i dont think ive ever seen/heard so much irish been spoken in a long time. bbc world covered the (very very good) ceremonies from áras an uachtaráin (the residence of the irish president).

earlier in the day pat cox (the president of the european commision) spoke about the ten countries joining the european union, he started out speaking in irish, the our taoiseach (prime minister) bertie ahern had a few words. later in the day our president (mary mcalease) had a bit, then the nobel winner had a poem based around the old irish feast of bealtaine. the whole ceremony was fantastic and very simple. my favourite moment was when members of the irish army went to collect the 25 nations flags plus the eu flag from the heads of state. 26 soldiers marched to the front of the building and all that could be heard was the cacophonic crunching of the gravel. they then stood to attention right in front of all the leaders and for a split second it looked like a firing squad. then after that moment they took the flags and proceeded to take them to the poles and they were hung. somebody somewhere was up last night praying for good weather today and they got it. normally its raining there, but today was a beatiful day, blue skies and a nice wind (just enough for the flags to flutter).

beacons at bealtaine by seamus heaney in the celtic calendar that once regulated the seasons in many parts of europe, may day, known in irish as bealtaine, was the feast of bright fire, the first of summer, one of the four great quarter days of the year. the early irish leabhar gabhála (the book of invasions), tells us that the first magical inhabitants of the country, the tuatha dé danaan, arrived on the feast of bealtaine, and a ninth century text indicates that on the same day the druids drove flocks out to pasture between two bonfires. so there is something auspicious about the fact that a new flocking together of the old european nations happens on this day of mythic arrival in ireland; and it is even more auspicious that we celebrate it in a park named after the mythic bird that represents the possibility of ongoing renewal. but there are those who say that the name phoenix park is derived from the irish words, fionn uisce, meaning “clear water” and that coincidence of language gave me the idea for this poem. it’s what the poet horace might have called a carmen sæculare, a poem to salute and celebrate an historic turn in the sæculum, the age. beacons at bealtaine phoenix park, may day, 2004 uisce: water. and fionn: the water’s clear. but dip and find this gaelic water greek: a phoenix flames upon fionn uisce here. strangers were barbaroi to the greek ear. now let the heirs of all who could not speak the language, whose ba-babbling was unclear, come with their gift of tongues past each frontier and find the answering voices that they seek as fionn and uisce answer phoenix here. the may day hills were burning, far and near, when our land’s first footers beached boats in the creek in uisce, fionn, strange words that soon grew clear; so on a day when newcomers appear let it be a homecoming and let us speak the unstrange word, as it behoves us here, move lips, move minds and make new meanings flare like ancient beacons signalling, peak to peak, from middle sea to north sea, shining clear as phoenix flame upon fionn uisce here. eu2004.ie

good work.