KINSALE Cultural and Heritage Society hosted fourth class pupils from different schools at the town’s library to mark the recent Seachtain na Gaeilge, where seanchaí Paddy O’Brien entertained everyone at the gathering.
This is the second year that the local history society has organised the event, which has proven to be very popular with pupils from Summercove NS, Scoil Naomh Eltin, Dunderrow NS, St Multose and Gaelscoil Chionn tSaile, particularly with no homework for that evening, as a result of their participation.
In addition to Paddy’s outstanding performance, which was full of energy as he ensured the pupils were engaged over the two-hourly sessions, it also allowed the children to show their own talents, through the medium of the Irish language.
This year, St Multose pupils put on a very different version of the Hakka through the medium of Irish, while the other schools there sang several versions of some well-known tunes as Gaeilge.
Paddy, who is a retired national school teacher himself, praised the pupils and the teachers for not just the fluency of their Irish but also for their familiarity with the stories associated with Irish culture.
The society is also delighted to secure the support of the First South Credit Union (FSCU), who again sponsored a €50 voucher for each school to purchase books in Irish for their individual libraries. Georgie Cantwell, youth and marketing officer from FSCU, said: ‘The Credit Union was absolutely delighted to sponsor the event again this year, encouraging the language is really important and bringing it to a public space such as the library shows it just doesn’t exist in the classroom.’
JJ Hurley, chairman of Kinsale Cultural and Heritage Society said that promoting the language is very much part of the society’s brief. ‘The Irish language and culture is something we in the society are very conscious about. We do our best to promote the subject as part of our brief. Like many, my Gaeilge has faded somewhat since I left secondary school but using the odd couple of focal is important to keeping the language alive. The day was a huge success and in addition to thanking the school’s, pupils and teachers, there is a big shout-out to the library staff, Paddy, and our friends at the Credit Union in the town.’
