Irish at NUI Galway

The Irish language has a unique position in the National University of Ireland, Galway. Firstly, the university has a legislative responsibility under the Act of 1929, to employ members of staff who are competent enough in the Irish language to fulfil their post through Irish, as long as those people are fully qualified in every way for those posts.

Since then, it was promised in the NUI Galway Strategic Plan, 2006 that NUI Galway will provide an exemplary bilingual campus through creative organised developments in academic programmes and in work practices and through providing the physical and social environment that will suit that objective.

It’s not just responsibility for the language that drives the University. Certain courses are taught through Irish in the Arts, Science and Commerce Faculties. A lot of the university’s administration is done through Irish and the language is often heard in the common rooms and in the hobbies and entertainment rooms in the university.

Bord na Gaeilge in the university has responsibility for promoting the Irish language in every aspect of University life. There is a new building in the university, which was built with the financial support of the National Lottery, and this building - Áras na Gaeilge, acts as a Gaeltacht in itself for the university community. Scoil na Gaeilge (the Department of Irish) and Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge are situated here.

The university holds a valuable resource in the Conamara Gaeltacht, Áras Mháirtín Uí Chadhain in An Cheathrú Rua as well as An tIonad Oideachais agus Cultúir in Carna – where courses, classes, parties and other events take place as part of an acquisition and preservation programme for the Irish language in order to strengthen and promote the language in the Gaeltacht community and amongst the staff of the public institutions which serve the Gaeltacht.