The Irish-language community in Paris gathered at the Centre Culturel Irlandais (CCI) last week to celebrate 20 years of Irish-language teaching in the centre and to award Teastas Eorpach na Gaeilge (TEG) certificates to students who recently passed the TEG Irish-language exams.
Guests on the evening included Deputy Ambassador to France, Micheál Tierney, Principal Officer at the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport & Media Eoin Ó Droighneáin, Aoife Ní Ghloinn, Director of the Centre for Irish Language at Maynooth University, Anna Ní Ghallachair, former director of the Centre for Irish Language, as well as students of Irish at the CCI and representatives from An Ghaeltacht-sur-Seine, Paris’s Irish-language community. Music and songs in Irish, French and English were performed by Brían Mac Gloinn of folk duo Ye Vagabonds.
The Irish language has long been an integral part of CCI activities, going back to the founding of the Irish college. An English-Irish dictionary was published there almost 300 years ago in 1732. The establishment of Maynooth College in 1795 was a direct response to the closure of the Irish College in Paris, as a result of the French Revolution.
The story of the relationship between CCI and Maynooth University is one of the biggest success stories of the Centre for Irish Language. When the Centre Culturel Irlandais was established in the Irish College in 2001, Anna Ní Ghallachair and colleagues from the Irish-language department in Maynooth recognised the opportunity to foster the connection between the new centre and the University and to ensure that the Irish language would be an integral part of CCI programmes. Irish-language courses were first offered in the CCI in September 2005 and have continued to flourish since, thanks to the financial support of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport & Media. This year 75 students have registered for Irish courses at five proficiency levels and a large proportion of these students will take TEG exams in the summer.
A tight-knit community of Irish language speakers has grown and developed in Paris thanks to the Irish language classes at the CCI, and the group is not just made up of Irish people. Among them are French nationals of Irish descent, other French people who have no direct connection to Ireland but who became interested in the language for various reasons, as well as other people from various nationalities who were drawn to the Irish language due to their interest or curiosity in Irish music and culture.
Speakers at the event from the Irish Embassy and Maynooth University spoke about the power of looking at the Irish language through an international and European lens. The Deputy Ambassador also mentioned the potential of increasing the use of the language across the continent by strengthening the connections between Irish speaking communities in Paris and those in Brussels.
A new annual award, Gradam Anna Ní Ghallachair, was launched at the event to recognise the efforts and achievements of CCI students who contribute in a significant way to the Irish-language community in Paris. The award is named after the former director of Lárionad na Gaeilge to recognize her pioneering work on this project.
This year’s award was presented to Stiofáinín Nic Cárthaigh, a student who has been very active in Irish language and traditional Irish music circles in Paris in recent years. Stephanie was born in Canada but moved to Killarney, her father's hometown, as a teenager. As she was educated up to then in Canada, she was exempt from learning Irish in secondary school. However, she requested special permission to attend Irish language classes in transition year. Her teacher, Miss Kelleher (the renowned traditional singer, Máire Ní Chéileachair!), made a lasting impact on her, and almost 30 years later, in 2017, while living in Paris, she decided to return to learning Irish. She began attending Irish classes at the CCI and took her first TEG exam in 2019.
Since then, Stiofáinín has been at the heart of the Irish language scene in Paris. She is on the committee of An Ghaeltacht-sur-Seine, she organises a monthly singing club in Paris, and has recently founded Cór Choláiste na nGael, an Irish-language choir that performs at special events for the Irish and Irish-language community in Paris.
The students at CCI say that the Irish language is a cadeau, a wonderful gift or treasure that has enriched their lives by bringing together a passionate, energetic community in Paris over the past 20 years. The Centre for Irish Language at Maynooth University is very proud of the role it has played in nurturing this community, and we look forward to seeing it continue to flourish for many years to come.