Winners of the 2020 'Aistritheoirí Óga' contest announced and a new on line Irish course from QUB

THE  winners of the Aistritheoirí Óga (Young Translators) 2020 contest were announced last week with two pupils from Gaelcholáiste Dhoire taking the top honours for schools in Ulster.

The award for best translation from English to Irish went to Cliodhna Ní Mhianáin while the best translation from a language other than English went to Sadhbha Nic Ruairí for her translation from French to Irish.  

Five secondary school students made the list - one from each of the four provinces in Ireland while Sadhbha was selected for her excellent translation from French to Irish.  

Overall, this year’s winners come from Derry, Dublin, Galway and Limerick and it was the Connacht winner, Bláthnaid Ní Fhátharta from Galway, whose translation was chosen as the best overall translation in the country.

The competition is part of a wider effort to raise awareness of the importance and benefits of the status of the Irish language as an official language of the European Union. 

The Irish language will have full status as an official language of the European Union by 2022 and that all the legislation which is enacted in the Union will be translated into Irish from that date, as is already the case for the other 23 official languages. For that reason, the EU institutions are looking for more Irish-language staff to do the work necessary to fulfil the obligations arising from the full status granted to Irish.

:: Irish is amongst the Lockdown Languages that Queen’s University is offering to the general public during this period of enforced confinement.

Each language learning resource will consist of five on line lessons over a five or ten week period.  

Each week/fortnight you will have 2 hours of pre-recorded language tuition in the form of videos, accessible via the web.

There will also be a weekly/bi-weekly live follow up ‘clinic’, facilitated by your tutor.  In these clinics, the content from the pre-recorded tuition can be expanded upon, questions answered and further examples provided.

The online resources currently available are all beginners level in French, German, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. 

You can get full information about the classes from bit.ly/3bZPzpb.