Lá na Gaeilge Takes Place Online May 1

Lá na Gaeilge will take place on Zoom on Saturday, May 1, and will be hosted by Irish Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant, Brigita Gallagher, and Irish language instructor Gerald Costello. Both are teaching this year’s Irish language classes for the Irish Cultural Center and Elms College. The program is free, but registration is required.

Click to register so we may contact you with the event link >

Although we cannot gather in person this year, we are very excited to celebrate virtually with all of you and our wonderful guests. We will be joined by some great talent centered around the theme Voices from Cork – it’s going to be a wonderful morning of appreciation of the Irish language and music. This annual program represents a joint commitment by Elms College and the Irish Cultural Center to provide various cultural benefits to the community.

SCHEDULE

9:00 am – Readings of selected works in Irish and English, and discussion with bilingual poet Siobhán Ní Dhomhnaill.

10:00 am – Traditional Irish music with Clíona Halley and Darragh Carey-Kennedy.

11:00 am – Presentation by UCC Professor Ríona Ní Churtáin on poet Seán Ó Ríordáin, plus new translations of a few Ó Ríordáin poems read by poet Greg Delanty and UCC Professor Aidan Doyle.

There will be two approximately 15–20 minute breaks in between presenters.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

Siobhán Ní Dhomhnaill
Siobhán Ní Dhomhnaill is a bilingual poet. She was born and raised in Listowel, Co. Kerry. After finishing her degree in BCL (Law and Irish), she undertook a Masters in European Law and the Irish Language in University College Cork. She is currently studying to be a secondary school teacher in NUI Galway. She is the winner of the Collection of Poetry Award at Listowel Writers Week in 2019. Her poems have been published in various literary magazines. Her first book, a collection of Irish Language poetry, Ait agus Iontach Bheith Beo was published by Coisceim in 2020..

Clíona Halley
Clíona Halley is a concertina, fiddle, tin whistle and traditional piano player from East Cork. Besides Irish traditional music, Clíona is also fully trained on violin and piano in classical music. She is a regular teacher and performer at festivals around Ireland, including the renowned Cork Folk Festival. Clíona currently teaches with Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann and Music Generation. She has performed worldwide and was part of the Comhaltas Tour of Ireland, Britain and Canada in 2013/2014. Clíona has many accolades to her name including various Fleadh Cheoil titles along with being part of the 2019 Oireachtas na Samhna winning traditional music duet. Clíona completed her Masters in Irish Traditional Music Performance at the University of Limerick in 2019. She is currently working as a primary school teacher and hopes to pass on her love of music to any child that she teaches.

Darragh Carey-Kennedy
Darragh Carey-Kennedy is an Irish traditional banjo player from Roscrea, Co. Tipperary. He has won numerous All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil titles in a range of different instruments, including the mandolin and miscellaneous competitions. Darragh is a recipient of the FLCM from the London College of Music in Irish Traditional Music performance. He recently received his TTCT qualification from Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann and achieved the high achiever’s award in this course. Darragh has been teaching traditional Irish music from a very young age and has given workshops on the banjo at various festivals, including Scoil Éigse organised by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann. He is currently the youth officer of his local Comhaltas branch and loves promoting Irish traditional music to the younger generation.

Ríona Ní Churtáin
Ríona Ní Churtáin is a lecturer in Modern Irish at University College Cork. A native of Co. Limerick, she received her undergraduate and postgraduate education at the University of Limerick and at University College Cork. Her research primarily focuses on the work of Modern Irish poets, in particular that of Cork poet Seán Ó Ríordáin, and on Existentialist literature. Her publications include the book Ní Insint Dán ach Bheith: Aistí ar Smaointeoireacht an Ríordánaigh, co-edited with Professor Tríona Ní Shíocháin, NUI Maynooth (2019).

Greg Delanty
Greg Delanty’s latest collection of poems is No More Time, November 2020. A book of translations from the Irish poems of Seán Ó Ríordáin titled Apathy Is Out, is due in Spring 2021. His selected poems came out in November 2017, titled Selected Delanty, introduced and selected by Archie Burnett, Un-Gyve Press. Other recent books are Book Seventeen from LSU Press and The Word Exchange, Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation, WW Norton. His Collected Poems 1986-2006, Oxford Poets series, is from Carcanet Press, UK. He has received many awards, including a Guggenheim for poetry. He teaches at Saint Michael’s College, Vermont and he’s a US citizen as well as an Irish citizen. Delanty’s papers up to 2010 have been acquired by the National Library of Ireland and from 2010-2015 at University College Cork. Photo by John Minihan.

Aidan Doyle
Aidan Doyle is a lecturer in the Department of Irish, University College Cork, Ireland. His research is focused on the structure and sociolinguistics of Irish. Publications include A history of the Irish language (2015). He has recently co-edited a collection of essays, North American Gaels: Speech, Story, and Song in the Diaspora, published by McGill-Queens University Press in Fall 2020.

This event will be recorded for those unable to view live.