MMI, Making Waves: Major Irish Media Blitz on Cadets Studying in Ireland

When it rains it pours, and right now the Irish media are pouring massive interest into the Marion Military Institute cadets and teacher studying Gaelic in Ireland this summer.  On June 24th, Cadet Travis Connelly, Cadet Gordon Lawless and history instructor, Dr. Rankin Sherling, were featured on the cover of the Gaelic section of the Irish Independent, the nation's best-selling daily newspaper. Simultaneously, the Donegal Daily (the local online paper for the region where the cadets are studying) also ran an article on the young students and their teacher.

Lawless, Connelly & Sherling on the cover of
Irish Independent , Gaelic section.

That very same day, a production team from TG4, the Irish language channel for Ireland’s national broadcaster Raidio Teilifis Eireann (RTE) showed up at Oideas Gael (the language school) in Glecombcille, Donegal and requested to pull the three students out of class to take part in a documentary they were filming that day, highlighting interesting Irish speakers.  And, just yesterday, Dr. Sherling was interviewed in Irish Gaelic by BBC Gaeilge, the Irish division of the British Broadcasting Company, one of the largest and most respected news outlets in the world.

Lawless, Connelly, and RTE Director, Barry Donnellan.

But why all the attention? A handful of Americans travel to Donegal each year to immerse themselves in the Gaelic language and culture.  What differentiates these three from the rest?  From an American outsider looking in on the situation, that's what we might ask.  But the Irish find the situation simply fascinating -- an American instructor, starting his own Gaelic classes in rural Alabama at a military college, and then bringing his top pupils to a rural Gaeltacht on the west coast of Ireland, an ocean away both literally and metaphorically.  The Irish language media seem thrilled to learn of these young, dedicated students taking the initiative to dig into their Irish roots while still studying in a military environment.  Curiosity, dedication, and an inspiring instructor.  From the barracks to the bogs.  It is quite a story, after all.

Connelly, Lawless, John Creeden (International T.V. host)
and Sherling after filming the documentary in Glencolmcille, Co. Donegal.

Lawless, Connelly and Sherling on the cover of the Donegal Daily,
an online newspaper in Co. Donegal.