#irish trc

[ravenslynch]

For the love of god if you’re trying to make a nickname for a character named Declan with Irish parents like Declan Lynch please use Dec (pronounced like deck) or Deco (rhymes with echo) - not Decklo - nearly takes me out as an Irish person like Declan and its nicknames have a verrrrry long history of use and Decklo sounds absolutely ridiculous to me send help

[ravenslynch]

hello it’s me that ghost account, here because I’m comfort reading a pynch facfic in the midst of a lockdown low which has just referred to a period in Ronan’s life fraught with alcohol and angst and general bad behaviour as The Troubles - capitals and all - literally have been dragged out of this mortal realm by this insanity - like actually using The Troubles for a canonically Irish character as a ? gag ? and in relation to alcoholism to boot because yeah why not. Ireland. two Irish issues. very cool. Genuinely what. Like it doesn’t go into it but I cannot believe with the way that it’s phrased that the author doesn’t know. I am hurtling into the sun rn.

[ravenslynch]

CDTH SPOILERS will tag also but just so you’re warned

The use of the word Fenian in CDTH is so jarring to me. Like I’m sure she’s trying to invoke Fenian in the sense of a member of the Irish mythological Fianna ? But like... it’s unavoidably political as a word ?

I could delve into a better explanation of this but I’m currently in a doctor’s waiting room so have this Wikipedia explanation of the term.

Being associated with Boudicca as an organisation makes it weirder that it’s being used and isn’t political to me. (There are probably a host of reasons why Boudicca as a figure could also complicate this further, but I just mean in the barest sense of it being a shady dangerous group, not that they appear to be even remotely paramilitary in nature, which also adds to the weirdness)

I mean lbr here is a man who must have memories of being from Belfast during the Troubles as evidenced by his shared past with Niall discussed in Chapter 64:

And calls himself the New Fenian apolitically ? As a henchman of this group ?? So odd.

I mean the term even has specific American history too.

I just don’t think any of the reasoning behind this will touch upon any of the connotations/history of this in itself - I mean that’s absolutely not the point of CDTH, nor do I particularly think it should be. So just... why ? Is it just that it sounds like a cool rebel name ? If so that surely would be shrouded in the actual historical rebellion it’s linked to ? Being from Belfast when Niall would have been there, there is no way he’d be ignorant of the word or immune to its connotations, he wouldn’t use it without those being considerations, and I don’t know why he’d particularly want to in this context regardless of political leaning. Therefore: very strange.

Like generally when people are talking about the Fianna even you wouldn’t say “Fionn mac Cumhaill was a Fenian” you’d say he was a leader of the Fianna? Diarmuid Ua Duibhne - solider or member of the Fianna. Calling them Fenian would be weird. It’s still an extremely recognisable term today.

Anyway this is my off the cuff rambling as a confused Irish reader.

[ravenslynch]

Give 👏 Ronan 👏 Lynch 👏 an 👏 Irish 👏 Wolfhound 👏

this is a repost because the quantity/contents of my tags dropped it out of search (why does this always happen to me? does it happen to anyone else?? why is tumblr like this???) but Listen:

Ronan and Adam wake up one day with a heaping mass of grey fur between them and blearily panic that Ronan has brought a bear back from his dreams

They soon realise that it is in fact a colossal dog with a ridiculously regal/wise countenance who befriends Chainsaw in .2 seconds and materialises beside Ronan whenever he’s feeling particularly angsty or whenever shit is going down

It’s a very big dog

It’s a very very tall dog

Imagine Ronan in the middle of a showdown with a gigantic mythical (magical?) war hound at his side

But also Ronan remembering Niall acting out the legend of Cú Chulainn and the wolfhound

And thinking about Cú Chulainn’s self imposed penance for slaying the hound in self-defence and taking its name as his own

And thinking about Cú Chulainn’s supernatural affinity with animals

And thinking about Niall and the spear and not wanting to be the spear

And looking at this dream dog and wanting to be more than all of that, with the wolfhound at his side and with minimal blood shed

(And maybe naming her Scáthach, meaning ‘She Who Walks in Shadow’, after the fearsome battle trainer and seer who trained Cú Chulainn in war-craft because that’s exactly the kind of edgy and badass that would appeal to him and also because he’d delight in mocking the gangsey for their horrific attempts at pronouncing it)

(She could be Scá for short - Skaw isn’t as tricky for them to get the hang of and there’s something about Chainsaw and Scá as a pairing that works) 

(And on occasion Cú Scioból/Cú Cabeswater/etc.)

[ravenslynch]

This just in: Ronan Lynch cracks out a ramshackle bodhrán occasionally when blaring techno or house full volume. He can be found lying with his legs dangling over the back of the couch and his head hanging towards the ground, beating the drum incessantly along to the music, regardless of the fact that he’s utterly useless at it. 

[ravenslynch]

PSA for the raven cycle fandom or any other fandom with irish characters or characters of irish descent - irish people call the irish language irish or, in irish, gaeilge. the word gaelic is usually used to refer to gaelic football. no one says that they speak gaelic here. 

there are gaelic languages - scots gaelic, for example, being the name of the gaelic language spoken in scotland - but, if you’re talking about irish people speaking the gaelic language of ireland, it’s called irish/gaeilge. thanks so much for tuning in. 

[ravenslynch]

how often do you get asks about ireland-related trc stuff? i have a question but i think it might be super dumb lmao

tbh i would happily answer any questions people have whenever! what’s your question? it’s actually really nice to get them sent my way and there’s nothing dumb about trying to find ireland-related things out with an irish person, i’d be delighted to help =)

[ravenslynch]

one of the most unrealistic things in trc imo is that there’s no hint of irish Lynch relatives descending on Henrietta en masse for Niall or Aurora’s funerals. like we as a people are obbsessed with funerals - everyone’s parents keep a constant eye on rip.ie, a site that’s a frequent cultural reference in irish memes, and we tend to go to wakes and funerals even if we don’t know the person all that well or haven’t seen them in years or they’re related or close to someone we know, even if we don’t know them personally. You don’t have to be invited personally to attend, we put out a notice and whoever wants to can come basically, and indeed if you don’t show face it can be considered rude or uncaring, unless the notice says house private, in which case it’s a more private ceremony. But even then any extended family typically goes along. Like did Declan discourage them from coming in a misguided attempt to give Ronan time to process after Niall’s death? That’s literally the only thing that makes sense to me and I can see that causing a lot of familial tension tbh. And also that may work once but I don’t see them not coming over when they lose a second parent so soon afterwards.