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'Even if we had a bad experience in school, there is still a lot of Irish in the recesses of our minds'
Visit the "Pop-Up Gaeltacht" and celebrate Seachtain na Gaeilge at Cryan's Teach Ceoil on Monday, 2nd March at 8 pm!
Pop up Gaeltacht poster
Reporter:
Claire Corrigan
20 Feb 2026 5:00 PM
A group of keen Leitrim Gaeilgeoirí are organising a Pop-Up Gaeltacht in Carrick-on-Shannon as part of Seachtain na Gaeilge 2026 in Cryan's Teach Ceoil for conversation, craic, music and a cup of tea or a pint!
One of the organisers, Rory Layden told the Leitrim Observer more about the event. "Myself and Deasún Lyons, who is very active in Carrick-on-Shannon Tidy Towns and is a former principal, thought it was a shame that Carrick-on-Shannon, the principal town of Leitrim, that has an Irish school, doesn't have something like this."
Rory, who works for Leitrim County Council, only rediscovered his grá for Irish recently, after applying for a new job. "Many years ago, I worked in an all-Irish secondary school in Dublin for two years part-time. I have used it for maybe twenty years and then I started working in the civil service and jobs were coming up for people who had Irish. I was wondering if my level of Irish was good enough, and found out it was, to apply for those jobs. In the last nine months I've revived my Irish so it's been a really nice experience."
He continued: "For people who come along to the Gaeltacht, there is no expectation that they speak Irish fluently. Deasún has very good Irish and mine is not near as good but I can hold a conversation. The whole thing about people speaking Irish now is that you don't have to fluent; The 'cúpla focal' is all you really need for a start."
He noted that there are people in the town who aren't connected to Gaelscoil Liatroma who speak Irish or have an interest in the language. "With the success of Kneecap and the election of Catherine Connolly and the release of Irish film An Cailín Ciúin, we think this is a good time to actually do this."
He recalled working in the Department of Social Protection in Longford and regularly conversing with a colleague as Gaeilge. "Every time I went past his desk, we'd just have a few words and could talk about anything. It's like the words were just there and I'd say the same could be said for most of us; that even if we had a bad experience in school there is still a lot of Irish in the recesses of our minds."
He added: "Irish expresses our identity; it's one of the few things that marks us as different from anybody else alongside our open hospital nature and love of family and nature. The Irish language is really something that marks us as different from any other country."
Rory said that while there is no music booked for the night, he is hopeful that some traditional musicians will get involved and play a couple of jigs. "A pop-up gaeltacht, there is no formality about it at all. It's just a place where you can speak Irish. We are hoping that one or two musicians will come along and maybe we could hold something the following week or the week after that for St. Patrick's Day."
Visit the "Pop-Up Gaeltacht" and celebrate Seachtain na Gaeilge at Cryan's Teach Ceoil on Monday, 2nd March at 8 pm!
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