Measures implemented to enhance access to the irish language in the digital environment

A digital strategy for the irish language is due to be launched later in 2020. the irish language enjoys great prominence in the cultural sector. for example, as part of the seachtain na gaeilge (week of irish) celebration, irish versions of popular irish musicians' hit records have been published and this has been a great success since 2005. link to the 2018 collection of songs https://cnag.ie/en/schools/school-resources/ceol.html creative ireland supported the establishment in october 2019 of fighting words connemara, based at ionad culturtha an phiarsaigh (pearse cultural centre) in ros muc, where the workshops take place through the irish language . fighting words aims to help children and young people to discover and harness the power of their own imaginations and creative writing skills subsequently strengthening their resilience, creativity and successful shapers of their own lives. classes take place in ionad culturtha an phiarsaigh three days a week. the national folklore collection ucd was placed on the unesco memory of the world register as it has a large archive of oral tradition and cultural history and much of the material has been digitised and is freely available at www.duchas.ie. the clar techspace project is a national project that aims to impact the lives of young people by becoming ireland's leading creative technology network for outcome focused youth development through the medium of irish. techspace is a national network of digital media spaces in youth centres and schools. the network helps young people to create digital and technological material as they engage in activities such as digital film, web design, mobile app development and robotics, among others. under the direction of trained instructors and mentors, young people can enhance their computer competency, while improving their self-confidence and social skills, all through the medium of irish. funding of eu413,317 was provided in 2019 to expand the programme nationwide and also to hold a tech feile (tech celebration). funding of eu495,950 is approved for this year (2020) for the continuation and expansion of the programme. the comprehensive techspace curriculum has now been translated into irish and published in the first ever irish language diary for teachers - we anticipate a great demand for the diaries within the techspace network of educators. an taibhdhearc is the irish language national theatre and is based in galway. its website has an extensive archive of photographs and material pertaining to the theatre since its inception. http://antaibhdhearc.com/stair/cartlann/ a variety of schemes to support irish language technology initiatives are being progressed and developed, including the development of machine translation systems by dublin city university (dcu) and trinity college dublin, the text to speech synthesis project abair.ie, digitisation projects in dcu and the royal irish academy, lex programme for the provision of terminology for eu institutions. these projects include logainm.ie, ainm.ie, duchas.ie lex/iate, the rules of the superior courts and the gaeltech projects in addition to the text to speech synthesiser project, www.abair.ie, based in trinity college, dublin. failte ar line (welcome online) is an irish language and culture online learning initiative developed by dcu, co-funded by the department of tourism, culture, arts, gaeltacht, sport and media under the 20 year strategy for the irish language 2010-2030. failte ar line is accessible to everyone, anywhere in the world. participants are able to progress from beginner to advanced courses and can complete a full degree in irish language and culture entirely online. launched in 2018, over 80,000 people have participated in the online courses thus far from 136 countries. the course from dublin city university & futurelearn is available at www.failteonline.ie 'focloir stairiuil na gaeilge' (historical dictionary of irish) - an initiative of the royal irish academy - is funded by the department of tourism, culture, arts, gaeltacht, sport and media and is one of the most ambitious linguistic research projects to be ever undertaken in europe with over 70 million words already compiled and digitised, and freely accessible. its primary objective is to establish an historical dictionary of modern irish (1600-2000) which will show the evolution of the language in the given period. it will be based on digitised corpora to include printed texts, texts from manuscripts and material from other sources. grant funding of eu920,183 was approved in 2019 for this project for the duration 2019-2024.

Eu1.8m ($2.1m)