A leading scholar of the Irish language has said that the controversy over remarks made by the manager of the Kerry football team, Mr Páidi Ó Sé, had been exacerbated by the "retreat of the Irish language" and a breakdown in understanding the Gaelic tradition.
Mr Ó Sé's description of Kerry football supporters as "the roughest type of f***ing animals you could ever deal with" incensed some supporters and led to calls for his resignation.
However, Canon Pádraig Ó Fiannachta, a classical scholar and a former lecturer in the department of Irish at NUI, Maynooth, said that Mr Ó Sé's remarks were "best understood by the people in his own area [in Ventry in west Kerry]".
"Animal", as it was understood in Irish, was a being close to the human. Humans were animals with souls, he explained.
Canon Ó Fiannachta, who translated the Bible into Irish, is now parish priest of Dingle.
"All language and dialect has to be interpreted in its immediate surroundings. In west Kerry, the term 'animal' is not as offensive as it is perhaps to the more Anglicised, uppish people in towns such as Killarney," he said. Outside Killarney and Tralee, however, the "Irish cast of mind" was almost as strong as in Gaeltacht areas.
The term "anmhí" was rarely used in Irish. But the phrase "téad bullán" or "scata bullán" (a herd of bullocks), referring to a bunch of strong and single-minded and determined men who were not for turning, often was.
"I think Páidi was referring to men, mainly," Canon Ó Fiannachta said.
"Páidi Ó Sé lives exactly on the border of the fíor-Ghaeltacht at this stage of the retreat of Irish," Canon O Fiannachta remarked. "His cast of mind is absolutely Irish," he added.
Other people in west Kerry have also spoken of a gulf of understanding over the remarks. Mr Tom Fitzgerald, a former Fianna Fáil senator, says that he used the word "animal" in the Seanad without provoking controversy.
Mr Breandán Mac Gearailt, the editor of a book of Irish curses, 500 Mallacht Ort, said that the term was "not very complimentary". A county councillor and member of Udarás na Gaeltachta, Mr Mac Gearailt compiled the book, which was published last year, "to show that one can curse with style".
"It means a rough diamond, uncouth, a real red-neck, and it is exclusively used of men. But it is not as malicious, cold or raw, and it doesn't have the same depth as in the English-speaking world," he said.
Mr Ó Se arrived back in Kerry at the weekend. He had apologised from South Africa, where he was on holiday with the Kerry football team, over the outcry his remarks caused.
In his apology, Mr Ó Sé indicated that there was confusion about the true meaning of what he had said: "What I meant in the article about the Kerry supporters is that they are very hard to please, always demanding the highest standards, because they are a very proud race of people . . . From time to time, I unfortunately go about describing things the wrong way, and I regret and apologise to the people of Kerry if I have hurt, disturbed or upset them in any way."