Saturday night film – the Belfast gaeltacht

Another longish video this evening but worth watching

Even though it is as gaeilge, English sub-titles make it accessible for everyone.
This is the story of an extraordinary achievement by some very special people in extremely adverse circumstances.

In the late 60’s a group of Irish speaking families set up an urban Gaeltacht on Shaw’s Road.

In 1971 Bunscoil Phobal Feirste began with nine children. The school grew from strength to strength. Voluntary fundraising kept the school running for the first thirteen years.

 

Here are the founders of

Coláiste Feirste, a secondary school on a hill overlooking the Falls Road in the Catholic heartland of West Belfast,  There are no sports fields. Chemistry is taught in a store-room, drama in the foyer of the technology department; 563 pupils are being educated in space designed for 380, yet their performance is well above average for an all-ability school.The medium of instruction and conversation in the schoolis Irish, an Indo-European language as distant from English as Lithuanian. Maths, physics, film studies, all subjects are taught in Irish; when a class debates the 19th century, pupils talk not of independence but ofneamhspleáchas, not of laws but of reachtaíocht. Coláiste Feirste is now the biggest Irish medium school on the island.

the Belfast gaeltacht, the only new urban gaeltacht in the world,

and Culturlann a community cultural centre.

Hope you like them, and their story and applaud their achievements

– http://vimeo.com/34665736

 

 

 

http://www.prettyusefulmaps.com/visit-west-belfast/

http://antuairisceoir.com/2014/02/25/ta-an-rialtas-o-dheas-ag-maru-na-gaeilge-ach-ta-nios-mo-den-lucht-ort/

http://www.economist.com/news/christmas-specials/21591737-northern-irelands-devolved-government-driving-revival-irish-language-not

http://belfastmediagroup.com/celebrating-colaiste%E2%80%99s-20-years/

http://www.bunscoilphobalfeirste.com/Scoil.html