{"id":3920,"date":"2013-04-21T13:28:32","date_gmt":"2013-04-21T13:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/?p=3920"},"modified":"2013-05-04T20:56:21","modified_gmt":"2013-05-04T20:56:21","slug":"ce-mhead-tuiodoir-how-many-thatchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/ce-mhead-tuiodoir-how-many-thatchers\/","title":{"rendered":"C\u00e9 Mh\u00e9ad Tu\u00edod\u00f3ir? (How many thatchers?)"},"content":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn)<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the last blog, I raised the question of how many professional thatchers are out there, curious as to whether the trade growing or declining.\u00a0 Trying to search for numbers of thatchers in the US, Canada, and Australia proved a bit time-consuming.\u00a0 Computer searches mostly ended up giving me results for “dethatching” services, particularly as geared toward golf courses and fine lawns.\u00a0 And no, “dethatching” doesn’t mean removing thatched roofs from cottages — it means, bhuel, ag baint f\u00e9ar marbh \u00f3 fhaiche (chun an ithir a aer\u00fa)<\/strong>.\u00a0 A “gluais<\/strong>” for that phrase is below, btw.\u00a0\u00a0 I don’t see a single word definition for “dethatching” in Irish anywhere, otherwise I’d have used it.<\/p>\n

So I’m just giving some results for Irish and British thatchers here.\u00a0 Maybe at some future point I’ll check further into the North American and Australian scene.<\/p>\n

Cad a sh\u00edleann tusa?\u00a0 C\u00e9 mh\u00e9ad tu\u00edod\u00f3ir at\u00e1 ag obair inniu?\u00a0 Deichni\u00far?\u00a0 Caoga?\u00a0 C\u00e9ad?\u00a0 M\u00edle? <\/strong><\/p>\n

The site “Buildingsofireland.ie” lists 77 thatchers in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, many of whom may work in teams or with small crews, so I’d estimate that there are at least double the number of people actually working: http:\/\/www.buildingsofireland.ie\/Resources\/ThatchinIreland\/Thatchers%20(27.10.2011).pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

For England and Wales, http:\/\/www.nsmtltd.co.uk\/<\/a> (National Society of Master Thatchers) lists 140 thatchers.<\/p>\n

For Scotland, http:\/\/www.yell.com\/s\/thatching+services-scotland.html<\/a>\u00a0 lists 36 roofers offering thatching services.\u00a0 Many of them seem to offer other roofing services as well (unlike the English\/Welsh and Irish listings above, which are specifically for thatching) but some do appear to just do thatching (like Hebridean Thatching Services, http:\/\/www.highland-thatcher.co.uk\/<\/a>, whose website also offers some interesting videos and a blog of projects undertaken).<\/p>\n

As for a more comprehensive number, thatcher Leo Wood, commented in an interview by David Ross for Britain Express:\u00a0 “When I started in1963 around 200 full time thatchers were left, this is now around 2000 and has been so for five or six years.”\u00a0(“Life as a Thatcher,” http:\/\/www.britainexpress.com\/History\/thatching-interview.htm<\/a>).\u00a0 I couldn’t find a date for the article, but assume it was sometime in the last 10 years.<\/p>\n

That’s actually more that I expected but it’s encouraging in terms of keeping the tradition alive.\u00a0 Hmm, now I’ll have to re-run my search for “yelmers.”<\/p>\n

A side benefit of raising this query is looking at the basic structure of the question: C\u00e9 mh\u00e9ad tu\u00edod\u00f3ir<\/strong>?\u00a0 You might have noticed that “tu\u00edod\u00f3ir<\/strong>” stays singular here.\u00a0 This is true whenever you ask “How many?” of something in Irish.\u00a0 Additional examples would include: C\u00e9 mh\u00e9ad bliain?, C\u00e9 mh\u00e9ad coile\u00e1n?, C\u00e9 mh\u00e9ad m\u00edle?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It may seem unusual, from an English perspective, to keep the noun singular, but it follows the pattern that’s also used in Irish for “c\u00fapla<\/strong>” and with numbers: c\u00fapla bliain, tr\u00ed choile\u00e1n<\/strong>, srl., lit. “a couple of year” ” three puppy.”<\/p>\n

Ar aon chaoi, tu\u00edod\u00f3ir ar bith ar an liosta?\u00a0 M\u00e1 t\u00e1, bheadh s\u00e9 go deas cluinstin uait!\u00a0 SGF, R\u00f3isl\u00edn<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gluais don fhr\u00e1sa “ag baint f\u00e9ar marbh \u00f3 fhaiche (chun an ithir a aer\u00fa)”: <\/strong><\/p>\n

aer\u00fa<\/strong>, to aerate<\/p>\n

faiche<\/strong>, lawn (as in yards, gardens, etc., not the fabric, which as it happens, is “p\u00e9irl\u00edn<\/strong>,” for those of you in Downton Abbey garb)<\/p>\n

f\u00e9ar marbh<\/strong>, dead grass, “thatch,” i. gais mharbha, rios\u00f3im mharbha, st\u00f3lain mharbha, fr\u00e9amhacha marbha agus duilleoga marbha<\/strong>.\u00a0 NB:\u00a0 see how important the s\u00edneadh fada<\/strong> is in the word “f\u00e9ar<\/strong>“?\u00a0 “F\u00e9ar<\/strong>” [fayr] is “grass.”\u00a0 “Fear<\/strong>” [far, with the “a” like US “bat” or “cat”] is “man.”\u00a0 “Man” … “grass” … two words we don’t want to mix up, especially if one or both are “marbh<\/strong>” ([MAR-uv] dead).\u00a0 And hopefully, we’ll always know whether we are removing “f\u00e9ar marbh<\/strong>” or a “fear marbh<\/strong>” from the lawn, unless, of course, the “fear marbh<\/strong>” has been fargoized.\u00a0 Ach sin sc\u00e9al eile<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

NB also what has happened to the adjective “marbh<\/strong>” when modifying the plural nouns above.\u00a0 The plural ending is “-a,” giving us “marbha<\/strong>” [MAR-uh-vuh], as used with “fr\u00e9amhacha<\/strong>” agus “duilleoga<\/strong>.”\u00a0 “Marbha<\/strong>” changes to “mharbha<\/strong>” [WAR-uh-vuh] after the nouns “gais<\/strong>,” “rios\u00f3im<\/strong>” and “st\u00f3lain<\/strong>” because of their slender ending (“i” + final consonant). This is the same rule that gives us “fir mh\u00f3ra<\/strong>” and “b\u00e1id bheaga<\/strong>” but “buachaill\u00ed m\u00f3ra<\/strong>” and “naomh\u00f3ga beaga<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

ithir<\/strong> [IH-hirzh], soil, earth (in an agricultural context)<\/p>\n

Gluais don ghluais: duilleog<\/strong>, leaf; fr\u00e9amh<\/strong>, root; gas<\/strong>, stem; rios\u00f3m<\/strong>, rhizome; st\u00f3lan<\/strong>, stolon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(le R\u00f3isl\u00edn) In the last blog, I raised the question of how many professional thatchers are out there, curious as to whether the trade growing or declining.\u00a0 Trying to search for numbers of thatchers in the US, Canada, and Australia proved a bit time-consuming.\u00a0 Computer searches mostly ended up giving me results for “dethatching” services…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3898],"tags":[96599,4870,275738,275743,275740,275739,275741,275742,3404,275605,111748,275615,275609],"class_list":["post-3920","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-irish-language","tag-ce-mhead","tag-cupla","tag-dethatching","tag-downton-abbey","tag-fargoize","tag-fear-marbh","tag-lawn","tag-lawn-fabric","tag-singular","tag-thatching","tag-tui","tag-tuiodoir","tag-tuiodoireacht"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3920"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3922,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3920\/revisions\/3922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/irish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}