewart), to name just a few. 

Slightly disguised, it also appears in words and phrases like:

calafort, harbor, based on “caladh” (landing place, port) and “phort” (lenited form of “port”). Yes, the phrase is almost an athluaiteachas rófhoclach (redundant tautology) but no more so than “salsa sauce” (“salsa” meaning sauce) or “chicken pollo” (“pollo” meaning chicken).

Tollán Chalafort Bhaile Átha Cliath, Dublin Port Tunnel,

aerfort, airport, based on “aer” (air) and “phort” (lenited form of “port”),

Aerfort na Sionainne, Shannon Airport, and,

Aerfort Iarthar Éireann, Cnoc Mhuire, Ireland West Airport Knock, in County Mayo. 

And, by the way, if you’re talking about birds, that’s “imirce” (migration).  A migratory laborer, in the Irish context, is a spailpín, as immortalized in the folksong, “An Spailpín Fánach.”  That song, in turn, has lent its name to a gift shop specializing in Irish-language t-shirts, toys, and gifts, www.spailpin.com, located in the heart of the Conamara Gaeltacht, an Spidéal.  More formally, a migratory laborer would be called an “oibrí imirceach.” 

Leideanna (clues):

cogadh, war; fada, long; Lochlannach, Viking; solas, light; cath, battle; lasta, cargo

Leideanna fuaimnithe:

ceist [kesht], Cnoc Mhuire [knuk WIR-eh], eisimirce [ESH-IM-irk-yeh], long chogaidh [lung KHUG-ee], long sholais [lung HOL-ish], mar shampla [mahr HAHMP-luh].  A final note, to pronounce the word for ship, “long,” it may look just like the English word “long” (in length), but isn’t pronounced quite the same.  It’s closer to English “lung,” and probably best described as halfway between English “lung” and “long.”