Minister Thomas Byrne launches Conradh na Gaeilge’s ‘Céad Míle Fáilte’ initiative in Dublin today

Aire Stáit na Gaeltachta, Thomas Byrne TD, was at the offices of UNITE in Dublin today to officially launch Céad Míle Fáilte, a language initiative by Conradh na Gaeilge.

Earlier this year, Minister Byrne's Department announced a funding package of €511,797 over three years for this initiative. Céad Míle Fáilte focuses on the benefit New Irish communities can gain from the Irish language - as regards the importance of the language, the opportunities it can provide and integration into Irish society.

The aim of this campaign is to encourage New Irish communities to learn and to use the Irish language in order to develop a greater sense of Irish identity for themselves. This will be achieved via a series of language classes and special interest workshops to be provided to groups of New Irish around the country and through the provision of language resources to assist them with learning and using the language.

Céad Míle Fáilte aims to reach more than 2,000 people with this scheme. It is hoped that there will be more than 700 ongoing participants of the course by 2025 and that a further 1,300 people will take part in the workshops and other events organised as part of the scheme.

Speaking about the funding package, Minister Byrne said:

"I'm delighted that my Department is in a position to support Conradh na Gaeilge with this worthy project. When people come to live in Ireland, the focus is generally on learning English and this initiative shows to new arrivals to Ireland how central the Irish language is to our culture and identity. "Céad Míle Fáilte" will be given to New Irish people to strengthen their sense of Irish identity."

Uachtarán Chonradh na Gaeilge, Paula Melvin said:

"We are extremely grateful to the Aire Stáit and to the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media for providing funding the 'Céad Míle Fáilte' project until 2025. We were given an opportunity last year to deliver a pilot scheme in order to assess interest and this was very successful. Now, with help from the Department, we are in a position to employ a driven, full-time team to strategically drive this project and to develop it further. An Conradh aims to engage with more than 2,000 people from minority communities and from a variety of backgrounds all around the country via classes, workshops and events. This will provide opportunities to the marginalised for integration into society, and the Irish-speaking community and Conradh na Gaeilge bid them a 'Céad Míle Fáilte'."