Events Archives - Mother Tongues

On 13th and 14th April, the Malayalee Indian community is gathering for their annual Kids Fest. It looks like a fascinating event, with competitions in elocution, news reading, Irish dancing and other traditional dances, so check out their website to find out more.

The Venue Is Scoil Mhuire Boys National School, Griffith Avenue, Marino, Dublin 9.

Malayalee Indians (MIND) Ireland is a voluntary community organisation established in February 2008 with a view to providing a platform for Malayalee Indians in Dublin and around to promote the rich culture, heritage and tradition of Malayalees (natives of Kerala, South India). The members understand that community participation is the key for integration and in order to foster community, spirit MIND organises various activities throughout the year, including cricket tournament, badminton tournament, family tour, family day, kids competitions, celebration of Thiruvonam, Christmas and New Year etc. It also organises various workshops and seminars for the benefit of its members and encourages the members to participate in the local government structures.

Information on activities and events can be found at https://mindireland.org/

Imagine a place where people have fun speaking many different languages, a place where children and adults learn about culture, stories and languages through art-making, music and dance! This is what the Mother Tongues Festival was all about!

Over the last two weekends we hosted more than 50 events in over 20 languages, we met artists, professionals and performers from India, Ethiopia, Russia, Libya, Taiwan, Japan, Germany, Italy, Poland, Turkey, Egypt, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Spain, France just to name a few! They filled rooms and entire venues in Galway and in Tallaght with their talent, through workshops, talks, poetry, music, dances and science. Participants of the Festival had a chance to listen to multilingual poetry, try Bollywood dancing, draw Irish wild animals with a Polish illustrator, learn Chinese calligraphy, meet musicians from Congo and Nigeria and learn Japanese through origami making!

Mother Tongues Festival 2019. Tallaght, 2nd and 3rd March 2019. Picture Enzo Francesco Testa Photography. www.enzofrancescotesta.com

Galway Mother Tongues Festival. 22nd and 23rd February 2019

Mother Tongues Festival 2019. Tallaght, 2nd and 3rd March 2019. Picture Enzo Francesco Testa Photography. www.enzofrancescotesta.com

The aim of Mother Tongues Festival is to promote languages and cultures in Ireland through the arts. Most of the people we spoke to at the events told us that they were happy to learn something new through languages that are currently spoken in Ireland and many families said they loved the opportunity to cultivate and share their community languages outside of the home.

As we pack our Festival suitcase and go home to prepare our 2020 edition we are filled with the positive energy gained at the event.
There are so many people we need to thank! We are extremely grateful to RuaRed, the Civic Theatre and Galway2020 for believing in our project and making it happen in Dublin and Galway. Without the support of the Arts Council, South Dublin County Council and the Small Town Big Ideas Initiative our festival could not have been so successful. We are honoured to have been granted funding to pursue our dream! The many sponsors that have come on board this year have allowed us to make it an even more special event! We are very grateful to RTE’, the Ambassade de France en Irlande, the Goethe Institut, Languages Connect, the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Dublin, St. Kilian’s Deutsche Schule in Dublin, the Dublin School of Mandarin Chinese, Your English Language School in Dublin, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Brady Languages, The Stop B&B, Atlas Language School, Seachtain na Gaeilge le Energia, the Chester Beatty Library, Unuhi, Irish Architecture Foundation, Áras na nGael, Creative Ireland and Massimo Russo.

And last but not least, do not forget that the festival is only good craic if you come!
A MASSIVE thank you, grazie, merci, gracias, obrigados, mulțumesc, go raibh maith agat teşekkürler
to all the hundreds of people who have attended our two Festivals!

See you in 2020!

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