It hasn\u2019t been going well. In the best cases, some places recognize it as Irish and apologize for not understanding it<\/a>, or at least give it a shot<\/a>; some just hang up<\/a>; others are hostile, with one replying \u201cblah blah blah\u201d<\/a> before demanding he speak English. Finlay has called the whole thing a \u201clight-hearted challenge<\/a>\u201d and, as such, says he doesn\u2019t publicize the locations of the places he\u2019s calling. You can see that he\u2019s disappointed when the challenge fails, but he isn\u2019t aggressively rude to the restaurant workers when they can\u2019t help him.\u00a0<\/p>\n I was a little bit charmed when this first appeared on my Instagram feed. As someone learning Irish in America I have no occasion to ever order in the language or use it in my daily life at all, but sometimes when I\u2019m waiting in a checkout line I\u2019ll practice to myself how I would conduct my business in Irish, just to force a chance to imagine the language out in the wild. Through Finlay\u2019s videos, it\u2019s been dispiriting to see that \u201cmaybe one day I\u2019ll go to Ireland and use my Irish there\u201d might not be as much of a solution as I\u2019ve imagined, but at least the videos have taught me a new sentence construction for ordering in case it does ever come up. According to the Irish Star<\/a>, the series has gone viral, so I imagine a lot of people are in my same position of clicking each new video hoping today is the day.<\/p>\n @nasti_2k<\/a> <\/p>\n We\u2019ll get there one day\u2026 #irish<\/a> #ireland<\/a> #gaeilge<\/a> #nasti2k<\/a> <\/p>\n \u266c i was only temporary – my head is empty<\/a> <\/p>\n But because this is social media, it hasn\u2019t taken long for things to go off the rails. Even if Finlay isn\u2019t actively rude to the people answering the phone, it hasn\u2019t stopped commenters from doing it for him. Things have gotten (sorry) nasty: Many of the comments on his videos are, predictably, racist, with some saying he might have better luck speaking a \u201c3rd world language\u201d or otherwise critiquing immigration, and others taking an uncomfortably nationalist stance by saying people \u201cshould be ashamed\u201d not to speak Irish in Ireland. (A large number of the comments have also taken Ireland to task for not making the language mandatory in schools, while Finlay and other commenters have pointed out that in fact it is.)\u00a0<\/p>\n Clare Cullen, an influencer who has made person-on-the-street videos<\/a> in Irish, critiqued the series<\/a> early on by saying that Irish language influencers \u201chave to be really careful not to allow [their content] to be used to push forward xenophobic and racist narratives.\u201d She took Finlay to task for not deleting these kinds of comments; I didn\u2019t see them at the time she posted her video, so I can\u2019t tell if he\u2019s since removed any, but there are definitely more ugly comments than not.<\/p>\n Cullen also notes what some of the people not engaged in gleeful racism have pointed out in the comments: that it sounds like Finlay is at least on occasion calling Chinese takeaways, where it might not be reasonable to expect the staff to know Irish. Finlay has acknowledged the claim that he\u2019s picking places unlikely to have Irish speakers without exactly refuting it, saying<\/a> \u201cI think it\u2019s clear to see a lot of these people have Dublin accents.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019ve definitely soured on the stunt since first seeing it. Finlay\u2019s whole approach has come to feel like a bad internet-age take on Manch\u00e1n Magan\u2019s No B\u00e9arla<\/a>, an incredibly unlikable 2007 TG4 series where Magan attempted to get around Ireland only in Irish and was openly disdainful to anyone who couldn\u2019t keep up with him. The Irish language band Kneecap has praised the show<\/a>, but I found it deeply offputting; the reasons Irish is rare, even in Ireland, are massive and well-documented<\/a>, and it didn\u2019t seem to me like stomping around the country sneering at anyone who hasn\u2019t been able to undo centuries of colonialization was likely to change that. (Magan, who died last year at 55<\/a>, softened in his approach as his career went on; I\u2019m particularly fond of his formal, poetic cover of one of Kneecap\u2019s popular songs<\/a>.)<\/p>\n The hook of Finlay\u2019s videos are the same, even if he\u2019s not actively saying as much: He simply launches into Irish and lets the call answerer swing in the wind. Watching the videos, reading through the comments, and observing other influencers\u2019 responses, the whole thing has come to feel mean-spirited and not actually doing much to promote or preserve an endangered language. It feels like a crummy way to eat up some hassled restaurant worker\u2019s evening, and it\u2019s adding to the piles of hate speech the internet already has too many of.<\/p>\n Some Irish language influencers have made their own content in response. Cullen made a Finlay-inspired video called \u201cDay 1 of ordering in Irish until someone says no<\/a>,\u201d which features footage of Aon Sc\u00e9al Caf\u00e9 in Dublin, an Irish language coffee shop. \u201cWill anyone care, or is the new meta that the Irish language will only get mass attention when being used to undermine multiculturalism?\u201d she wrote in the caption.<\/p>\n Another influencer, \u00c9amon \u00d3 Corcr\u00e1in, who has a series where he invites people on the streets of different countries to speak Irish with him<\/a>, made a video of himself ordering a pizza in Irish. He starts the call<\/a> by expressly asking if it\u2019s possible to order in Irish; the person on the phone happily replies that she has Irish, and they have a pleasant conversation in which \u00d3 Corcr\u00e1in is able to order his pizza. \u201cI teach Irish and good manners,\u201d he writes in the caption. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Other content creators have made send-ups of the video highlighting how Irish can be gatekept<\/a>. Someone making an Irish language learning game has used it to promote their game<\/a>.TG4, the Irish language TV station, made a video from the perspective of an over-prepared food worker waiting on a call from Finlay<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not a giant controversy in the scheme of things, but it\u2019s far removed enough from the things that comprise the bulk of my social media that I have broken many of my personal rules and keep searching for people talking about it. (It probably helps that I refuse to get a TikTok account, so I can\u2019t gorge on whatever horrors are surely going on over there.) My behavior highlights to me one of the insidious things about social media: The discourse around the whole thing is so niche and minor, but at the same time it touches on important bigger picture questions about language and national identity. The real weight underneath it all has, if I\u2019m honest, become the excuse I use to just indulge in the ugly habits social media fosters to keep us hooked. I name-search and scroll and gawk at the arguments, decide people I\u2019ve never met are \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cbad,\u201d and tell myself I\u2019m learning something about a culture different from my own when really I\u2019m only seeing a small, curated slice crafted by people who are building their personal brands. The drama has opened my eyes to aspects of the language that are removed from me as an American learning it for fun, but I\u2019m not doing anything with that new knowledge; I’m just scrolling social media instead of doing the myriad better things I could be doing with my time, including actually studying my own Irish.<\/p>\n
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