Families
Aims:
- Develop ‘Gaelsaolaíocht’ (living a life through the medium of Irish) through the provision of a wide range of events and projects
Key Impacts:
- Increased opportunities for the transfer for the language from generation to generation.
- Provide help and support for IME parent hoping to embed Irish as the language of the home.
The Irish language, as a social language and as the language in which parents are choosing to rear their children is growing exponentially and due this this significant growth, we want to facilitate as many social events and opportunities as possible. During our various festivals, we put an emphasis on families with various events including but not limited to Na Bopóga, family walks, fundays for families and young Gaels and blitztournaments. More importantly and significantly, however, Laochra Loch Lao youth has been established, the one CLG club through Irish within the six counties which is a monumental achievement as there can be no denying that CLGs are away of life and communities are built around them. We feel it is thoroughly important to facilitate projects and events like this for young Gaels in terms of generational language transfer in order to represent the Irish language as a lifestyle, a way of life and that there is social opportunities, it is not just school subject or hobby. Saol trí Ghaeilge atá uainn.
Suí ‘s Scíth
A parent and toddler group has always been in our language output plan, we recognise the importance of supporting the families in our area and community raising children through Irish. We see the significant growth of families raising children Irish and they shouldn’t be left with no support as they have been throughout the years due to a lack of legislation and rights, along with little experience and resources within our own community.
In our old premises, it was not within our capabilities to tend to families and welcome young children into our old building. However, now that we are in Gael-Ionad Mhic Goill, it provided us with yet another development opportunity to engage our community and begin Suí ‘s Scíth. Its is a group which caters to parents raising children through Irish. It is a social and informal space with a mixture of different activities and specialised play along with conversational and support hub for parents. In terms of generational language output, we feel that there is little appealing to children under 3 years of age. Children of three year and up attend nursery and are exposed to the language but with this particular project, Glór na Móna are appealing to children under three years of age and their parents. At the moment, we have a membership of 15 parents and 25 children.
This a new project for Glór na Móna along with being a new theme of work for us and going forward, we want to develop this service, our capabilities and abilities to properly address and support families raising children through Irish.
