Three Irish comedians have been announced as ambassadors to promote Seachtain na Gaeilge le Energia, one of Ireland’s largest annual community-focused festivals.
Held for the first time in 1902, Seachtain na Gaeilge now runs from March 1st to 17th. Events are organised by community groups, schools, libraries, local authorities, cultural and sporting groups, with tens of thousands participating each year.
This year’s theme, Funny Focail, invites people to engage with the Irish language through humour and creativity.
Comedian and Irish Examiner columnist Julie Jay, who recently performed her show Smidiríní at the Dublin Fringe Festival and is raising her children with Irish, said she was “delighted to be asked” to participate.
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“When I heard there was an opportunity to become ambassador for Seachtain na Gaeilge, I got really excited because I always wanted a career in diplomacy and I’ve always wanted to travel,” she joked.
Michael Fry, who has appeared in Derry Girls, Holding and The Michael Fry Show on BBC Sounds, said he saw it as “a really good opportunity” to keep up his Irish.
“I can understand mostly everything, but it coming out of my mouth is a different thing,” he said. “Your language is like a muscle, you need to work on it, and if you stop doing it, you just forget it.”
He said of Seachtain na Gaeilge: “It’s an opportunity to show people that Irish exists outside of the school system and if you want to get back into it, there are plenty of opportunities to do that.”
Julie Jay believes the success of Belfast group Kneecap is helping to transform attitudes towards the language.
“I know it’s becoming a bit of a cliche to mention Kneecap in relation to the resurgence of interest in the Irish language, but I think there is something really exciting happening. There’s definitely a pivot happening. We are going in a different direction with the language, which is well overdue,” she said.
“There are so many possibilities with the language, and I think people are really seeing it, particularly young people, as very much a communicative, a vibrant and exciting thing.”
Comedian, writer and actor Shane Daniel Byrne also cited the “Kneecap effect” when discussing increased interest in the language.
“There’s the Kneecap effect. We are all in the wave of that at the moment. I think it’s getting a bit sexy, it’s a bit trendy now to speak Irish. I think it is growing.”
He said the “trauma and drama” surrounding the teaching of Irish is being put aside. “I think we are moving towards a point where we are saying just pick it up, just do it and get on with it in our own way.”
For more information on the festival, resources and how to take part, visit snag.ie.
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