“I am personally delighted to be elected President of Conradh na Gaeilge at this weekend’s Ard Fheis. Firstly, I wish to thank Paula Melvin, outgoing President of Conradh, for her work on behalf of the Irish language over the past 3 years as President of the organisation. I have a longstanding connection with Conradh na Gaeilge, going back around 20 years. I was first elected to the Conradh’s Coiste Gnó in 2005, and in 2015, I began a 5 year post as Advocacy Manager in the north as the organisation opened a new provincial headquarter in Belfast. I look forward now to the next steps in my journey with this incredible organisation and I believe that Conradh na Gaeilge has both a central role, and an important voice, on the biggest questions and challenges facing us as a society, both north and south, in the years ahead.”
“I think everyone present at this weekend’s Ard-Fheis will be thinking of the huge losses we have felt in the organisation over the last year, especially former presidents, including Pádraig Ó Snodaigh and Gearóid Ó Cairealláin. Gearóid was the most recent Belfast native to become President of Conradh na Gaeilge, 30 years ago this year, a giant of the Irish language world who set out a radical, energetic and empowering vision for the development of the Irish language and the Gaeltacht. I now look forward to beginning the next chapter of that same journey and, at a time where the Irish language is booming in popularity across the world, with historic new legislation north and south, it is more important now than ever that we make sure we have a movement capable of meeting the challenges and crises of today head on, be that our current funding crisis, or our every-growing housing crisis in the Gaeltacht, as well as all of the other issues, and ambitions of our community moving forward.”
Ciarán Mac Giolla Bhéin, President of Conradh na Gaeilge
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