Seachtain na Gaeilge is the biggest Irish language and culture celebration festival. St. Patrick's Day brings the celebrations to end, but we intend to continue in the spirit of the festival. 

Over the past weeks as beginner learners and re-learners, we have been celebrating Seachtain na Gaeilge and reflecting on why we think it is important to use Irish language and how we can include Irish more in our business and daily life.

We relocated our HQ to Carna in Connemara over a year ago and we have been incredibly grateful to be surrounded by the Irish Language, landscape, history and culture here.

Carna is in a strong Gaeltacht region, with English being the second language spoken.

We added our first Irish language label to one of our products in 2020 and we look forward to adding more in the near future.

For St. Patrick's day please enjoy 50% discount off the Leacht Níocháin online. 

https://www.lillysecoclean.com/collections/cleaning-products/products/leacht-niochain-500ml 

The Irish language is a beautiful language that describes the history, and the fact that the people's lifestyle was very close to nature.

Learning Irish is a great opportunity to connect with the identity of the Irish people and to Irish culture.

Irish is unique to Ireland and is recorded to be one of the oldest and most historic written languages in the world.

The third oldest written literature in Western Europe was in the Irish language with records of Irish lyric poetry dating from 700 AD. That is thanks to St. Patrick who started the golden era of christianity in Ireland and Ireland became the centre of monasteries, scholars and scribers. 

Irish is the fastest growing language on Duolingo in Ireland and the language is popular outside the island with more than 5.6 million users on the platform learning Irish around the globe. There is even now an official Gaeltacht  in Ontario Canada!

Seachtain na Gaeilge has been a great time to use Irish whether you have a cúpla focal or are a complete beginner, there are a multitude of resources out there to get you learning and it has been really fun.

Why not say Thank you, or Merci or Grazie or Kiitos or Tack also in Irish - Go raibh maith agat - it's a great way to add Irish in to our daily life. 

Did you know that the Irish word for spider ‘damhán alla’ translates to 'wall demon' and that there are 21 words in Irish for hole and 32 words for field. To find out more check Manchán Magan's book 32 words for field. 

You can now even watch the Spongebob movie on Netflix as Gaeilge!

Tosaigh ag cothú na Gaeilge i do shaol…agus féach uirthi ag fás!

Plant the seed of Irish in your life and watch it grow!

Nikki Moans March 2021