Buy it for next year as this was made especially for MyIrelandBox!
Catherine has a message for you: (she is so excited to send this Nollaig Shona ‘pin’, doubling as a Christmas decoration, to you with the Irish language that she treasures. She is expecting her first baby soon so let’s send he lots of warm wishes!)
‘’Hi, my name is Cat and I'm an Irish illustrator who draws under the name Nine Arrow. I studied Irish (Gaelic) for many years in school. I lived abroad in Japan. When I returned, I was reading Darach O'Séaghdha's book Motherfoclóir and listening to him and his co-hosts podcast [and] that re-ignited my drive to do something with Irish. I started an illustration project, where I'd illustrate words and phrases in Irish that I found interesting. After some prompting from friends and family, I started to make some of my artwork available as art prints and offer custom commission work of Irish words and phrases. Curiosity and a desire to share stories drives me to keep creating. I don’t always know what I'm on about at the beginning of a project, but the story always comes out in the process. I started working with the Irish language in 2017 and every time I go diving through books and dictionaries, Irish words always spark my imagination, and they have some great stories in them too. I love engaging with our language daily and I want to show what I learn with each piece of Irish through an illustration. Feel free to take a word or a phrase and add it into your life. I believe Irish belongs to everyone. ‘Beagán a rá agus é a rá go maith’ ~ (bee~ug-awn ah raw ah-gus aye ah raw guh moh) ‘Say a little and say it well’.’’
Cat certainly loves our language as much as we do, and that’s why we were so drawn to her – as well as the fact that this pin is just so very cute and doubles as a Christmas decoration! We are sure that you and yourfriends and family will be singing the words ‘Nollaig Shona’ (‘Null-ig hun-ah’ – ‘Happy Christmas’) to each other this Christmas!