Irish music and film help fuel global boom in language classes

By Bairbre Holmes, Press Association

The boom in interest in Irish culture is helping to fuel the rise in demand for Irish language classes, with a rapidly growing global network of students hungry for more opportunities to speak the language.

In New York, The Irish Arts Centre has tripled its number of classes since 2019.

“We had one beginners class and one advanced beginners class,” said teacher Caoimhe Nic Giollarnaith. “Now we have three of each and they sell out in advance every term.”

Her Irish language and literature undergraduate course at City University of New York also has a wait list every semester.

Having taught the language for 12 years, she is “delighted” at the boom in interest: “I’m really proud of my heritage and culture and that it’s finally reached a point where it’s not othered anymore and now people want to engage with it in different ways.”

She said she started to see a growth in interest during the pandemic both because online classes became more accessible, but also she noticed people started “questioning” and “wanting to connect with” their cultural heritage.

Breakout Irish language cultural phenomena like the Oscar-nominated film The Quiet Girl, or An Cailin Ciuin, and headline-grabbing musicians Kneecap have also piqued pupils’ interest.

This, alongside Irish language social media influencers, has fuelled a growth of younger people signing up to her courses, when she started teaching retirees made up the majority of her students.

But she rejects the possibility that this wave of interest is simply a trend, saying: “I absolutely think it’s sustainable and I think the number of Irish language speakers will continue to grow internationally.”

Dr Ronan O Conghaile, founder of Let’s Learn Irish – an online community of Irish learners, says he has taught the language at a dance camp in Romania, to dancers who wanted to take language classes because of their love of Riverdance.

He has recently hosted a “Pop-up Gaeltact” in Istanbul, which was attended by some curious locals: “They don’t have Irish heritage,” he said “but their interest in Ireland, the culture, minority languages.”

He says the majority of those with a desire to learn about the language have Irish heritage, but some are simply language enthusiasts.

In June, he helped organise Teastas Eorpach na Gaeilge (TEG) exams to be held in Washington DC.

A TEG administrator flew to the States to facilitate exams for 25 students studying the language there.

TEG is the only system of certification for adult learners of Irish, and is administered by Maynooth University and the Department of Education.

Dr O Conghaile described being able to hold the exams in the US as a “big achievement”.

On the other side of the world, Cumann Gaeilge na hAstraile, Australia’s Irish Language Association, experienced a “meadu suntasach”, or significant increase in members in the last year, their numbers jumped from 50 members to 122.

The London Irish Centre has said there has been an “unbelievable” surge in interest – with five Cupla Focal (A Few Words) taster sessions selling out within just 10 minutes of release.

Reacting to the demand, the organisation has recently launched a new Scoil na Gaeilge (Irish School) which provides courses for a range of levels in collaboration with TEG.

Culture and education officer Rebecca Dorothy said enthusiasm for the courses has been “overwhelming”, adding “more than 2,000 people have already signed up to express their interest, and the initial courses sold out in under 24 hours of being announced”.

Paraic Donoghue has taught hundreds of pupils based in more than 50 countries including China, Japan and Russia from his base in Ontario, Canada.

Technology has enabled him to connect with people from across the globe, including several who started learning the language through the Duolingo app.

And he thinks technological advances will help more people access Irish, saying: “With artificial intelligence and all of that coming down the pipeline, it’ll be interesting to see what’s available.”

But he still thinks the “best way” is to learn from a native speaker, adding: “There’s a social connection that we still need, that I feel people are just starving for right now.”