Muggle. Noun (informal). Definition: a person who is not conversant with a particular activity or skill 
 
I married an English man.  Despite the fact that growing up I used to have to step over the guns of Englishmen to get out my front door…I married an English man.

When our first child was born, we talked about choice of schools and I had already decided she would go to the same school as me, St Teresa’s Primary, but my Englishman husband had other ideas.

He thought we should send her to an Irish School – I thought he had lost the plot and he thought the same of me. I grew up facing the Shaws Road Irish Houses. "It’s a cult," I said. "They’re all hippies and besides, we don’t even speak Irish."  

He couldn’t believe that I couldn’t see the benefits of sending a child to an immersive Irish speaking school, giving them the gift of bilingualism. I still wasn’t convinced. I made him a bet. "If you learn the language to a good level before she’s three, then we can talk about it."

Off he went every Monday night to his rang with his wee book to learn the lingo of the natives. He did well (just to spite me) and by the time the first child was three and with the second child about to arrive, he got his silver fáinne and was about to enrol on the Diploma in Irish Language at University of Ulster.  
 
This part of the bet won by him, off we went to the open night at Bunscoil Phobal Feirste so I could prove him wrong. I lost again.  

I could feel the magic as soon as we arrived. The sense of community in the school is palpable. The nurturing of the children alongside the language is everywhere. The less formal approach of calling teachers by first names lends itself to equality, cohesion, community.  

There’s a celebration of culture and heritage every day in the school.  It really is something magical…Hogwarts as Gaelige. The best decision we ever made for our kids. My heart soars every time the three of them speak Irish at home – and when my Englishman does it, he speaks it in a Belfast accent!  I’m still a muggle with only a cúpla focal but picking up new words and phrases all the time.  
 
It took an Englishman to teach an Irish girl a lesson about the Irish Language. Every day is a school day! 
 
There is a lesson there too for the wider public – especially for those pitiful paramilitaries who feel threatened by a group of kids learning Irish.