wfn.org | Belfast Service Affirms Presbyterian Gaelic Tradition

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

9-December-1997 
97450 
 
    Belfast Service Affirms Presbyterian Gaelic Tradition 
 
    by Cedric Pulford 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
LONDON--In what is believed to be the first time this century, 
Presbyterians in Ireland have held a service in Gaelic, reviving their own 
tradition as well as affirming the culture of the entire divided island. 
 
    The service, which was held at Fitzroy Avenue Presbyterian Church in 
Belfast on Oct. 26, brought together Presbyterians and Roman Catholics and 
others who were attending a Gaelic-language festival in the city. Gaelic is 
the indigenous language of Ireland, although in both the south and the 
north of the island it has been largely replaced by English. 
 
    In Northern Ireland, learning Gaelic is commonly linked to nationalism, 
which wishes to see a united Ireland. Protestantism, on the other hand, is 
often seen as being associated with unionism, which wants to maintain the 
current status of Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom. 
 
    So when the Presbyterians, who are mainly also unionists, held their 
Gaelic service, the decision "certainly raised some eyebrows," as Derek 
Poots, acting general secretary of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, 
admitted. 
 
    He told ENI: "We were asked `What's it all about?' But we are 
nonpolitical. We don't involve ourselves in sectarian attitudes. We respect 
the Gaelic culture of the island just as we respect the Protestant/English 
culture." 
 
    Although the strength of the Presbyterian Church is mainly to be found 
in Northern Ireland, the church also has three presbyteries in the Republic 
of Ireland. 
 
    Bill Boyd, a retired Presbyterian minister who was a preacher at 
October's service, told ENI: "Irish [Gaelic] is part of our tradition, 
too." 
 
    Irish Protestants are mainly descended from English and Scottish 
settlers -- and Gaelic was the indigenous language of much of Scotland as 
well as of Ireland. Hence many settlers to Ireland also spoke Gaelic and it 
was used in the Presbyterian Church up to the 19th century. Until around 
1850 students for the Presbyterian ministry were required to learn Gaelic. 
 
    Boyd, age 70, preached his whole sermon in Gaelic, despite being a 
self-confessed "beginner" in the language. 
 
    Boyd is interested in Gaelic as "a language of prayer and worship" and 
finds that "it throws light on one's ordinary Bible reading in English." He 
explained: "The word `Saviour' [Sl naithe¢ir], for instance, has a sense of 
health and wholeness, which it doesn't quite have in English." 
 
    Terence McCaughey, a lecturer at Trinity College, Dublin, who was the 
other preacher at the service, told ENI: "Presbyterians in the north have 
an induced amnesia about Irish history [because of the partition between 
south and north]. People have been encouraged to forget an awful lot." 
 
    He said few realized that many of their forebears had spoken Gaelic and 
attended services in the language. 
 
    If Boyd has his way, the Fitzroy Avenue service will form the basis for 
a sustained revival of Gaelic in the Presbyterian Church. He is part of a 
group of up to 20 people that since April has held regular meetings, which 
include an act of worship, using Gaelic. 
 
    Boyd does not claim that using and understanding Gaelic will be easy. 
"I've found the language exciting but desperately difficult," he said. 
"There are four dialects, so you have to learn four words for things. You 
know only one will be needed -- but you don't know which one." 

------------
For more information contact Presbyterian News Service
  phone 502-569-5504             fax 502-569-8073  
  E-mail PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org   Web page: http://www.pcusa.org 
  mailed from World Faith News <wfn-news@wfn.org>  

--