“Small is beautiful” – international experts to attend DCU conference on third-level education in Irish

Fiontar, Dublin City University’s school for teaching enterprise using the Irish language, is to hold an international conference on Friday 7 and Saturday 8 March. The conference will be attended by over 100 specialists in minority languages from countries such as Catalonia, the Basque country, Scotland and Wales and will discuss strategic questions relating to the teaching of Irish at third level and appropriate models for the future development of this sector.

The keynote speaker is Miguel Strubell i Trueta from the Open University of Barcelona which offers courses through the medium of Catalan to approximately 20,000 students. He is a well-known writer and researcher on minority language issues and was one of the authors of Euromosaic, a key EU-sponsored report on lesser-used languages in Europe.

Other speakers will include Dr Caoilfhionn Nic Pháidin, Director of Fiontar at DCU, Dr Tadhg Ohlfearnáin, University of Limerick, Dr Neil Buttimer, University College Cork, Dr Art Hughes, University of Ulster, Professor Micheál O Cinnéide, University College, Galway and Professor Micheál O Súilleabháin, University of Limerick.

The conference will examine the structural models of university education which best suit the Irish language community, given its dispersed geographical nature. Other issues which will be addressed are the funding opportunities for Irish language courses, and the ways in which university education can best promote the socio-economic development of Irish language communities.

Conference organiser John Walsh said “It will be extremely useful for all those involved in the teaching of lesser-used languages at third level to look at other countries which might use different models. This will stimulate and provoke debate which can only be beneficial to those involved in the teaching of Irish”.

For further details contact:

John Walsh
ph 7008440 | john.walsh@dcu.ie

Bairbre Ni Chonghaile
ph 7005614 | bairbre.nichonghaile@dcu.ie