Easter Greetings in Irish

If you go to the Aran Islands at this time of year, and if you greet an Aran Islander with:
Ta Criost eirithel!

- they will respond with:
Go deimhin, ta se eirithel!

It's the Irish for
Christ is risen!
and He is risen indeed!

The Aran Islands were made famous by John Millington Synge who, after studying Irish and Hebrew at Trinity College, Dublin, spent several summers there perfecting his knowledge of Irish and absorbing the culture.

This led to his masterpiece The Playboy of the Western World, which caused riots when it was first performed at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, in 1907. It's a quirky comedy about Christy Mahon, a young man whose claim to fame is that he has killed his father by bashing him over the head with a garden spade.

It's the way he tells his story (and who are better story-tellers than the Irish?), that makes the women fall in love with him.

Unfortunately for Christy, his supposedly dead father comes back from the dead, albeit a bit worse for wear, and Christy loses the respect and love of his admirers.

So in a way, Playboy of the Western World has a parallel with Easter, when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In this case however, it's an event that is either the biggest myth and con-trick ever perpetrated, or is the miraculous, non-fiction, actual happening which historians at the time reported it to be.

One of these Historians was Luke, a physician, who "carefully investigated everything from the beginning" in order to write his history for a new Christian by the name of Theophilus, who must have been a very important person for Luke to go to all this trouble; a bit like having your own Alpha Course.

Incidentally, the Aran Isands are/were the home of Father Ted, another quirky if not hilarious Irish comedy about Fr. Ted (himself), his zany young side-kick Fr. Dougal, the drunken priest Fr. Jack, and Mrs Doyle, who would NOT take no for an answer ("ah go on!"), in offering you that cup of tea!

May the joy and gladness of Easter be with us all at this time of year.

Caisc shona duit! Happy Easter!