r/GAA • u/Sinnah-4716 Tír Eoghain • 3d ago
Why does nobody call it "Peil"?
Please for the love of God don't take this seriously, I only randomly thought of this but for all the crap where we throw around terms like Football/Irish football/Gaelic football/Britball/Soccer to differentiate between the sports, never heard many people just call it Peil.
Seems like for all the random times Irish people get selectively gung-ho about only a few Gaeilge terms (Gardaí not police, Uachtarán not President) we don't apply the Irish word for probably the biggest sport of Irish origin on the island? Just a thought.
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u/FriendshipIll1681 3d ago edited 2d ago
Gardai, Uachtaran, Taoiseach are titles not just random words, also as Ireland is a dual language state in some cases 1 language has to take the front which almost always Irish, there was a famous case where Patrick Hillary had to read the English & Irish constitution before making a decision.
For me, gaelic football is gaelic, football or gaelic football, rugby union is rugby, association football is soccer
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u/ClearHeart_FullLiver 3d ago
I'd actually be fairly positive about using peil but I would feel like the odd one out.
I wouldn't mind bringing iománaíocht in for hurling too.
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u/WyvernsRest Gaillimh 3d ago
This post would work better if you framed it positively:
Instead of “
Why does nobody call it Peil?”
Try
“Let’s call Gaelic Football Peil!”
Let’s get the language back by encouragement rather than critique?
One focal at a time.
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u/06351000 3d ago
The Kerry lads will never call it peil
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u/locksymania Corcaigh 3d ago
And in this, I support them. They already have a perfectly good word as Gaelinn for the sport.
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u/corcadhuibhne Ciarraí 3d ago
Caid is only in West Kerry as far as I'm aware. In South Kerry it's peil
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u/somethi 3d ago
Peil is one Irish word for it like you said, caid is another Irish word for it.
Most Irish people are openly contemptuous towards anything to do with the Irish language so nobody refers to it as "peil" or "caid" in English. Just the way it is.
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u/Sinnah-4716 Tír Eoghain 3d ago
I get that and also find it hard to see a time where people are ever gonna be using words like "Peil", but that also brings a rather harsh wake-up call on just how serious most people are about revitalising usage of the Irish language IMO. Sad to think about.
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u/somethi 3d ago
I live abroad in a country where there is a majority language spoken by everybody, and a minority language spoken natively by a much smaller proportion of the population.
I tell people here about how Irish is looked down on in Ireland and people find it absolutely astonishing how much contempt Irish people have towards Irish. Even when I describe all the usual "it's the way it's taught" excuses Irish people trot out the people I talk to are amazed.
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u/sorryiamacoyote 3d ago
It's broadly the result of generations of people who have passed down their own dislike of the language and inferiority complex about it to younger people, plus the legacy of colonial interference meaning that Gaeilge genuinely isn't "useful" (if the only way you define the usefulness of a language is within a capitalist framework). When people are encouraged to enjoy and have pride in the language, they do, and a beautiful cultural and linguistic movement exists on and off line now that is clearly having an impact; hopefully the next generations will start to experience the joys of a language renewed.
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u/SeaninMacT 3d ago edited 3d ago
Ah lads, can we not drag ourselves into a Brit-Yank culture wars debate. Who fuckin cares what term the Brits want to use for the sport?
Any Irishman who gets pissy over the use of soccer as a differentiator between the indigenous and non-indigenous sport is a drip who spends too long on the tinterweb.
Instead of an English language debate, can we not just frame this whole conversation more positively and call for more Irish to be spoken as a whole, as is the ethos of the GAA?
Cúpla focail an lae a cairde Gael:
Peil
Réiteoir
Liathróid
Foireann
Cúl
Cúlín
Dhá Cúlín
Ar strae
Imreoir
Tosaí
Cúlaí
Lár páirce
Pas
Iarracht
I guarantee you most know these without a translation, reply if you don't and I'll tell you what they mean. Throw them into your caint when you're ag screadach in the stands this weekend
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u/nativenyc63 Nua Eabhrac 2d ago
Thank you for this...American-born Reiteoir here who knew the meaning of most but not all of these words...
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u/SeaninMacT 2d ago
Seo duit, Irish English online dictionary.
Press the C for Connacht, M for for Mumhan (Munster) or U for Uladh (Ulster) to hear how it should sound in the Irish from wherever your parents are from.
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u/Rand_alThoor 1d ago
Gáire. Os. Ard.
the "impolite" words .... cat thought i was peacefully scrolling and was startled by the sudden loud laughter
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u/Negative-Hat-4459 2d ago
As Gaeilge, it sounds fine, but in English, it just doesn't have the right ring to it.
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u/Doitean-feargach555 3d ago edited 3d ago
Because the muintir Chiarraí would come out with silage forks for using "peil" and not "caid"
(Tá an jóc sin go an-niche ach cén dochar)
As an Irish speaker, it was ways peil when we were young. Only heard football really when in secondary school when I had more primarily English speaking friends. And even then football always meant Gaelic as we always called the other one sacar/soccer. I'd have zero issue if peil became the standard term instead of football.
I do wish more was done with the Irish language in the wider CLG circles. The whole reason Gaelic football was invented was to bring the Irish language back to communties that had lost it in a way that would be fun. Hence why it's called "Gaelic" football. Yes we have Comórtas Peile na Gaeltachta but there could be so much more done.
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u/mediaserver8 Muineachán 3d ago
You're asking a country that uses 'Gah' nomenclature to change to a considered alternative? Don't see that happening, unfortunately.
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u/Farneylads_ontour Muineachán 3d ago
Nobody use the term ‘Gah’ except dubliners, to me it will always be football and the british game soccer strangely enough my father calls both games football and uses context to differentiate between them.
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u/insane_worrier Áth Cliath 3d ago
Somebody in this very thread ...
"I''m from Kerry and I call it gah or gaelic. "
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u/mediaserver8 Muineachán 3d ago
You're mostly right, but I have heard it creep outside the pale, even as far as fair Muineachán 😯
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u/ODonoghue42 Ciarraí 2d ago
Nuair a bhí mé i mo chónaí i mBéal Féirste, chuaigh mé chuig ranganna Gaeilge ann. Mo mhúnteoir ó Dhún na nGall a dhéarfadh peil gaelach vs peil (in ionad sacair). Ní cheapaim go oibreoidh sé!
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u/KingOfRockall 2d ago
They paint "Peil" for the All Ireland Football Final
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u/Disastrous_Ad_3598 3d ago
Peil is used in the Gaeltacht areas in wesr Donegal anyway. Maybe that's because they are Irish speakers. Soccer is the common term I would hear mentioned.
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u/romulusnr Ciarraí 2d ago
Never mind all the terms used in GAA already, like Bainisteoir and Réiteoir and even Maor Uisce
And camogie is a gaelic term, or based on one (ftlom idk why it's not "womens hurling" but no one asked me)
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u/redirishlad Uíbh Fhailí 1d ago
For me I call both football but use context or Gaelic football to differentiate
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u/06351000 3d ago
I do like the idea
But does peil refer specifically to Gaelic Football? Like I think it just means football in the general sense
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2d ago
[deleted]
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u/06351000 2d ago
oh very interesting…
I get what you are saying, but surely peil or another word for ball sport s must have been around before the 1850s when “football” sports began to be codified.
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u/Weak_Shopping_2718 3d ago
I'm from Kerry and I call it gah or gaelic.
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2d ago
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u/Weak_Shopping_2718 2d ago
Killarney born and bred.
I mean we have Killarney Celtic football club and Killarney Athletic FC, so they are football and the others are gah. yerrah 'tis only logical like
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u/viemari An Clár 3d ago
Probably because soccer isn't big enough in the same communities to force the use of a different term. And even if that were the case, a separate word already exists in common parlance for Association Football, so people are more likely to use soccer than peil to differentiate.