Irish language groups celebrate

Irish language groups celebrate

8 May 2013

IRISH language groups in Downpatrick and lower Mourne have both secured major awards.

Glór na nGael has awarded Downpatrick’s Cumann Gaelach Leath Chathail €8,000, with the Lower Mournes branch of Conradh na Gaeilge winning the Comhairle na Gaelscolaíochta prize worth €1,500 for the promotion of Irish medium education.

Representatives from both groups joined around 300 others from voluntary Irish languages from throughout the country and abroad at Clontarf Castle in Dublin for the annual Glór na nGael last week.

More than €145,000 was awarded to school and university committees and groups from across Ireland, Scotland and the United States. Coiste Forbartha Dobhair in Donegal won the national prize worth €40,000.

Prizes were awarded in two separate categories: committees with employees and committees without employees.

Special prizes were also awarded across a range of areas of work including Irish language clubs in secondary schools and in universities.

For the first time, more than 30 medals were awarded acknowledging consistent high levels of achievement in the Glór na nGael competition over the past three years.

Downpatrick’s Cumann Gaelach Leath Chathail was awarded a gold medal, with the Lower Mourne Conradh na Gaeilge awarded a silver medal.