For anyone interested in learning or promoting the Irish language, there are a couple of interesting campaigns going on right now in Ireland.
The first is the Bród Club, which seeks to promote the Irish language and encourage any learners, both past and present, to be proud in what you know and “use what you have”. There’s a fun series on tv hosted by former WBA champion Bernard Dunne that accompanies the campaign and shows how other people are getting together throughout Ireland to help. For my part, I’m making Irish my priority language over the next 3 months, and I’ve even already started adding simple phrases like “Dia duit”, “go raibh maith agat” and “slán” (hello, thanks, bye) to all phone calls with my Irish family. Here’s some info for anyone interested in taking part and pledging their support:
“The grand ambition of this campaign is to get 100,000 people who use little or no Irish now to use their Irish again, however much or however little that is. This is not a learning series. It’s an appeal to show your pride, your “bród” in your language by using what you have – and we all have some.
Re-engage with the language. It is only by using it will you rediscover it. Take small steps. Start with what you know and build from there.
Although we spend 14 years of our lives learning Irish very few of us actually speak it. This campaign is a passionate, loud and brash attempt to turn this situation on its head by asking people to commit to using whatever Irish they have.
It is a multi-platform campaign and once signed up to the Bród Club, members will be plugged into an entire community of like-minded people, spinning off into a range of Facebook and Twitter conversations. This online social network will also give you access to a wide range of tools to help you use the Irish language in your everyday lives.
The campaign wants to make noise and will use a combination of guerrilla tactics, publicity stunts and local advocacy to re-ignite the spark in people to use Irish.
This campaign is a national call to action. Be proud of your language – use what you have – or as Fiona Looney would say, get back on the capall!”
The second thing I’ve joined up to is the Líofa Challenge, which simply means “fluent” in Irish and is a commitment to try and learn Irish to fluency by 2015. Although it’s predominantly aimed at learners in Northern Ireland, I think it’s another great opportunity to show public support for learning the Irish language, and who knows, I might even reach this goal over the next few years too, knowing that I’m not alone in the big climb!
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