Spraoicheist Gael Linn 2013 i gCeatharlach
Meitheamh 25, 2013
Reachtáileadh ócáid an-speisialta trí Ghaeilge i gCeatharlach le déanaí do dhaltaí ins na hardranganna i mbunscoileanna an cheantair.
Spraoicheist an tSamhraidh a bhí i gceist, eagraithe ag Gael Linn i gcomhar le Glór Cheatharlach, agus d’éirigh go hiontach leis an ócáid. Ghlach breis is tríocha foireann páirt sa spraoicheist atá seanbhunaithe anois agus aitheanta mar cheann de na buaicphointí i saol na Gaeilge do dhaoine óga i gCeatharlach.
Bhí halla spóirt na Gaelscoile lán go béal go luath tar éis a deich a chlog ar maidin.Thángadar ag siúl, i gcarranna agus i mbusanna ó dheich scoil. Bhíodar ann ó Scoil Mhuire gan Smál, Gleann Uisean, Gaelscoil Eoghain Uí Thuairisc, Scoil an Easboig Uí Fhoghlú, Tigh an Raoireann, Scoil Chailíní an Teaghlaigh Naofa, Scoil Naomh Bríd Mhuinebheag, An Bóthar Glas, Baile na mBreathnach agud Díseart Diarmada.
Bhí éagsúlacht an-mhaith agus réimse an-leathan de cheisteanna le freagairt bunaithe ar spórt agus ceol, scannáin agus cláracha teilifíse, leabhair agus eolas ginearálta. Niamh de Búrca thar cheann Gael Linn a bhí ag cur na gceisteanna agus bhí muintir Ghlór Cheatharlach i mbun marcála. Tugadh raidhse de spotdhuaiseanna amach i rith an ama. Bhain cuid de na foirne scóranna an-ard amach le foireann na Gaelscoile ag barr an liosta le caoga seacht marc as seasca. Ar an bhfoireann bhí Leon Mac Conchoille, Rachel Ní Chaomhánaigh, Grace Ní Cheallaigh agus Lúc Ó hÉideáin. Scoil Dhiarmada as Díseart Diarmada a tháinig sa dara háit agus bhí Ciarán Ó Raghallaigh, Jennifer Ní Icí, Gavin Ó Raghallaigh agus Finn Ó Dúill ag ceiliúradh. Bhain foireann eile na Gaelscoile ina raibh Tadhg Ó Ceallaigh, Graeme Harland, Aindriú Mac Eochaidh agus Cathal Ó Muireacháin an tríú háit amach. Bronnadh duaiseanna, plaiceanna agus caipíní Gael Linn ar na foirne buachach uile.
Chun clabhsúr a chur leis an ócáid chuir roinnt de na daltaí ceolchoirm bheag i láthair. Bhí ceol uirlise ó pháistí Ghleann Uisean agus na Gaelscoile agus chan cailíní an Teaghlaigh Naofa agus daltaí ón mBóthar Glas cúpla amhrán. Ócáid agus imeacht an-taitneamhach dar leis na daltaí agus múinteoirí uile. Maidin álainn trí Ghaeilge mar chuid den lá scoile ach lasmuigh den seomra ranga. Ghabh Niamh de Búrca buíochas leis na daltaí agus na múinteoirí, le Glór Cheatharlach agus le bainistíocht na Gaelscoile as a dtacaíocht do Spraoicheist Gael Linn 2013.
Carlow Nationalist – Glór Cheatharlach
www.carlow-nationalist.ie
Foilsithe ar 25 Meitheamh 2013
Fleadh programme launched in Derry
Meitheamh 24, 2013
The full programme for Derry’s historic Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann was launched in Derry last night.
Hundreds of people attended the launch party in Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin to start the countdown to the largest celebration of traditional Irish music in the world, which will be held in the city from August 11-18.
The programme includes large concerts featuring the cream of traditional music talent, as well as a range of other events including performances of specially commissioned pieces of music, exhibitions, talks, and a unique aerial dance showcase.
Around 300,000 people and 20,000 musicians are expected in Derry over the week of the fleadh and it is estimated that it will generate almost 40 euro for the local economy.
Speaking at the launch, the director general of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, congratulated everyone involved in organising the Fleadh and what he described as Derry’s “can do” attitude.
“When President Obama first came to Ireland he uttered that famous phrase ‘Is feidir linn’ – which translates as ‘We can.’ I have now come to the conclusion that he borrowed that from the fleadh committee in Derry because right throughout all of this happy exciting process I was hearing an echoes all the time of Is feidir linn,” he said.
Fleadh chairperson, Eibhlín Ni Dhochartaigh, said the fleadh will have something for everyone. “Our programme team have put together an events programme that is second to none. We will in this fleadh celebrate the journey of traditional music and all its nuances,” she said.
The Mayor of Derry, councillor Martin Reilly said the fleadh will be a highlight of the City of Culture celebrations. “This City of Culture year has already created some wonderful moments but I don’t think there is any doubt that Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann is the most eagerly anticipated event this year,” he said.
Vince Jordan, president of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, said Derry is an ideal location to host the fleadh. “It is a wonderful occasion that will take place in a wonderful city. One of the aspects that has been brought to my attention is the friendliness of the people that are here in this city and that will show its mark when the visitors leave here after experiencing a wonderful Fleadh cheoil.
It will be an absolute celebration of our arts and culture, a celebration of humanity and a celebration of inclusive Ireland,” he said.
www.derryjournal.com
Foilsithe ar Gaelport.com 24 Meitheamh 2013
Derry Journal – Michael McMonagle
The last place you’d expect a cúpla focal
Meitheamh 24, 2013
Nicky Larkin is amazed to find the cupla focal being used as a healing device in fiercely loyalist East Belfast.
LINDA Ervine began to learn the Irish language two years ago. I started learning 26 years ago. But Linda Ervine speaks more Irish than me.
I sat in her office in The Skainos Centre – the East Belfast Mission. It is the brain-child and baby of Rev Dr Gary Mason, a Methodist minister, known as a critical friend to the UVF and the Red Hand Commando. Both groups chose his church for their weapons decommissioning in 2006.
A man of serious innovation, he raised more than £21m (€24.5m) to develop his community centre in the heart of loyalist East Belfast. He introduced me to Linda, who quickly put me to shame with more than just the basic cupla focal. Practically fluent in only two years, she is married to Brian Ervine, himself the former leader of the PUP party.
The famous family connections do not end there. Linda’s brother-in-law was David Ervine, the moustached late PUP leader whose face still adorns countless loyalist murals in East Belfast. In his younger days, David was a member of the UVF. He was sentenced in the 1970s to 11 years for possession of explosives.
However, later in life he became hugely respected both north and south of the Border as a progressive peace-making politician who turned his back on violence.
So why are these heavily-connected unionists – and in some cases former H-Block loyalist paramilitary prisoners – learning this language traditionally seen as the parlance of their mortal enemy?
More pertinently, why can they speak more Irish than me – a Taig from south Offaly with 14 years of Irish tutelage apparently under my belt?
The answer is simple. They want to learn it.
Linda approaches Irish as contemporary language, as opposed to the archaic methods used in most secondary schools down here to bash the Gaeilge into us. We are taught Irish as if it has no relevance to our daily lives – just a list of verbs on a board we are expected to learn by heart.
As a result, myself and my fellow hostages can now barely string a sentence together in our native tongue. I can speak much more French than Irish, despite the fact I spent five years learning French and 14 learning Irish.
Clearly that points to a serious problem in the mode employed down here to teach our own native language.
Linda has this problem sorted. She told me of former loyalist paramilitaries who now have adhesive notes attached all around their homes, to their milk and their butter, trying to learn the language in an everyday, relevant sense. They are learning Irish in a contemporary fashion, much in the same way secondary school students in the Republic learn French or German.
The demand grew so huge that Linda now runs five Irish classes a week, supported by Foras na Gaeilge. But what motivates her to spread the language? Is she not seen as something of a traitor by her unionist community?
Linda sees the Irish language as a healing device. She feels that depoliticising it is the basis for ordinary people from both sides of the divide to get together. She also feels she is providing the opportunity for people to re-connect with a part of their heritage they had lost, hijacked by violent nationalism and used as a tool of conflict.
Linda told me how she recently discovered there was a long Ervine family tradition of speaking Irish in the home. Trawling through the 1911 census, she was shocked to discover Brian’s grandfather and wider family members were all native Irish speakers.
She showed me the handwritten census pages, where Brian and David Ervine’s relatives’ names were listed in Irish, and under the “language spoken” column they were listed as bilingual. Those same men built the Titanic in a Protestant environment.
Later that night, I met Linda’s husband, Brian – the epitome of good craic. There is a sparkle in his eye, and he throws his head back with every belly laugh. We went for a few pints, Linda kindly offering to act as designated driver. After the beers, we drove through the streets of East Belfast.
As we passed a huge mural of David Ervine adorning the gable end of a house, Brian came out with one of the most profound statements I have ever heard. He said he was sick of it all – sick of the murals, sick of the glorification. He said we need to start living in the present if we have any chance of moving on.
He is right. Linda and Brian Ervine are a remarkable couple. Leaving Belfast that night, I felt that just maybe, if people like Linda and Brian are allowed to be heard above the cacophony of shaven-headed, tattooed cartoon characters we see on the news, a new day might be just around the corner after all these years of blood and tears.
www.independent.ie
Foilsithe ar Gaelport.com 24 Meitheamh 2013
Irish Independent – Nicky Larkin
Old criticism of Gaelic
Meitheamh 18, 2013
Litreacha chuig an eagarthóir:
The only evidence that Gerard O’Regan’s weird attack on Irish speakers (June 15) was written in 2013 and not 1973 is his reference to Facebook.
He’s right to note that the Irish education system has often presented an artificial Irish. But there’s a bright side: the Department of Education has greatly improved the teaching of Irish, to such an extent that Mr O’Regan’s friend ‘Andrea’, who has just done her Leaving Certificate, is now capable of holding basic conversations in Irish.
Mr O’Regan says that Andrea will have no use for her Irish. I’m going to be in Dublin this summer, and my two small Irish-speaking children need a babysitter. Andrea sounds like a fantastic candidate. Perhaps Mr O’Regan could put her in touch with me?
Brian O Broin,
Ph.D. Department of English,
William Paterson University,
New Jersey,
USA
It always amazes me when Irish language cynics have a cut off Gaelscoileanna as part of a whingefest about the pointlessness of preserving our native language. I can never tell if it’s jealousy, lack of patriotism, plain lack of research or a mixture of all three.
‘Lazy Journalism’ might be accountable for Gerard O’Regan’s outlandish assertion that Gaelscoil parents “radiate a sense of cultural superiority, which can be off-putting to say the least for somebody not of their tribe”.
As a principal of a Gaelscoil, I think I can speak with some authority. Parents choose Gaelscoileanna not only for their excellent standard but also because they want their children to read, write and speak fluently in two languages. Many parents want to foster in their children a love of Irish language and culture. This is not a quest for cultural superiority but rather a thirst for cultural identity.
Dominic O Braonain,
Gaelscoil Phortlaoise.
www.independent.ie
Cruinniú eolais i Naíonra Cheatharlach
Meitheamh 18, 2013
Reachtáilfear cruinniú eolais i Naíonra Cheatharlach anocht, Dé Máirt an 18ú Meitheamh ag 8.00i.n. agus beidh fáilte roimh chách.
Tá an Naíonra lonnaithe ins an Ionad Snámha, Gráigchuilinn agus cuirtear oideachas réamhscolaíochta trí mheán na Gaeilge ar fáil ann. Soláthraíonn Naíonra Cheatharlach an bhliain réamhscoile saor in aisce faoin Scéim um Chúram agus Oideachas Luath-Óige. De réir na scéime áirithe seo cuirtear bliain réamhoideachais ar fáil saor do gach páiste sar a fhreastalaíonn sé/sí ar an mbunscoil.
Feidhmíonn Naíonra Cheatharlach i gcomhar le Glór Cheatharlach agus faoi stiúir an eagrais Forbairt Naíonraí Teoranta a thacaíonn le seirbhísí , cúram agus oideachas a chur chun cinn do pháistí ó aois an chliabháin ar aghaidh.
Is cruinniú oscailte a bheidh i gceist sa Naíonra anocht chun eolas a roinnt le tuismitheoirí faoi mhodh an tsúgartha trí Ghaeilge do pháistí óga. Beidh roinnt aoíchainteoirí ann ina measc Laura Rawdon, Oifigeach Forbartha le Forbairt Naíonraí Teo. Cuirfear fáilte roimh chách.
www.carlow-nationalist.ie
‘My first kiss was with a Gaelgóir from Dublin’
Meitheamh 17, 2013
Ex-students recount tales of the Gaeltacht, prompting memories of strict cinnirí and first crushes.
School’s out – but across the country, thousands of teens are now packing their bags for Irish college instead. Around 25,000 parents here are preparing to wave ‘slán’ to their offspring as they head off into the Gaeltacht to brush up on their cúpla focal before the new term.
But from scoring at the céilí to dodging the bean an tí, strangely, our native language is the last thing soem of these former Gaelgóirí remember…
Eibhlín Ní Chonghaile, Raidió na Gaeltachta:
“I’m from Casla in Connemara, where there are numerous Irish colleges. Every summer, for 9 weeks, hundreds of young people would descend on the area from all over the country.
“As kids, we loved it, especially when we were allowed go to the céilí at night. My Mum kept 26 students in our house.
“She had a very strict language policy; if you were caught speaking English, you were dead!
“She always kept girls, which I think she hoped would keep us away from the boys!
“But my first kiss was still a Gaelgóir from Dublin!”
‘We sang the national anthem morning, noon and night’
Aoibheann McCaul, Fair City:
“I went to [Irish language summer school] Coláiste Lurgan in Galway about 10 years ago. The one thing I remember is singing the national anthem morning, noon and night, and learning how to stand to attention (and ease).
“As typical teenage girls, we also wrote a song about one of the male cinnires to the tune of Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin’, which went something like: ‘Féach ar Fheildlim! Wooo! Daithúil ó bun go barr!’, accompanied by a dance routine. The poor guy was only a year or two older than us, and was completely mortified!”
‘It’s hard not to grow to love the language yourself’
Aisling Quinn, Model:
“I went to [Irish language secondary school] Gael-Choláiste Chill Dara, and every summer I would go to Inis Oírr, one of the Aran Islands, with a few friends.
“Growing up, I was immersed in the language. Even now, I speak Irish to anyone who’ll listen, and work part-time as Irish language affairs manager at my dad’s company. Going to the Gaeltacht is an excellent way to learn Irish.
“When you’re surrounded by people who are passionate about the language, it’s hard not to grow to love it yourself.”
‘It was quite a nationalistic experience’
Sinead Desmond, Ireland AM:
“My father was adamant that I would speak fluent Irish and packed me off to the Gaeltacht every summer. I will be forever grateful that he did. I went to a very strict Irish college, where just one word of ‘Béarla’ would get you sent home.
“In hindsight, it was quite a nationalistic experience, which instilled in me a great sense of pride in being Irish.
“Each morning, we would raise the Irish flag and sing the national anthem.
“While in the afternoon, there was sport, drama and poetry, all through Irish.
“But my lasting memory is being hosed down by a particularly tough bean an tí after she found me kissing a boy on my last day at the Gaeltacht!”
‘I wish I’d made more of an effort’
Donal Skehan, Kitchen Hero:
“I was probably about 12 when I was sent to the Gaeltacht on Achill Island. The idea was that I would come home fluent in Irish. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out that way.
“One Irish word I will never forget though is: ‘ Tusa!’ During breaks, the cinnire would stand in the middle of the yard and yell ‘ Tusa!’ — as in ‘ You!’ — at anyone caught speaking English, which invariably was me. About halfway through my stay, I got a serious talking to about speaking English. Now I wish I had made more of an effort.
I’d love to have a bit more Irish.”
www.independent.ie
It’s pointless keeping Irish on this sentimental life support
Meitheamh 17, 2013
ANDREA finished her honours Irish Leaving Cert paper in central Dublin this week – and last night the latest offering in an endless library on what life was like on the Blasket Islands was launched in the depths of Dunquin, Co Kerry.
The common thread linking both events is, of course, the Irish language.
But for Andrea, that linkage is now over and done with forever. Once she put her final full stop on the Irish paper, it marked the end of any kind of active involvement she will have with the language for the rest of her life.
Not that this is something to which she has ever given much thought. Her more immediate and primary concern is to bag enough CAO points to study medicine at Trinity College Dublin.
Given that her teachers had long branded her ‘ linguistic’, she figured it was a no-brainer to include Irish as one of her Leaving Cert heavy-hitters.
As it transpired, she did exceptionally well in both the oral and written examinations and, at the end of it all, could achieve a much-needed A1 result.
But despite having spent more than 12 years studying the subject to such a high level, Andrea would be the first to admit she still cannot speak it with any great degree of ease or fluency. Her Irish conversations are far too stilted and exam-based.
In that sense, she is reflective of a teaching strategy, which for almost 100 years, has been a singular failure by way of ensuring the language is more widely spoken. And she is among the academic elite.
What about all the time, effort, and vast amounts of money spent teaching Irish to hordes of other school leavers of lesser ability who will leave it behind forever come the end of this exam season?
Yet the charade continues. And in the Census returns a few years hence, many of these same school leavers will still insist – for a multiplicity of reasons, including sentiment and emotion – that they have some fluency in a language they never speak.
Maybe it is all part of the self-delusion that has been the backdrop to our attitude to the Irish language since 1922.
Then there was a sort of vague dream shared by so many of the State’s founding fathers that running our own affairs would help make us a bilingual country.
We have battled mightily to preserve as much as possible of the Gaeltacht areas. But even here, anecdotal evidence suggests Irish as a spoken language is in relentless retreat among the Facebook generation – much more so than official Ireland will admit.
However, all is not completely bleak. TG4 produces countless television programmes with flair, imagination and quality.
And the ingenuity of subtitles means the great unwashed, whose knowledge of the language is lost in the distant memory of schooldays, can relate to them just as if they were fluent.
There are also the Gaelscoileanna, with their driving academic focus, now outperforming many of the country’s elite schools in the Leaving Cert examinations.
It is unfortunate that some parents and children – who attend these bastions of the language – radiate a kind of self-righteous cultural superiority, which can be off-putting to say the least for somebody not of their tribe.
In any case, perhaps none of these musings matter very much. Can we not trundle along and continue churning out Leaving Cert Irish As, Bs and Cs year after year? So what if it all seems like an increasingly circular and meaningless merry-goround, by way of having any relevance to spoken Irish?
We can even have our tokenism, such as the endearing and slightly quaint practice of GAA managers, who may be incapable of stringing together even the standard ‘cupla focal’, having ‘Bainisteoir’ tagged on their tracksuits.
But in any case, in Dunquin last night, ‘The Great Blasket – A Photographic Portrait’ was launched by one of the few remaining islanders alive. It follows on from the recently issued paperback translation of ‘The Islandman’ by Tomas O’Crohan.
One is loath to sing the praises of this book, given that another Blasket Islander – Peig Sayers – provided a whinefest for generations of Leaving Cert students with her stories of unremitting rustic gloom.
However, O’Crohan was a very perceptive man and he could see that a way of life on that isolated and mystical island was in its death throes when he gave us his thoughts back in 1923: “I have written minutely of much that we did, for it was my wish that somewhere there should be a memorial of it all.
“And I have done my best to set down the character of the people about me, so that some record of us might live after us.
“For the likes of us will never be again. “No bheidh a leitheid aris ann.” So, perhaps, none of it matters. Let the annual ritual of garnering CAO points – using Irish as a prop wherever necessary – continue unabated.
And so what if O’Crohan wanted to chronicle the beginning of the end for the Gaelic-speaking world? Would modern-day realists not argue that there are only three world languages – methods of communication, if you like – that really matter? And we Irish are fortunate to be reasonably adept at them all.
They are, of course, English, soccer and Google.
www.independent.ie
New Coláiste Ailigh set for November opening
Meitheamh 14, 2013
The new Coláiste Ailigh, due to open on Nov. 7th, will not only offer students and staff first-class facilities, but will also address all the school’s needs on the same site for the first time.
As well as classrooms, the new school will include a library, outdoor teaching areas, an art room, rooms for woodwork and technical graphics, a music and drama room, science rooms, a special needs room, a computer suite, kitchenette, fitness centre, GAA and soccer pitches, basketball and tennis courts and a gymnasium that can also be used for school events.
The Irish-language secondary school has operated in a very compressed space since opening in 2000, said the school’s principal, Micheál Ó Giobúin. The new school, “is no more than the kids and staff deserve”, he said.
Coláiste Ailigh, housed in Sprackburn House and prefabs on Letterkenny’s High Road, now has 219 students and will have 245 next year. The new school was designed to anticipate growth and will accommodate 350 students. There is also space on the 8.5-acre Carnamuggagh site for the building to expand.
Mr. Ó Giobúin; Pádraig Walsh, contract manager for Bam Contractors; and Brian Moore, safety officer with Bam; toured the site recently with the Donegal Democrat/Donegal People’s Press, and Tonia Kiely, an English and French teacher at the coláiste.
One of the most striking aspects of the design is the way each room has access to natural light, through creative use of space, windows and skylights. Prior to construction, the site was also contoured so that the two-story building will not obstruct the views of those on the upper side of the school.
Construction began last November, and there were 60 Bam staff on site the day of the tour, though there are up to 120 at peak times. Mr. Walsh said Bam endeavours to employ mainly local contractors.
Currently, the school holds physical education classes at the Letterkenny Community Centre and also uses GAA facilities. They have held events at the Mount Errigal Hotel, An Grianán Theatre and the Regional Cultural Centre. Mr. Ó Giobúin said the school was grateful to them all for their assistance over the years.
While touring the building, Ms. Kiely saw the room that will be her classroom. “I think it’s amazing,” she said. “This year I’ve been teaching in a prefab, so it’s going to be very different.”
Mr. Ó Giobúin also wanted to thank the Donegal Vocational Education Committee for their support and credited the cooperation and professionalism of Bam throughout the process.
As the principal walked through the site, pointing out and identifying each of the different rooms, it was easy to imagine the school in a few months’ time, bustling with students, teachers and staff.
Ms. Kiely said the new building will enable the coláiste community “to feel much more connected as a school”.
“It’s going to be much better to have everything here,” Mr. Ó Giobúin said.
www.donegaldemocrat.ie
There is still time to express your interest in Knocknacarra’s bilingual community national school
Meitheamh 14, 2013
Due to the level of interest to date, the City of Galway VEC has extended the deadline for receiving expressions of interest for Galway’s first bilingual community national school in Knocknacarra.
Expressions of interest can be made at www.cgvec.ie/cns before 12 noon on June 14.
The proposed bilingual model delivers the Department of Education and Skills’ primary education curriculum through two languages, Irish and English, to enable progression to post primary education through the medium of either Irish or English, and welcomes children from all linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
It is intended that children completing their primary education in the City of Galway VEC’s bilingual community national school will be competent to progress to Coláiste na Coiribe, City of Galway VEC’s coláiste lán-Ghaeilge in Knocknacarra, which recently topped The Sunday Times table for university progression in Connacht, should they wish to do so.
Community national schools deliver the Goodness Me! Goodness You! programme, a multibelief programme which caters for children of all beliefs and none. It forms part of the daily teaching and learning in the school and full information can be found at www.cgvec.ie/cns
If successful, the City of Galway VEC’s bilingual community national school will open in Knocknacarra in September 2014.
The City of Galway VEC has a proven track record in delivering first-class education through both Irish and English across Galway city for more than 80 years from second level to further education, music education to lifelong learning, in its schools and via its many programmes.
Register your interest at www.cgvec.ie/cns
You can also contact the City of Galway VEC on 091 549 400.
www.advertiser.ie/galway
Aisling dhornálaíochta Éireann Christina tagtha chun réadúlachta
Meitheamh 13, 2013
“Mian mo chroí i gcónaí ariamh é”. Sin go díreach mar a mhothaíonn dornálaí Ghaeltacht Mhúscraí, Christina Ní Dheasúna, a piocadh chun ionadaíochta a dhéanamh ar fhoireann na hÉireann le déanaí agus a thabharfaidh aghaidh ar an Ungáir an mhí seo chugainn chun dul san iomaíocht i gCraobhchomórtas Eorpach na mBan.
Fuair Christina, atá in aois 17, cuireadh ar dtús dul i mbun traenála le foireann sóisearach na hÉireann i mBaile Átha Cliath tar éis di na teidil náisiúnta faoi 16 agus faoi 18 a ghnóthú ceann i ndiaidh a chéile ag an Staidiam Náisiúnta an mhí seo caite. Lena cuid stíle imithe i bhfeidhm ar an lucht stiúrtha le linn traenála, roghnaíodh an dalta ó Choláiste Ghobnatan, a thabharfaidh faoin Ardteist an bhliain seo chugainn, don fhoireann náisiúnta le dul i mbun dornálaíochta in Keszthely, an Ungáir ar an 2ú-7ú Iúil. Beidh Christina, ar seaimpín dornálaíochta náisiúnta faoi aois é a deartháir Micheál chomh maith, mar bhall d’fhoireann náisiúnta na mban in éineacht leis an seaimpín Oilimpeach Katie Taylor, a casadh léi i mBaile Átha Cliath an tseachtain seo caite.
Tá Christina, ó Chúl a’ Bhucaigh, Cill na Martra, i mbun dornálaíochta ó aois 12 i leith agus mhínigh a máthair, Helen, go bhfuil sé mar mhian fadsaoil aici a bheith roghnaithe d’fhoireann na hÉireann. “Tá sceitimíní an domhain uirthi ina leith agus tá sí thuas i mBaile Átha Cliath an tseachtain seo ag traenáil leis an bhfoireann náisiúnta. Táimid ar fad thar a bheith sásta di toisc gur é mian a croí é dornálaíocht ar son na hÉireann,” a dúirt sí.
www.eveningecho.ie
