Do you speak our language?

A SOUTHSIDE man is one of the main organisers behind a new music festival being held ‘as Gaeilge’ in Dublin this June.

Aodhán Ó Deá is director of the new ‘Ravelóid’ music festival that is taking place in Ardgillan Castle, Balbriggan from June 10 to 11.

The festival aims to give people a chance to use their Irish and to create an “Irish language atmosphere”, according to Ó Deá, a former student of St Mary’s College, Rathmines.

“People with all levels of Irish are encouraged to attend the festival,” Ó Deá said. “There’s no ‘scrúdú béal’ at the gate. We want to get people involved in Irish events.”

There will be some well-known acts at the bilingual festival including The Delorentos, The Riptide Movement and the Irish language pop group, Seo Linn. There will also be full camping facilities.

Ravelóid aims to build on the resurgence of the Irish language in recent years, hence the name, ‘réabhlóid’ being the Irish for ‘revolution’.

“There’s a good buzz about the Irish language and it has definitely been helped by the likes of Lurgan,” said Ó Deá, referring to the Gaeltacht summer school that has produced successful covers of pop songs ‘as Gaeilge’.

The success of Lurgan’s music videos was something that spawned the idea of a music festival through Irish. Some of the acts performing at the festival have recorded songs in Irish over the years, and will be including these in their regular sets. The idea for the festival also partially came about due to the growing interest of students in the Irish language and the “huge growth in Irish language societies in third level”.

“There are now 25 third level societies in the country,” revealed Ó Deá, who was one of the founding members of UCD’s Cumann Gaelach in 2006. The festival is attempting to create an enjoyable opportunity for people to use their Irish in everyday life, he added.

The number of opportunities for people to practise Irish in the capital has been growing steadily in recent years. 

The Na Gaeil Óga GAA club is another example of the growing popularity of Irish in Dublin. The club has football and hurling teams that train and play in the Phoenix Park through the Irish language. 

With the amount of Irish speakers in the city growing steadily, tickets for Ravelóid are expected to be highly sought after. This is the festival’s first year, and there are only 4,500 tickets available.

The festival will be a family event, and children younger than 12 can go free. Tickets and the full line-up can be found at www.raveloid.ie

Eoin Lúc Ó Ceallaigh