Recession busting Irish summer course for only €570
March 5, 2013
Tá Coláiste Cholumba ag rith cúrsaí Gaeilge ar an gCeathrú Rua ar feadh caoga bliain.
Le dhá bhliain anuas tá muid ag rith cúrsaí speisialta coicíse chun an seans a thabhairt do gach duine taithí a fháil ar ár dteanga dúchais i gceartlár na Gaeltachta.
Last year Coláiste Cholumba, an Irish summer college in the Connemara Gaeltacht, launched a recession busting two-week summer course to huge success. This year extra spaces have been added to cater for the huge numbers applying. However spaces are very limited and with all courses being oversubscribed last year, all indications are that this trend will continue for 2013. You can now enjoy 14 days of the same Gaeltacht experience with all its spraoi, spóirt, craic and ceol, while learning Irish, which has made Coláiste Cholumba a huge success for
more than 40 years.
These courses are inclusive of accommodation, food, tuition, sports activities, and travel. Also included are the college’s famous theme nights, discos, barbecues, and beach parties. It is hard to imagine a more fun-filled experience in one of the most popular Irish summer colleges. Coláiste Cholumba also runs special courses for those sitting the Leaving Cert and Junior Cert 2014 and for sixth class primary and first year post primary students.
Two-week courses will take place from June 26 to July 10, and from July 19 to August 2. Three-week courses will take place from June 6 to June 25, from June 26 to July 18, and from July 19 to August 10.
For further details visit www.colaistecholumba.ie, phone 091595184, or email colaistecholumba@gmail.com.
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Seachtain na Gaeilge i gCeatharlach
March 5, 2013
Seachtain na Gaeilge 2013 has something for all
February 28, 2013
Seachtain na Gaeilge, the rather more than a week-long festival of events celebrating the Irish language, heritage, culture, and life, returns from March 2 to 17.
Events will take place across the city and county, involving music, dance, theatre, debates, competitions, and storytelling, culminating in the St Patrick’s Day Parade. The festival was launched on Monday by TG4 presenter and Seachtain na Gaeilge ambassador Róisín Ní Thomáin, along with pupils from Gaelscoil Dara. The theme for this year’s festival is ‘Give Irish a Go’. The emphasis is on public participation and is aimed at those with little or no Irish, the ‘cúpla focail’, or who are fluent. Is leor Beirt – get talking as Gaeilge
The Is leor Beirt strand of the programme entails a small group of people meeting in a local cafe or in their workplace restaurant to chat together in Irish on a regular basis. “There is no extra cost or time needed to get involved with the Is Leor Beirt network,” said Conradh na Gaeilge’s Siobhán Ní Dhubhfaidh. “The scheme revolves around coffee breaks or lunchtimes that people would be taking anyway, only now they’ll be relaxing in a new setting in the company of other people interested in Irish.” Is Leor Beirt events will be taking place in Lohan’s and The Oslo Hotel in Salthill (Monday March 4, Monday 11, at 8pm); Hennellys Pub, Corrundulla (Monday 4, 8pm); McCambridges, Shop Street (Tuesday 5 and Tuesday 12, 10.30am); Hope’s, Loughrea (Wednesday 6, 11am); Loughrea’s Irish Office (Monday 4 at 10am, Wednesday 13, 11am).
Similar events include a coffee morning with Age Action West and the Cumann Craic in the Age Action West office, the Small Crane, at 12 noon on Tuesday 5. Club Áras na nGael will host oíche na bhfoghlaimeoirí social night with ceol agus craic for Irish language learners from 8.30pm. On Friday 8 there will be a coffee morning and conversation at An Comharchumann, Cill Rónáin, from 11am; an Irish taster class in Teach na Gaeilge, Maigh Cuillin (3pm for beginners, 3.30pm learners, 4pm higher, 4.30pm grammar class). Admission is free. For more information contact 086 – 00660483. The public can also practice their Gaeilge at the coffee morning in The Galway Cakery, Moycullen (Saturday 9, 11am); parent and toddler morning, Teach na Gaeilge, Maigh Cuilinn (Monday 11, from 10am); coffee morning, Café Áras na Gaeilge, NUIG, (Monday 11, from 10am); My First Gaeilge, Áras na Gaeilge, NUIG, (Monday 11, from 3pm).
Coffee morning, Gaelscoil Riada, Athenry (Tuesday 12, 11am); Ciorcal cómhra with wine and cheese reception, Aras na Gaeilge, NUIG (Tuesday 12, 3pm); Ciorcal comhra with caint agus craftmaking in Teach na Gaeilge, Moycullen (8pm, also Tuesday 12, for more information (086-0660483). On Wednesday 13 NUIG will host its ‘No English Day’; while Áras na Gaeilge, NUIG will hold an Irish breakfast (10pm) and My First Gaeilge (3pm); Oíche na bhfoghlaimeoirí in Club Áras na nGael, social night for Irish language learners, from 9.30pm. Concerts, events and talks SnaG begins on Saturday with NUI Galway’s Drama Festival for the Colleges, celebrating and hosting theatre as Gaeilge. For more information see www.drama-gaeilge.com
On Tuesday 5 Club Áras na nGael on Dominick Street will host a Breton night from 8pm; and the Róisín Dubh will host an ‘Irish Silent Disco’ from 10pm. On Wednesday 6 there will be a screening of the films Cré na Cille and Kings in Áras na Gaeilge, NUIG at 6pm; and Celtic rock band The Waylanders will play Kelly’s, Bridget Street at 9pm.
Thursday 7 will see an Irish trad session in The Western hotel, Prospect Hill, at 9.30pm and on Friday 8 there will be a talk entitled Cultural Resistance in the Basque Country in Áras na nGael, Dominick Street, at 7pm. On Tuesday 12 there will be a music session in the Westside Library, Galway at 6.30pm; a lecture on the poet Raifteirí with NUIG’s Prog Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh at 8pm; and the Irish Silent Disco at the Róisín Dubh at 10pm. Thursday 14 will see the sean nós night in Maigh Cuillin with Johnny Mháirtín Learaí, Josie Sheáin Jeaic, Máirtín Tom Sheainín, Máire Phete Uí Dhroighneáin, Treasa Bn Uí Chonaill, Treasa Uí Cheannbháin, Róisin Elsafty, Joe John Mac an Iomaire, Seosamh Ó Fátharta, Pól Ó Ceannbháin, and Catríona Ní Cheannbháin in Regans Pub at 9pm, admission is free.
That same evening will see a trad session in The Western Hotel, Prospect Hill (9.30pm) and a céilí with JCI Galway, Club Aras na nGael, at 9pm. Dara Ó Cualán will give a lecture on the Galway Oireachtas 1913 in the Galway City Museum at 2pm on Saturday 16. Music events for St Patrick’s Day (Sunday 17) include the St Patrick’s day Trad Music Session in Club Áras na nGael, from 2pm and Don Stiffe and Marcus Ó hIarnáin in The Forge, Moycullen, at 8pm. Storytelling for children SnaG will host storytelling events as Gaeilge for children in the Galway City Library (Friday 8 and Friday 15, 11.15am), in the Westside Library (Friday 8 and Friday 15, at 3.30pm), a reading morning for children in the Moycullen Bookshop (Saturday 9, 11am); The programme is available from Conradh na Gaeilge, Áras na nGael, 45 Dominick Street (091 – 567824, conradh@bradan.iol.ie, www.arasnangael.ie)
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Seoladh Sheachtain na Gaeilge na Gaillimhe
February 28, 2013
Contracts signed for purchase of Gaelscoil de hÍde site
February 27, 2013
The new Gaelscoil de hÍde at Oranmore has taken a major step towards becoming a reality after contracts were signed for the purchase of a site.
The acquisition of land for the school finally cleared the way for the project to advance. The purchase of the site was the main stumbling block in delaying the new building. Gaelscoil de hÍde was included in the Department of Education’s five-year building programme last March and it was envisaged that construction would commence on the project in 2015.
The proposed new school will be a 16- classroom national school, with a two-class special needs unit, and ancillary accommodation with a general purpose room. The developers are now in the process of signing the contracts and it is expected this will be completed by March 16. Outline planning permission has already been granted.
The next step is the design stage and an application for full planning permission. Gaelscoil de hÍde currently has almost 300 pupils and 20 staff, all of whom are housed in temporary accommodation with no playground space or other resource facilities.
The cost of renting the pre-fab accommodation amounts to €200,000 a year. The news has been welcomed by Galway West TDs Independent Noel Grealish and Fine Gael’s Brian Walsh. The acquisition of the site for the new school has cleared the way for development to be fasttracked,” said Dep Walsh. “I have made this case directly to the Minister for Education.”
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Teorainn ar fhás na meánscolaíochta ó Thuaidh?
February 27, 2013
Paráid na Féile Pádraig i gCeatharlach
February 27, 2013
Féile Drámaíochta na mBunscoileanna i gCeatharlach
February 27, 2013
Let’s not lose our native tongue in outer space
February 21, 2013
OPINION: A celestial tweet as Gaeilge was loved. We should treat Irish far better on Earth
On Monday night, Chris Hadfield became the nation’s favourite Canadian astronaut when he tweeted a picture of Ireland from space accompanied by a message in Irish – “Tá Éire fíorálainn!” In charming us with a few judiciously chosen words of our native tongue, the commander was following the recent example of two more illustrious foreigners. In May 2011, the Queen of England left our then president Mary McAleese open-mouthed in disbelief with a majestically delivered “Go raibh maith agat” and, just a few days later, Barack Obama had a crowded College Green in raptures with that riff on his can-do battle cry for the ages, “Is féidir linn”.
On both occasions, the decision to respectfully acknowledge the existence of the Irish language was greeted with widespread approval. It appears that the sound of a stranger speaking Irish gives us a fuzzy feeling of self-worth, a feeling not to be had from, say, speaking Irish ourselves. Hadfield’s tweet from the great beyond brought a similar jolt of affirmation, and the Irish language became – for one night on Twitter at least – a little reminder that, as the poet Michael Hartnett once wrote, “We are human, and therefore not a herd.” On Monday, the tweet machine was positively glowing with gratitude, much of it for the commander’s use of a few words in Irish. “Wow, I can feel the warmth of the Irish all the way up here…” Hadfield later tweeted, adding a “go raibh maith agaibh!” that ensured there was more Irish used in the International Space Station this week than most Irish people would use in a year.
Lip service
It is easy to be cynical about these fleeting public expressions of warmth towards Irish, a language that has all but had the life sucked out of it by years of lip service.
Still, there was something genuine about the affection for the language evident in the response to Hadfield. Maybe this was because the commander’s tweet, for all its otherworldliness, was more authentic than either Obama’s or the banríon’s cúpla focal. While Obama’s mantra has entered the mainstream like no other phrase in Irish since “an bhfuil cead agam dul go dtí an leithreas?”, there was a hint of the rock star’s “Good evening, wherever we are! We love you!” about his “Is féidir linn.” For her part, Queen Elizabeth’s “go raibh maith agat” was burdened with such historical significance that McAleese’s silent “Wow!” felt like an overreaction almost immediately.
Oldest living vernacular
In the end, the charming Canadian commander outdid them both. Here was a language that clings stubbornly, if a little forlornly, to its status as the oldest living vernacular in Europe, fully alive again for a brief moment in the cosmos. And with those three words – “Tá Éire fíorálainn!” – Hadfield brought a little light from afar to our evening.
Meanwhile, in a galaxy not so far away called the Gaeltacht, Irish is dying as the language of the home and community. It is dying because that is what usually happens to languages like Irish, but it is also dying because of official neglect and a failure to take the measures needed to save it. The most recent study in this area suggested that unless radical action was taken, Irish had only 15 to 20 years left as the primary community language in even the strongest Gaeltacht areas.
That was in 2007.
In response, three years later, in 2010, the last government published a 20-year strategy for the language. Three years on and the present Government has been slow in implementing that strategy. Instead, it has diluted what was already an overly aspirational plan by making several decisions that undermine it. For example, it has withdrawn the support given to trainee teachers to study in the Gaeltacht, whereas the strategy is committed to allowing students to spend a greater length of time in Irish-speaking communities. It is difficult to ascertain how many people really care about the preservation of Irish as no government has been willing to take a political gamble that the type of affection provoked by Hadfield’s tweet might be sincere. This is despite the existence of plenty of earthly evidence that proves a considerable majority of us have a favourable attitude to Irish. Would the public support a radical, well-resourced plan to save the Irish language? Would such a plan work? We might never know. Because it seems that, to adapt the tagline from the movie Alien, in the Gaeltacht, nobody can hear you scream.
www.irishtimes.com
Irish language podcasts launched
February 20, 2013
Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin is now offering a series of free podcasts online to help people learn Irish.
The ‘Cultúr le Comhrá’ programme, funded by the Big Lottery Fund, was launched by the Mayor of Derry, councillor Kevin Campbell, and is designed to allow people to learn Irish from home.
The course is suitable for those who want to start from scratch and for those with some Irish already who want to improve their language skills. Each podcast is available to download free of charge from the Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin website.
Ciara Nic Lochlainn, project co-ordinator said: “Cultúr le Comhrá means Culture with Conversation and these podcasts which are based on conversation between two speakers are like mini Irish lessons.
“They give learners the opportunity to learn Irish in an easy way without spending any money and fit perfectly with the Líofa 2015 initiative launched some time ago.
“This series will run for 30 weeks and there will be five programmes broadcast per week. Cultúr le Comhrá will be divided into 3 Sections, 10 weeks of podcasts for complete Beginners, 10 weeks of podcasts for Intermediate learners and 10 weeks of podcast for advanced learners.”
The first podcast became available for download or to listen to yesterday at www.culturlann-doire.ie
For more information contact 02871 264132
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