Mother Tonuges Festival 2023, Tallaght, 16-18 February.

Mother Tongues

About us

Mother Tongues is a social enterprise working to promote multilingualism and intercultural dialogue in Ireland.

Our Story

After 10 years of academic teaching and research on bilingualism, Dr Francesca La Morgia decided it was time to share positive and encouraging messages about bilingualism with parents and with people working with young children.  

In 2018 she founded Mother Tongues, the first social enterprise in Ireland to employ a creative arts-based approach to empowering parents and children to embrace their mother tongue. 

Giulia's story

Our Mission

Our mission is to empower bilingual children through creativity and the arts
so they can grow up confident in their linguistic and cultural identity.

Values

Open, inclusive and equitable

Collaborative and democratic

Artistically ambitious

Curious and reflective

Impact

In the last 12 months:

1250 parents and children

attended our award winning Language Explorers programme. This series of creative multilingual workshops have inspired families to start using their mother tongue for the first time

237 migrant artists

have been employed to deliver Language Explorers workshops and the Mother Tongues Festival, attended our seminars and participated in our residency, as part of the Cultural Diversity programme

more than 100 parents, teachers & education professionals

attended our training programmes, developing innovative skills for the new generations of multilingual children

almost 700 people

attended our yearly flagship event Mother Tongues Festival, experiencing the benefits of multilingualism for social cohesion

more than 200 employees

in companies and organisations nationwide attended our talks about linguistic and cultural diversity in the workplace

80 children

participated in Our World of Languages
(OWL) project, in partnership with Early Childhood Ireland

Multilingual Ireland

We support families in making the most of their mother tongues by sharing information, giving access to resources and offering creative programmes that encourage child language development. We believe the future of Ireland is multilingual, so we encourage everyone in our community to be positive about all languages and cultures so we can build a more inclusive Ireland for everyone

Our People

We are a small team of people who are deeply passionate about our work.
We’re constant learners who strive for meaningful social impact and strong relationship building.