OVER 180 children took part in an Irish language blitz in Atticall last Friday that the organisers hope will have shown the participants the importance of speaking Gaeilge when playing Gaelic.
The event was the only one of its kind in the county, and Atticall were one of 12 clubs in Ireland to receive funding to run such an event. Club treasurer and Irish language development officer for the Mourne area Ruairí Ó Donnáin explained where the idea came from. “The GAA and the Joe McDonagh Foundation put out a one-time funding offer to run a primary schools’ blitz through the medium of Irish for primary schools in the area. “So we, working with other local clubs and schools, were lucky we secured the funding to run the event.”
On Friday pupils from nine schools, and representing seven clubs from the area, took part in the 14-team blitz, where each team would play at least four games. The nine schools that took part were St Paul’s PS, Cabra, St Patrick’s PS, Hilltown, St Bronagh’s PS, Rostrevor, Kilbroney IPS, St Colman’s PS, Kilkeel, St Columban’s PS, Kilkeel, Gaelscoil na mBeann in Kilkeel, Bunscoil Bheanna Boirche in Castlewellan, and Holy Cross PS, Atticall. The clubs involved were Clonduff, St Bronagh’s Rostrevor, An Riocht, Ballymartin, Glasdrumman, Longstone, and Atticall. The competition was held under Go Games rules so no scores were kept, but players were marked for their efforts to use the Irish language while playing.
Ruairi said that allowing the children the opportunity to use Irish outside of the classroom is important. “It is vitally important. It’s very hard to teach a language to the children without giving them some context or without giving them the opportunities to use the language that they are learning,” he explained. “We gave the children the opportunity to use the Irish language, and to let them see it used outside the classroom, through a sporting element and that is where the funding comes in. “All the kids are from clubs already playing through the medium of English, so why can’t they do it through the medium of Irish if they are learning the language.”
The project also connected with local secondary schools. Pupils from St Malachy’s High School in Castlewellan who are doing A Level PE and A Children enjoy level Irish held a fun warm-up. And students from St Malachy’s and St Louis Grammar School in Kilkeel were the referees on the day. The event was supported by Conradh na Gaeilge, the group that promotes the Irish language in Ireland. For this blitz, they provided Irish language resources which they sent to all the schools for children to learn and use before they arrived at the blitz. Ruairi said it took a lot of work to put the whole event together, and they relied on a variety of people from all the clubs to ensure it was a success. “It is my first time organising a blitz,” he said. “We were depending on other people in the club for their experience in organising blitzes. “There is a fair bit of Enjoying Friday’s blitz in Atticall were Kilbroney Integrated PS (Rostrevor) pupils, Holly Birnie, Catherine Murphy, Rose Ryan and Erin Quinn. P15-130324 St Bronagh’s PS, Rostrevor pupils who attended Friday’s Irish language blitz in Atticall. P21-130324 The Holy Cross PS, Atticall ‘Ógs Team’. (c) Boys from Castlewellan’s Bunscoil Bheanna Boirche, from left, Darragh, Harry, Finn, Rossa, Pádraig and Fiachra. P16-130324 work, but the result is seeing 182 kids on one pitch in Atticall all using their cúpla focal. That was the goal.” He was also pleased to be able to use their club as the focal point. “Atticall pay for an Irish language teacher to go into our local primary school one day a week for the whole school year. “So it is good that we are able to host the tournament in our own club grounds and that we are able to link in with Conradh na Gaeilge for their help in how to promote the language as much as possible.”
