Gaelic Oscar Gaff

Oscar winning Irish songwriter Glen Hansard has come under attack for bungling his Gaelic in his thank you speech at the Academy Awards ceremony.

      The former Frames frontman tried to say "thanks a million" in Irish in his speech, which was seen on television by millions of people around the world.

      But he got his tenses mixed up which has caused a storm of protest from Celtic purists in the United States.

      American journalist Orla O'Sullivan wrote in the New York Times newspaper: "For some Irish people who watched the Oscars last week, pride was tinged with shame when their countryman won the Academy Award for best song -- and promptly botched an attempt to say 'thank you' in his nation's native tongue."

      She added: "Considering that Irish schoolchildren must take at least 12 years of Gaelic, it's not as if he never had the chance to learn,"

      Dublin-born Hansard, who won for his song 'Falling Slowly' from the Irish independent movie 'Once,' may have sparked the wrath of Celtic language purists across the United States but other's regard it as a fuss about nothing.

      In addressing the thousands of Academy members who had voted for him and the many millions of people worldwide watching on TV, Hansard said "thank you" using the singular form.

      That would be similar to addressing the French with "merci a toi," rather than "merci a vous," in other words using the singular rather than the plural.

      "He said, 'Go raibh mile, mile, maith agat,' but he should have said 'agaibh' as the final word," said Mary Haslam, a native of Limerick who teaches French at New York University. "I was cringing a bit because I'm a language teacher, but nobody seems to have picked up on that."

       She added: "I wouldn't be too hard on him."

      Among those who did not seem to notice were the members of the Irish Film Board, which is officially known by its Irish name, Bord Scannan na hEireann.

       The film board largely funded 'Once,' which is based in Dublin and stars Hansard and his real-life Czech girlfriend, Marketa Irglova, who was a co-writer of 'Falling Slowly' and shared the award.

       "We're just delighted that he won," said Louise Ryan, a spokeswoman for the Irish Film Board.

       She said that since receiving the Oscar, Hansard had been busy trying to promote Irish film companies in Hollywood.

       A spokesman for Hansard said that the musician could not be reached for comment.

       Also an effort to poll readers about the incident on irishgaelictranslator.com drew few responses, suggesting that many viewers had not perceived a gaffe.

       In a discussion group, one visitor argued that Hansard "was talking to the academy, which is singular."

       Given how bewildering Gaelic words can look to people raised exclusively on English, many Irish people are willing to award points for effort.

       Several people who left comments on the Gaelic translator site invoked a popular Irish saying that translates roughly to: "Better broken Irish than perfect English."