A child’s learning experience doesn’t finish at the end of the school day. Children need external, informal opportunities to use and practise the language in order to normalise its use outside of a classroom environment.

2009:

Among the 18 recommendations which arose from the Review of Irish Medium Education Report, it was noted that informal learning opportunities should be encouraged by the Education Authority, on top of their already existing duty to facilitate and encourage Irish-medium education.

Despite this, there continues to be a level of disparity between the funding received by Irish-medium youth services in comparison to their English-medium counterparts; most, if not all, English-medium youth services are funded to open between 5-7 days per week. For Irish-medium youth services, however, their allocated funding only enables them to offer their services between 1-3 nights per week.

This means that children who do not speak Irish at home are not being afforded adequate opportunities or resources to use the language outside of school hours; this has a detrimental impact not only on their relationship with the language, but also the language’s development.

Moreover, the closure of Irish-medium youth services has been threatened on a number of occasions. Each time, we, An Dream Dearg, stood with our inspiring young activists, who time and time again, publicly challenged these shortcomings and failures of the EA in facilitating and encouraging Irish medium youth services.

2017:

The Education Authority’s Extended Youth Programme aimed to increase access to youth clubs in the most disadvantaged, deprived areas; 4 Irish-medium youth clubs in Belfast received their funding under this programme, but were denied the funding in 2017. This jeopardised the very future of those youth clubs, meaning that children attending Irish medium schools would be left without access to an Irish-medium youth club.

This decision resulted in an all-too-familiar display of community activism from the Irish language community. hose affected by the cuts staged a public protest at the Headquarters of the Education Authority, with hundreds gathering outside the building, and others staging a sit-down protest inside. This action resulted in the eventual reinstatement of the funding.

2019:

Glór an Ghleanna, an Irish-medium youth club based in Carriagart youth centre in the Lenadoon area of West Belfast was forced to close following the Education Authority’s decision to close the building amid safety concerns. The building was closed, but no initial arrangements were made by the Education Authority to secure alternative accommodation, or to mend the problem.

It was only after a community-led meetings from local language activists, youth workers and those affected by the closure that the Education Authority agreed to arrange a temporary alternative site for the youth club.

2021:

Additional resources produced by the Education Authority was produced in 10 different languages; this initiative was an attempt to prevent children from being disconnected from school during a lengthy period of school closures as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, none of the material made available was translated into Irish. The 7,000 children who attend Irish-medium schools across the north were completely overlooked.

2022

The Education Authority informed the Irish medium youth sector that they were no longer able to provide funding for specific IM youth work. This decision saw an end to historic funding which was provided to the 24 Irish-medium youth services in the north. Amongst those youth services most affected were the upper Springfield youth organisation, Glór na Móna, recognised as the most successful IM youth service in Ireland, who were to see a 98% reduction in their funding.

Had the EA’s decision stood, it would have left 200+ children from the Upper Springfield with no alternative youth service provision; they would have been afforded no informal learning opportunities, a blatant disregard for the rights of our young people. To this extent, Glór na Móna’s team organised a public meeting and a protest outside the EA Headquarters to challenge the decision. Amongst those present were the employees and young people who would be directly affected by this cut.

Following the protest, representatives from Glór na Móna were invited to a meeting with the EA, an action which marked the start of intense engagement between the two organisations. A solution was reached which secured the youth service’s future; Glór na Móna warmly welcomed the decision