Longford's Cúpla Focal sa Tally Ho brings ceol agus craic

Once a week, a tiny enclave of culture in Longford town becomes a portable Gaeltachtaí region where the Irish language is the primary means of communication.
What started as an excuse to get together to use the “cúpla focal” has blossomed into a weekly celebration of the Irish language.

Cúpla Focal sa Tally Ho is an Irish conversation group that emphasises participation over fluency. Even if the nuances of the tuiseal ginideach or the modh coinníollach are lost to the mists of time this group will, nonetheless, welcome new members prepared to make an effort.
“We're one year in existence,” Eamonn Brennan said of the gathering, “Marion (O’Reilly) and I had a notion that we'd like to chat to practice our Irish. We decided we'd go to a pub rather than a library or anything like that. We finally got together in The Tally Ho.”

“We gather in the pub every Tuesday at half seven. We feel this emphasis that we are taking the language away from the school environment, into a more informal setting,” member Padraig Loughrey says.
Eamon says there has been a good level of engagement: “From week to week we have had people drop in and chat, then we may not see them for a month.

“We have had evenings where there were just two, and others where we've had 10. In all about 20 people participate in an informal way. John (Duignan- Tally Ho proprietor) was very supportive of the idea from the very beginning.”
Founding member, Marian O’Reilly, hopes Cúpla Focal sa Tally Ho will continue to grow: “We cater for all kinds of people, all different standards of Irish.

All we ask people to do is just make a bit of an effort. We recently had an American person who just called in. He had very little Irish, but he was interested in the Irish language and wanted to learn a bit more.”
The first anniversary meeting of Cúpla Focal sa Tally Ho took place last month in the New Street pub and continues each Tuesday, starting at 7:30 with traditional music from 9:00pm on the first Tuesday of the month. The group is open for anyone to drop in and try out their Cúpla Focal.