More than €455,000 approved for Conradh na Gaeilge

• €130,000 to continue the development of the Athbheochan na Gaeilge Archive

• €280,000 for Gluaiseacht 2021-2022

• Funding for the development of Raidió RíRá's studios and Conradh the Gaeilge's offices

• Planning permission approved to develop Conradh na Gaeilge's headquarters as an Irish Language Centre

Government Chief Whip and the Minister of State for the Gaeltacht and Sport Jack Chambers T.D. has today approved more than €455,000 for various Conradh na Gaeilge projects. In addition to this, Minister of State Chambers announced that planning permission has been approved for the development of Conradh na Gaeilge's headquarters at No. 6 Harcourt Street as an Irish Language Centre for the City of Dublin. Minister of State Chambers announced funding today during a visit to Conradh na Gaeilge's offices on Harcourt Street in Dublin.

Among the projects are;

• To carry out further development on the Athbheochan na Gaeilge Archive for the period 2021 - 2022

• Gluaiseacht 2021-2022 - a campaign which focuses on encouraging young people to use the Irish language and to provide them with information regarding employment opportunities in Irish.

• Construct Raidió Rí-Rá's studio in Galway, develop the primary studio in Dublin and purchase new equipment for those offices.

Speaking today, the Minister of State Chambers said, "Planning permission has been approved for the Irish Language Centre on Harcourt Street, another step forward for the initiative. This centre will be a central place for Irish language learners and for Dublin's Irish speakers. It will add a great deal to the visibility of the language and to the status of the Irish language in the city."

"Conradh na Gaeilge has undertaken very important work over the years all over the country. This funding will allow Conradh na Gaeilge to develop these projects and to continue with the work they undertake to foster positive attitudes in relation to the Irish language in the surrounding area. Challenging work is required for these projects and it is very important to support these initiatives."

"The history of the country and the language is told through the material in Conradh na Gaeilge's archive collection. It is very important that this material is preserved and that it is available to future generations. This additional funding will go towards carrying out further development on the archive, to make more of the documents available to the public and to continue with the series of online seminars and interviews. In addition to this, a television programme based on Conradh na Gaeilge's building - Number 6 Harcourt Street - will be produced and support will be provided to the proposed development in developing the building into an Irish Language Centre. "

An objective for 20% of new recruits to the public service to be competent in Irish is set out in the Official Languages Bill. 'Gluaiseacht' is an ideal opportunity for the Department to inform young people of these opportunities and to impact their subject choices in order to enable them to apply for these vacancies in future.”

The Department will also provide €47,772 to Conradh na Gaeilge to construct Raidió Rí-Rá's studio in Galway, to develop the primary studios and recording booth in Dublin and to purchase new equipment for those offices.

Minister Chambers said "Raidió Rí-Rá provides an excellent Irish language service to young people and I am delighted that my Department is able to provide continuous funding to Raidió Rí-Rá. This new equipment and technology will add to the standard of the programmes which are broadcasted by Raidió Rí-Rá and the station will have the ability, with the correct equipment, to produce more programmes."

Dr. Niall Comer, President of Conradh na Gaeilge, said: "We are very grateful to the Minister of State Jack Chambers TD and to the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media for approving significant funding for Conradh na Gaeilge for an additional two years in order to deliver our ambitious work programme.

With this funding we will be able to provide the public with the history of the organisation and the revival as a live archive, accessible to the public. Of course, one of the most important lessons to be learned from that particular history is the importance of encouraging the next generation to use the language and this funding will help the Gluaiseacht project in attracting young people to decide to use the Irish language in their lives. They will also be persuaded to avail of all the opportunities presented to them to use the language in their professional capacity, particularly with employment opportunities which will be available to them due to the recruitment provision included in the Official Languages Bill to recruit 20% of staff competent in Irish.

Conradh na Gaeilge will also be working closely with the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media in the coming months and years to develop Number 6 Harcourt Street as an Irish Language Centre in order to provide the additional facilities and services to the public in light of the planning permission which has been approved by Dublin City Council for the proposed major development.

Niamh Ní Chróinin, the Manager of Raidió Rí-Rá said: "This funding will help us develop Raidió Rí-Rá's studios at Number 6 Harcourt Street and at Áras na nGael in Galway and attract additional presenters and better enable the broadcasting of the charter of national Irish language radio stations for young people. We have been running a campaign for some time now in order to have the station broadcast on a national and fulltime basis on FM in order to adequately reach the country's young people and these additional resources will help us deliver a better service on the current Raidió Rí-Rá platforms and in order to prepare for the day when we will be broadcasting continuously on FM."

Notes for Editors

Athbheochan na Gaeilge Archive

This project has been supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media since 2016. The project has made a large amount of material available in those years, including;

• Conradh na Gaeilge's collections of An Claidheamh Soluis, a weekly magazine which was published from 1899 to 1932, and Fáinne an Lae, published from 1898 to 1901, have been digitised. These are available online at cnag.ie/acs

• Thousands of people have attended seminars which were organised countrywide, abroad and online regarding the Archive's material.

• The first tranche of documents from the Archive were made available to the public in November 2019 and 5 further tranches have been made available since.

• Minutes from Conradh na Gaeilge Ard-Fheis 1894-1925 have been digitised.

Gluaiseacht 2021 - 2022

The Conradh na Gaeilge team will travel all over the country as part of the ‘Gluaiseacht 2021-2022’ campaign, holding interactive workshops which will encourage and enable young people to make conscientious decisions to use the Irish language more often. These workshops will also emphasise employment opportunities which are available through Irish.

This project will develop the ‘Seó Bóthair’ campaign which the organisation has been running since 2017. Over 200 interactive workshops will be organised with more than 10,000 secondary level students to enable the young students and to encourage them to use the language. Workshops and events will also be organised which will serve Irish clubs in 3rd level institutions, focusing on the employment opportunities which are available to graduates with Irish.

The road show will visit summer courses and will speak to more than 12,000 summer students in relation to Irish language opportunities in the wider world. ‘Gaeltacht X’ will be run again, a social media campaign which focuses on teenagers. The campaign achieved 1,000,000 impressions and 20,000 people interacted during 2020.