(Foireann Gaeltachta The Journal a chuir an scéal seo ar fáil. Tá leagan as Gaeilge anseo.) 

WELCOME TO KNEECAP, the city formerly known as Belfast. That’s Kneecap the rap group in case you misunderstood.  This is where the world capital of the global Irish language culture is to be located until Sunday as the city plays host to Oireachtas na Gaeilge.

That could give rise to another misunderstanding which might draw a dirty look or two if you were to mention it  aloud during a radio programme or while travelling in a taxi in the city that you were attending the Oireachtas which was being held there until Sunday.

The risk of misunderstanding arises as the major Irish language festival has the same name as our parliamentary system, the Houses of the Oireachtas. For those interested in history, the first Oireachtas was held in the Rotunda in Dublin on 17 May 1897, a halfday of singing, dancing, poetry recitation and story telling.

Oireachtas means ‘great assembly’ and that is the origin of the name of our parliament, the Oireachtas, in which the Dáil, Seanad and the President co-habit.

This is the second time the festival has been held in the largest city in the north east but the first since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 and follows a decision a few weeks ago to implement a bilingual policy in a city that has given the language a lukewarm reception in recent years.  It comes ahead of Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann coming north to Belfast next year.

When the Oireachtas was held in Belfast in late 1997, the IRA had resumed its ceasefire, there was an air of optimism and talks were underway to bring the peace process to a successful conclusion.

If  there is no official Gaeltacht in the city, it has a Gaeltacht quarter in the west of the city, the heart of the traditional language community and the location of some of the city’s iconic Irish language venues, Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fíaich and Cumann Chluain Aird, but there are now Irish communities in every part of the city, even in the heartland of Belfast’s east, where a new all-Irish school, Scoil na Seolta, is being established under the shadow of the Harland and Wolff cranes.

Tensions remain as unionist parties are unhappy with the new bilingual policy adopted by the majority of city councillors and are opposed to Irish being on bilingual signage in their areas, as they consider it.

But politics will take a step back and culture a step forward between now and Sunday for the duration of this festival, which will attract up to 10,000 visitors to the city and stimulate spending of an estimated £6m/€8m between now and Sunday.

The festival begins on Wednesday when the Minister for the Gaeltacht, Dara Calleary, will officially open the event and there will be many awards to be presented on the same day, as literary awards are to be presented to many writers, poets and academics in the afternoon and, later, Irish language stars, actors, journalists, broadcasters and presenters will be out in their cocktail attire for the Communications Awards ceremony.

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There is a wide variety of competitions for age groups from under 10 to over 35 – competing for medals in storytelling, agallaimh beirte (poetic, often humourous, dialogues), lúibíní (poetic dialogues set to song), sean nós singing, work songs, non-sean nós singing and much more. Choral competitions are returning this year and it is expected that almost a thousand competitors will take part in the various competitions, the highest number for many years.

Other highlights of the five-day festival include:

• Thursday is traditionally the day of the young and the venues will be packed with competitors and their parents for various competitions. That night, however, older young people, students from all levels and beyond, will have the opportunity to attend a special gig with DJ Próvaí and Moglaí Bap from Kneecap along with special guest, Le Boom. All tickets, which were on sale for £15, have been sold out.
• Sean nós competitions in singing and dancing. The Oireachtas is where sean nós singers and dancers are auditioned and there will be competitions for young and old from now until Saturday. Corn Uí Riada is the main competition for singers who have previously won Comórtas na bhFear or Comórtas na mBan and there will be fierce competition for the trophy named in honour of Seán Ó Riada. The main sean nós singing competitions will be broadcast on RTÉ RnaG and Steip, the sean nós dancing competition, will be shown on TG4 on Saturday evening.
• Many books will be launched or films will have their first screening during the Oireachtas and new language resources will also be launched – among them Fotheidil(Subtitles), a system that transcribes audio or video files. A look at AI Technologies and other resources will be given at the launch which is organised by the Pronunciation & Speech Laboratory, Trinity College. A new festival for Irish language and minority language films, Flix Feirste, will begin that night and Kneecap will be the first film to be shown.
• In addition, there will be plenty of discussion and debate. There will be seminars on place names, Irish language print media, language planning and major issues of the day for the Irish language and the Gaeltacht. TG4 will be running master classes in writing for television and Ros na Rún is running workshops for acting. There will be an Oireachtas Fair where you can find all sorts of Irish language goodies, from T-shirts and hoodies to Christmas decorations. 

Full information about the festival’s events, which will conclude with church services on Sunday, is available on the Oireachtas website.  

The Journal’s Gaeltacht initiative is supported by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme