Major plans ahead for Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin

By Eamon Sweeney

Michaeline Donnelly recently arrived to take the position of Oifigeach Forbartha Gaeilge (Development Officer) at Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin in Derry.

A native of Omagh, her interest in the Irish language began at school which was the Loreto Convent Grammar in her home town. From there her interest was further fostered by trips to the Donegal Gaeltacht. This progressed to taking a B.A. International degree in Irish, English and Welsh from Aberystwyth University. After graduation she spent a period of time working at Tobar Productions, a Belfast based TV production company specialising in Irish language programming. Then Michaeline worked at Pobal, an umbrella organisation for the Irish language community.

Since her arrival in Derry just three months ago, it is clear that she has had to hit the ground running. The scope of development already completed at Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin in the last few years has been huge, but it is clear that no one within the organisation is resting on their laurels.

“The atmosphere here is very positive, because the time and effort invested in this place has been grown by the people here themselves,” she said.

Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin is a purpose built Irish language arts and cultural centre. It is part of the An Gaeláras group and opened as a new premises in Great James Street, Derry on September 4, 2009. The building is a space for learning, creativity, exploration and enterprise and a beacon for the Irish speakers throughout the island of Ireland. It is a hub for a variety of different organisations throughout the North West region. Features of the award winning building include, a multipurpose Arts centre including classrooms, youth club and 200 seat theatre (An Croí), café, business incubation suite and office space.

Part of the remit of An Chultúrlann is that it is operated on a not for profit basis and heralds the beginning of a new era for the Irish language and culture in the North West region, greatly improving the facilities available and increasing the services on offer.

Indeed since the establishment more bars in the city have begun offering traditional music sessions again. Premises such as Peadar O’Donnell’s in Waterloo Street holding nightly music sessions, with other’s such as the Derby Bar, Sandino’s and Tinney’s all providing weekly music sessions too. Gaelic sport in the city has perhaps never been stronger with clubs such as Brian Og’s at Steelstown, Doire Colmcille, Na Piarsaigh Doire Trasna and Sean Dolan’s competing at higher levels than ever before and the city’s hurling club Na Magha recently competing in an Ulster final. Irish dancing in Derry has been huge for many decades, with many schools consistently producing a line of solo and team All Ireland and World Champions.

So, having established itself as a hub for language and cultural activities in the heart of Derry city centre, Michaeline Donnelly revealed the roots of an ambitious plan to create a Gaelic Quarter here in the years to come. It is an idea which drew some inspiration from the establishment of a Gaelic Quarter in Belfast. Yet, whilst the Belfast set-up is centred on the Falls Road, the geographic make-up of this city will hopefully allow a more widely spread set-up.

Michaeline said: “The plans effectively cover two strands. The first is to establish a cultural quarter from the Cultúrlann to Waterloo Street and begin to engage local businesses to for example use bilingual signage. Already, larger organisations such as the Bank of Ireland have introduced bilingual ATM’s and Ladbrokes have introduced bilingual signage in some parts of Belfast.

“The second strand is to get wider community engagement in areas such as the Bogside, Brandywell and Creggan. We will be seeking people’s opinions and conducting door to door surveys, so people can tell us exactly what they think about it. It will be a slow progress, but it will happen.”

Evidence that such projects are very fruitful in terms of the revival and promotion of the Irish language and culture already exists in Co Derry.

Michaeline points to an area in South Derry centred on Slaughtneill (Sleacht Néill) and Carntogher (Carn Tóchair), which had gone from being 50 per Irish-speaking in 1901 to having only a few speakers by the end of the century, and has seen a language revival since the setting up of a naíscoil in 1993 and a gaelscoil in 1994. In 2008 two local organisations launched a “strategy for the rebirth of the Gaeltacht”, based on Irish-medium primary and secondary education. Speaking at the launch, Éamon Ó Cuív, then the Republic’s Minister for the Gaeltacht, said that the area was “an example to other areas all over Ireland which are working to re-establish Irish as a community language.”

The restablishment of Irish as a community language however must also include its integration to all social functions.

“We need to speak the language and develop it outside of the classroom. This why at Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin we encourage its use in sport, we have running clubs, we have established a mountain walking club too. we also have Tai Chi and Pilates classes-all taught through the Irish medium. We don’t want children at Irish medium schools to speak the language during school hours to go home and then stop,” said Michaeline.

An Cultúrlann will run events such as book fairs in the build up to Christmas, selling books, Christmas cards and so on in Gaelic. It is part of an overall vision for cultural tourism, that will see package tours conducted in Gaelic harnessing the benefits that Derry has to offer.

Michaeline said: “People can come here and stay, do classes during the day and go out at night to bars, restaurants or the theatre.”

“Look at Galway. It is a bilingual city and markets itself as such. It draws in €48 million per year in tourism.”

To find out more about the full range of services at Cultúrlann Uí Chanáin, simply call into 37 Great James St, phone 028 7126 4132 or log onto http://www.culturlann-doire.ie/.