Continuing the quest for interpreters with Irish
When Ireland joined the European Communities in 1973, it did not ask for Irish to be one of the EU institutions' official and working languages, but only to have the Treaties translated into Irish and for its citizens to have the right to communicate with the EU institutions in Irish.
However, in 2005, Ireland requested that the Irish language be accorded the same status as that of the national official languages of the other Member States, and thus became an official and working language of the Union. Initially a derogation was applied to give the institutions time to adapt and recruit the necessary translators, lawyer linguists and interpreters. This derogation was extended on several occasions but finally ended on 31 December 2021.
Back then, DG SCIC only had a couple of colleagues with passive Irish among its staff and a handful of accredited free-lance colleagues on the common list. So what has been done to try to recruit more Irish interpreters with Irish in their combination? In addition to supporting the course in Galway (the only one in the world to train interpreters with Irish), DG SCIC has carried out intensive awareness raising campaigns across Ireland including the organisation of several highly successful road trips around the Irish universities, both in person and online, as well as taking part in regular outreach initiatives organised by the Irish government. Several videos were produced including A day in the life of an Irish interpreter - YouTube. And finally there were a couple of in-house top up traineeships for graduates of the Galway course. All of this has led to the recruitment of 4 Irish colleagues with Irish (and other languages).
In 2022, DG SCIC launched its latest traineeship funded by the Irish government. Following a selection process last summer the 3 chosen candidates began their traineeship with a 2-month stint at the Department of the Gaeltacht in October. The aim was to provide them with a full immersion in the Irish language as the department works through Irish. They then came to Brussels and started their in-house traineeship with DG SCIC, which ran from December until the end of March. The traineeship has involved an intense schedule of interpreter exercises with experienced trainers, French enhancement classes provided by colleagues from the French unit and some guided dummy booth. Hopefully they will be successful in their upcoming tests!
Táimid fíorbhuíoch as gach duine atá páirteach sa togra chun stádas na Gaeilge in Institiúidí an Aontais Eorpaigh a dhaingniú agus le Gaeilgeoirí óga a spreagadh le tabhairt faoi ghairm san ateangaireacht. Go raibh míle maith agaibh!