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2015年12月24日木曜日

【愛蘭土2015総括】Seasons Greetings Nollaig Shona agus Athbhliain faoi Mhaise Daoibh!Céad~良いお年を!Le gach dea ghui gcoir na hAthbhliana !





Top 5 Christmas Traditions in Ireland 

1. An early morning swim on Christmas day is a very popular activity on Christmas day to open the appetite for the brave hearted. Charities benefit from sponsorship and great fun is to be had.

2. Christmas day mass is a religious and social gathering where family neighbours and friends express seasonal greetings and good wishes to each other.

3. A visit to the graves of deceased family and friends along with the laying of a holly wreath to remember loved ones at Christmas time.

4. Visiting the homes of family and friends for pre-dinner drinks and chat.

5. Christmas in Ireland is all about celebration and sharing. Irish people love Christmas, It's a family time for giving.


Mince pies are a real Christmas favourite.



Poinsettia.This plant is in almost every home in Ireland at Christmas.




アイルランドのクリスマス行事トップ5

1. クリスマス当日の早朝水泳は、何事にも立ち向かっていく心を開くための非常にポピュラーな活動です。慈善団体は協賛により利益を得らますし、大きな楽しみが得られます。

2. クリスマス当日のミサは信仰深いもので、家族・ご近所・友人が互いに季節のあいさつと祝福をしあう社会的な集まりです。

3. クリスマスでは亡くなった家族や友人の墓を訪れ、ホリー・リースを手向け、愛する故人を偲びます。

4. 家族や友人宅を訪れ、ディナー前の一杯とおしゃべりを楽しみます。

5. アイルランドのクリスマスは祝福と分かち合いに尽きます。アイルランドの人々はクリスマスを愛しています。クリスマスは(愛やプレゼントなどの)贈り物をするための家族の時間なのです。

Written byBridget Daly 













The Irish Today読者の皆さん、こんにちは!翻訳者の水谷です。

いよいよ今年もクリスマスの時期ですね~。

今回の記事の中にもありますが、私にとってアイルランドのクリスマスといえば1番目の海に飛び込むアイリッシュが印象的でした。
当時、私はアイルランド留学中にブレイという町に住んでいましたが、ダブリンへ向かう手前のダンレアリーという港町に、Forty Footと呼ばれる有名な海水浴スポットがありました。クリスマスになると、たくさんのアイリッシュたちがこのForty Footから海にダイブする光景は、もはや冬の風物詩のひとつとなっている様でした。
良い子はマネしちゃいけませんが、寒いから景気づけに泳ぐ!というあたりに、アイリッシュの前向きな発想が感じられますよね~。

私にとって今年一年を振り返ると、達成感もありつつも、あのアイリッシュたちのように、もう少し挑戦できたんじゃないか、という悔しい気持ちも強いです。毎年の事ですが、来年もチャレンジの年にしたいなと思っています。

今回の記事で今年最後の原稿となりますが、皆さんが良い新年を迎えられることを心よりお祈り申し上げます。来年もどうぞよろしくお願いします。 






Go raibh tú daibhir i mí-áidh
Agus saibhir i mbeannachtaí
Go mall ag déanamh namhaid, go luath a déanamh carad,
Ach saibhir nó daibhir, go mall nó go luath,
Nach raibh ach áthas agat
Ón lá seo amach.

May you be poor in misfortune,
Rich in blessings, 
Slow to make enemies, 
quick to make friends, 
But rich or poor, quick or slow,
May you know nothing but happiness 
From this day forward.

Written by Bridget Daly

































































































































2015総括


“アイルランドも、こういう時代になったのか”~

アイルランド、コークの我が家近くにできた日本食店“MIYAZAKI”でその味を確かめまず思ったこと。
昔は日本食屋さんはおろか、日本食材を仕入れるもの一苦労。
こんな片田舎(失礼!)で日本食材など売っているはずもなく、わざわざ首都ダブリンの中国人経営アジアンフード店へ「買い出し」に行ったものだ。
また、特筆すべきはMIYAZAKIの味はオーセンティックジャパニーズ、つまり日本人が好む生粋の日本の味なのだ。
申し訳ないが、この味はアイリッシュでは出せないし、料理に対してのスキルやキャリアも相当ないと、まず実現できないテイストだ。

ホンモノの日本人が、このアイルランドの地に根をおろし、食文化の啓蒙を進めている。
アイリッシュの反響はすごいものだ、ということも付け加えたい。

このように、今やアイルランドと日本におけるヒトの交流が活発になり、この地で日本語を耳にすることも珍しくなくなった。

ドイツを含む欧米のアイルランド進出も目をみはるものがある。
先日、ドニゴールに住むドイツ人の友人に聞いてみた。
「アイルランドにとって観光視点で最もインパクトある欧州国家はドイツだと以前観光庁が言っていた。なぜドイツ人はアイルランドが好きなのか」
「それは勿論陸国家ドイツであるからこその海への憧れ、という側面も多分にある。しかしそれだけではない。アイルランド人のホスピタリティー・寛容さもあれば、気候のモデレートさもある。英国のような、なにか、こうビシっとしたコンサバな空気が苦手」、と笑う彼女はアイリッシュダンスが大好き。親友でもあるダンスの先生はご家族が日本に住み、アン・バリントン大使もよく知っている関係だ。

ヒトモノカネのグローバル化が急速に進むアイルランド。
緻密なダイヤで廉価な運賃が魅力の航空ネットワークもそれを後押し、ヨーロッパ各国のテレビではなんと「おいでよアイルランドへ」とコマーシャルが流れる。

今年も過去最高の訪愛客数をたたき出した旅人達の憧れ、アイルランド。
この傾向は来年より強くなるだろう。
単なるホリデーではない、企業投資・移住・文化交流といった側面も興味深い。

さあ、あなたは来年アイルランドに行きますか?
初夢はアイルランドで。良いお年を!


The Irish Today/Toru Tazura 
@injtokyo
















 #StarWars on WildAtlanticWay

Ireland to feel ‘The Force’! Tourism Ireland unveils new Star Wars campaign


Star Wars: The Force Awakens – which features Skellig Michael – presents Tourism Ireland with a truly unique opportunity to highlight the South West and Ireland in 2016. 
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the most anticipated film of the year and Tourism Ireland plans to take every opportunity to maximise the Star Wars connection with Ireland over the coming weeks and months. Its campaign will be rolled out in 14 different markets – including Britain, the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, the Nordic region, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa and the GCC.

Activity will include:
a specially created page on Tourism Ireland’s international website, Ireland.com, which has attracted about 16.5 million visitors this year;
extensive social activity, with posts on Facebook (Tourism Ireland has 3.33 million fans worldwide) and Twitter (317,000+ followers); and
a major PR and publicity push to Tourism Ireland’s 20,000+ international media contacts.
Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Paschal Donohoe TD, said: "I would like to wish Tourism Ireland every success with this marketing initiative. The new Star Wars film is widely expected to be one of the most viewed films in history. Having Ireland's magnificent scenery featuring in the film provides a tremendous boost for us and I know that Tourism Ireland will fully maximise the opportunities the film presents. 2015 has been a wonderful year for Irish tourism and initiatives like this can ensure that the positive momentum is maintained into 2016 and beyond."

TV and film are recognised as strong influencers on travellers everywhere, with up to 35% of people being impacted in their choice of destination by what they see on screen.
Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: “A hugely popular name like Star Wars filming here will bring the magnificent scenery of Skellig Michael and the Wild Atlantic Way to the attention of millions of people around the world. It’s a really effective way to reach mass audiences, helping to significantly boost awareness of the Skelligs, the South West and Ireland in general, providing a global platform for Ireland as a holiday destination and whetting peoples’ appetites to come and visit.”
The second phase of Tourism Ireland’s Star Wars campaign will be unveiled in early 2016.



(Source: Tourism Ireland)


今年最後になって差し馬のごとく話題をさらった、映画「スター・ウォーズ / フォースの覚醒」。

アイルランドで撮影していたことは、周知の事実でしたが、いざ公開されるとその反響は凄まじく相変わらずのSW人気。
いきなりワイルド・アトランティック・ウェイの主役の座に躍り出た感があります。
勿論このエリアはKerry Dark Skiesのエリア。
昼間は絶景の孤島。夜は世界一の星空・・・・・・これ以上ないホリデーパッケージです。

ポイントはSWという世界共通のフォーマットでアイルランドを知ってもらえること。

撮影地のスケリッグマイケルは、誰でもボートさえ予約がとれ運行されれば行けますが、そこまでが結構大変、という到達難易度も余計に冒険心を駆り立てます。

スケリッグマイケル周辺の宿。夏は予約争奪になりますので行かれる方は対策を。

地元の方々も現在の状況を好意的に受け取っているように見えます。
ケリー、来年は大変な活況です。
またこれを機会にアイルランド世界遺産巡りを是非。






地元 #skelligcoast 出身、首都ダブリン中心に活躍するケリーマンである友人のプロカメラマン、マイクの作品を見ると思わずため息が・・・・





































































#LafcadioHearn 
Its "Never ending story"








Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904)

The Embassy of Ireland in Tokyo promotes the achievement of Lafcadio Hearn as one of the most important historical connections between Ireland and Japan. A special library devoted to books by and about Hearn was opened at the Embassy in 1987.  The Embassy is also closely involved with many Hearn –related e events in Japan including links with Matsue  in Shimane Prefecture and Kumamoto in Kyushu, where Hearn lived.

Lafcadio Hearn is one of the most famous foreigners ever to have lived in Japan.

He was born in 1850 on the island of Lefkas, Greece (hence his name), the son of an Irish father who was a surgeon in the British army stationed on the island, and of a Greek mother. When a very young child, he was brought to Dublin and raised by an aunt at houses in Leinster Square and Upper Leeson Street. Later he attended school in Durham, England and at the age of 19 emigrated to the United States. There, in Cincinnati and New Orleans, he became a journalist, a translator and a writer with a taste for the exotic and the macabre.

In 1890, when he was almost forty, he travelled to Japan on a temporary assignment for Harpers magazine.

His arrival at Yokohama on 4th April 1890 was very much a part of the wider influx of westerners into Japan at that time as a result of the opening of Japan to the west following the collapse of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the restoration of the Emperor in 1868.

Irish people, sometimes within the framework of Britain’s exchanges with Japan and some-times those of the United States, were inevitably involved in the process of “westernization” following the Meiji restoration. Prior to 1868 there is no evidence of significant Irish involvement in Japan. Under the Tokugawa Shogunate, foreigners (with limited exceptions) were excluded from Japan.

Lafcadio Hearn spent the remaining 14 years of his life in Japan; married a Japanese woman; took out Japanese citizenship under the name Koizumi Yakumo and, from a relatively humble position as schoolmaster in Matsue in western Japan, he became Professor of English Literature at the Imperial University of Tokyo.

Hearn is largely remembered today because he wrote twelve books on Japan, many of which are still in print. The first and perhaps the most famous, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, was published in 1894. It combined travel sketches of his life in western Japan with studies of its culture and religion in the early 1890s. His last book, Japan An Attempt at Interpretation, was published posthumously in 1905. This was a historical analysis of the transformation of Japan from a feudal society to the rapidly-modernizing country in which Hearn actually lived. As in all Hearn’s books, a note of regret is persistently sounded: regret for the loss of the customs and practices of “Old Japan”, the Japan which Hearn felt was being undermined by the processes of modernization during the Meiji period.

It is perhaps as a result of Hearn’s sympathy and understanding for this “Old Japan” that his work is still so widely admired. Certainly, his contribution to Western knowledge of Japan and Japanese culture has been very significant.

While interest in Hearn’s work waned during the Second World War, interest resurfaced in the early 1960’s with the publication of new biographies and critical studies. A new revival has taken place since 1990 which marked the centenary of his arrival in Japan. Many new studies of his life and work have been published in the past ten years in both English and Japanese. These have included books about his Irish background, a relatively new area of Hearn scholarship.






#StPatricksDay 
Ireland’s day of pride, heritage and celebration

It’s a national holiday that’s celebrated in more countries than any other. It’s the day that gets the whole world to think green and go green. But if you really want to get a piece of the party, you’ve got to come to Ireland. Ireland on St Patrick’s Day is unlike anywhere else in the world.














~Bilateral friendship never been stronger~

Written by

Ambassador of Ireland








































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