Meitheal
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There is a great debate on at the moment as to whether Irish as a language should remain a compulsory subject on the Irish schools’ curriculum. Suggestions have been made to incorporate learning about Irish tradition and culture along with an introduction to the language and to drop it as a necessary subject for the Leaving Certificate. I agree with this approach. There are some very descriptive words and phrases in the Irish language which give us a sense of connection to the spiritual world, help us to respect the God in everyone, and which make us aware that unity gives all a chance to prosper.
One such word is meitheal which captures beautifully the essence of a whole endeavour. It means a gang of workmen, or a band of reapers, and has been applied, in the past, to the co-operative nature of bringing in the harvest when all hands gathered to help each farmer complete the cycle of sowing and reaping.
A couple of years’ ago, I found myself in the midst of a modern-day meitheal. It was a summer evening, and I had called to one of my best friends with a wedding gift for her daughter and husband-to-be. They had just begun to put together the sheets for the Order of Service, surrounded by pieces of card of varying sizes to be assembled, scissors, doubled-sided tape and ribbon. The young couple wanted to go out to spend their last evening together before their faithful commitment the next day. We looked at the clock and decided that the only way to complete the job in order for everyone to be satisfied was to form a very creative production line. It was extremely interesting how we all fell into doing the jobs that each of us could do best, we laughed and chatted, shared scissors, spilled coffee, drank tea, stroked the cat, and the cards were finished in an hour and a half. Everyone was smiling.
Today, we are being urged by ecologists to change our relationships towards ourselves, others and our planet Earth in order to invite back the fragmented parts of ourselves and help weave a more sustainable way of living for all. Words like meitheal could be an essential component of this rich tapestry.
