This article is from page 13 of the 2011-10-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 13 JPG
SIXMILEBRIDGE’S ambitions to be crowned kings of the Irish language have come to an end.
The ‘Bridge lost out in the semi-finals of TG4’s ‘An G-Team’, which is a project aimed at reviving the Irish language across the country. A team from TG4 has travelled to towns and villages across the country in recent weeks as various areas competed against each other.
The people of Sixmilebridge had put in a huge effort in their attempts to win the overall prize of € 40,000.
However, they were defeated at the semi-final stage and the Glen of Aherlow will now go on to contest the final against Donabate from Dublin.
The ‘Bridge did well in the early stages of the competition and their new website promoting the use of Irish caught the attention of the adjudicators. As a result of their efforts, there has been a renewed interest in the Irish language in the area.
While they did well in the latest challenge, in which they were tasked with producing an hour-long radio programme, they were not chosen as one of the finalists.
During the radio show, they presented their own news and interviews, including an interview with Presidential hopeful Michael D Higgins.
Rita Costello read the news in Irish, assisted by reporters PJ Fitzpatrick and Eimear Murphy.
“Overall, it was very good. We were delighted with how it went. We couldn’t have done anything much better. We are waiting for feedback. They were very complimentary about the standard of Irish. The others (competitors) were very strong,” said the co-ordinator of the committee in Sixmilebridge, Brendan Walsh.
“There is a huge new interest in Irish. The big change is that there is a bit of Irish spoken in the pubs at night,” said Brendan.
“The big thing it did was connect community groups in the village,” he added.
“People have identified other people in the village who speak Irish. There was a core group of between 30 and 40.
“There are families who speak Irish in the ‘Bridge and nobody knew that,” he said.
Irish language classes take place every Monday, from 7pm to 9pm, in the old courthouse in Sixmilebridge, while a comhrá group meets at the Mill Bar every Friday at 9pm.
The village will feature prominently when TG4 broadcasts the G-Team initiative in January over 10 weeks.