Des Bishop describes himself as an Irish comedian from Flushing, The Bronx, New York. With his American accent and frat boy good looks he doesn’t look Irish but he insists he is.

He is a comedian whose material is largely drawn from hilarious observations of Irish life. After spending last year in the Connemara Gaeltacht, “the final frontier of Irish life I had yet to explore”, he now probably speaks more Irish than the rest of us.

This series was very funny as we watched Des settle in to the Gaeltacht and relax in his new environment. It was a spiritual experience. Des went out fishing on a curragh, was shouted at by a GAA team coach (ás gaeilge), and the giggles of the local girls were gas as he stumbled through a practice for his oral Irish.

The most hilarious was the day of the leaving cert Irish scrúdú béal when he was wearing a school uniform which somebody managed to find him.

The day of his results he was really nervous, but passed with A’s. He said “Go raibh mile maith agat” to his Bean an Ti who helped him through it.

The aim of the exercise was to be able to perform the first ever stand up ‘ás gaeilge’ striving to make them laugh in what he considers his native tongue.

He brought the house down during the series at shows in Connemara, discovered one of the verb tenses, the Modh Coinníollach (conditional mood) to be characteristically Irish, and visibly improved at his spoken Irish. This brought him a lot of joy and he says that it has been one of the best years of his life.

He was also trying to find out what has freaked out so many people for so long about learning Irish. Having the book ‘Peig’ on the life of Peig Sayers on the leaving cert might have put people off for life. That book was grim and depressing, so Des went down to the Blasket Islands in Kerry to visit the house of Peig Sayers which is still there. He discovers it is a brú (hostel), which a local reliably tells him it was, even in the time of Peig Sayers.

When he goes back to visit his parents in New York after the year, he brings Anthony with him from the gaeltacht. They find speaking Irish on the subway to be very useful if they don’t want to be overheard. “Tá an gaeilge handy anois a Antoine” as they gossip on the train. Back in America, Des Bishop finds this new form of communication almost spiritual in its nature. Tá sé “suimiúil” (interesting) agus difriúil (different) agus tá identity fhéin san áit mar seo (and I have my own identity in this place now).

They meet a freestyle (stil saor) rapper “Ta an fear gorm sin cool” and an oriental guy sings an Irish ballad word perfect. “Ní fhactas duine ar bith ag canadh amhráin i ngaeilge taobh amuigh í Times Square, ceapaim.” (Never thought I’d see anyone singing like that in Times Square). He talks to one of the students in an Irish centre who says it brings you “an sort pride a bheith ag folaim teanga eile” (a pride in learning another language). Pride is ‘morchuis’ or ‘díomas’, but it is colloquial to mix up some English words, and easier.

Being able to speak Irish has a lot to do with identity. ‘Anseo, bhí me Meiriceánach, ach ní raibh me ag smaoineamh Meiriceánach i mo shaol. Éireannach me”– (Here I was American, but I never thought I was American in my life).

Des Bishop appears at Vicar Street in Tongues on 2, 22, 24 and 25 May.