Dublin City Council’s An Chomhairle Chraiceáilte: Innovation Showcase held in City Hall
Published on 6th March 2024
Lord Mayor of Dublin, Daithí de Róiste today hosted the first Dublin City Council An Chomhairle Chraiceáilte: Innovation Showcase at City Hall. Darragh O’Brien Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage attended the event, which aimed to demonstrate the benefits of combining staff members' passion for the Irish language with the leadership and creativity skills necessary to harness its potential.
An Chomhairle Chraiceáilte: Innovation Showcase is the culmination of a 5 month leadership and creativity development programme which Dublin City Council has been running for Irish speaking employees. The aim of the programme is to give employees the skills they need to increase the vibrancy of spoken Irish in the city through Council services.
An Chomhairle Chraiceáilte recognizes that significant intervention is needed to strengthen the language. People want to speak it, but they have very few opportunities to use it.
Speaking at the event Lord Mayor of Dublin, Daithí de Róiste said, “The Chomhairle Chraiceáilte is a great example of how creativity can have a massive impact in society. The thoughts and energy present here today show that Irish is not a burden but an asset. It shows us that we are at the beginning of a new era for Irish in the local authority sector. There is power in this approach and it would be great to see it replicated across the country.”
Daithí de Buitléir, Programme Manager, Gaeilge365, Irish Language Innovation Unit manager of the programme said, “With Gaeilge365, I acknowledge the excellent work of Dublin City Council, supported by Creative Ireland, as a leader in promoting Irish in the local authority sector and in public services overall. It is wonderful to see a state organization committed to the innovating and discovering cutting edge approaches to Irish development. I look forward to seeing this best practice flourish and grow in the years ahead.”
Emerging from the program are excellent examples of how local authorities can use creativity initiatives to strengthen Irish within their own areas. Sample innovations include:
- In Aice Liom: Building on the success of Irish residency schemes in universities to create language-based housing models for Irish speakers in the city.
- TurasÓir: Tapping into the potential to generate €7.3 million through language tourism services tailored for 5 million Irish learners outside Ireland.
- Doras Isteach: Developing a fun language engagement program and making it available through parent and child library group networks, allowing preschoolers and caregivers first collective engagement with Irish to be in a fun and lively way.
***Attached please find an overview of the ideas from the Dublin City Council An Chomhairle Chraiceáilte: Innovation Showcase***
ENDS
Notes to the Editor:
Gaeilge 365
Based on the success of these projects, in 2023, Dublin City Council established a flagship pilot project called Gaeilge365 – The Irish Language Innovation Unit. The aim of this project is for Dublin City Council to take a leadership role in the local authority sector and create a best practice around how a local authority can deliver on the legislative and policy objectives in relation to the Irish language by supporting more people to speak Irish on a daily basis.
Gaeilge365 aims to increase the number of opportunities to speak Irish created and supported by the Council 10x by 2027.
This initiative embraces a start-up mentality and is underpinned by the belief that by strengthening opportunities to speak Irish we can bridge the disconnect between the large numbers of people who want to speak Irish more regularly but who simply don’t have the opportunities to do.
The initiative is fully aligned with the objectives of the National 20 Year Strategy for the Irish Language and seeks to increase the amount of people who speak the Irish language daily outside of the education system.