Intensive Irish language course being held in memory of Matt Lundy

FINAL registration is taking place for those wishing to sign up to an intensive Irish language course for all levels in memory of Irish language activist Matt Lundy.

The final registrations will take place on Thursday in the Cultúrlann from 7pm to 8.30pm with around 150 people so far already having registered interest. The event itself will take place on Saturday 2 March at Coláiste Feirste with registration costing £10

Organisers for the event say they wanted to hold the day in memory of prominent Irish language activist Matt Lundy who passed away at the beginning of September 2023. Throughout his life Matt was a stalwart of the Irish language community and helped thousands learn and fall in love with the language.

Cuisle Nic Liam, who is one of the organisers, said: “We’ve been contacted by people down in Cork and Dublin who said they have been impacted by Matt and will be making the trip up on the day to take part in it."

Brian Mac An tSionnaigh of Ionad Uibh Eachach, who is also organising the event, said the organisers wanted to remember the contribution Matt made to teaching the language. “Matt passed away at the start of September last year and even though it’s not an anniversary it’s coming up to Seachtain na Gaeilge and Matt would have organised a lot of events and things around Seachtain na Gaeilge and it seemed to us like perfect timing as we have been organising things between ourselves and it felt like the best time to do something in his name."

Cuisle added: “There are going to be four to five levels, ranging from complete beginner, to beginner, lower intermediate, intermediate on up to Ardrang. I’ve been speaking with my friends who went through Irish language education but maybe don’t get that much of a chance to speak in Irish to come along and enjoy the day as well and also people I know who don’t speak any Irish.

“A lot of people have also said they’re going to go from hearing about it at our classes in Andersonstown, which we began in memory of Diarmuid Ó Tuama. So many people who have been attending the classes said they will also go because they have such fond memories of Matt and all the work he did for the language.

“The classes are going really well, we have about 76 learners at the moment and we had four full-time classes of complete beginners who have now moved up levels and we have recently taken in another new full class of complete beginners.”

Cuisle said: “From putting out expressions of interest we are expecting somewhere between 150 to 200 people with five different levels and two classes at each level.”

Brian added: “We had the idea a while back and we asked Matt’s family if we could do a day in his name and it has been and still is a very hard time for this family after losing him but they said the fact that people who knew Matt, worked with him and learned from him wanted to come together to hold something like this was very helpful to them. We wanted to show our appreciation for Matt and also for his family as well.”

Anyone who would like more information or who can’t make the registration but would still like to attend can send their details to uithuama@cnag.ie