Belfast City Council award £500,000 to Irish language facility in west Belfast

AN Irish language group in west Belfast has been awarded £500,000 in capital funding by Belfast City Council.

The money was awarded as part of the council’s Neighbourhood Regeneration Fund which came under scrutiny this week over uncertainty for other groups including an autistic children’s charity and a heritage trust restoring an historic Belfast warehouse.

Based on the Whiterock Road in, members of the Glór na Móna Irish Medium Facility said their funding award was “testament to the hard work and dedication of generations of committed activists who have built the Irish language movement from below."

Currently using the An Ghaelionad facility, the money will now fund a second phase of capital works to expand the group’s offering with the Croí na Carraige project in what is intended to become “a flagship national language revival facility.”

Glór na Móna Chairperson Conchur Ó Muadaigh thanked Belfast City Council and Sinn Féin councillors for their support, stating he hoped the remainder of the funding could be secured from government departments in the near future.

“We will undoubtedly require continued, active party political support to make this community vision a reality in the time ahead,” he said.

“We believe that Croí na Carraige is ground-breaking grassroots community-led project that will become a flagship national Irish language regeneration project that will serve as a best practice example of grassroots minoritised language community development practice that can provide national and international inspiration to those working in language revitalisation movements.”