Seachtain na Gaeilge

What it is

Seachtain na Gaeilge translates as Irish Language Week. It exists to give Irish a public and spoken life, and it is kept in Ireland and among Irish speakers in other countries. No single body runs the whole programme. Local committees, schools and clubs arrange what happens in their own areas, so one town's week can look quite unlike another's. Learners are as welcome as fluent speakers. The week is the biggest festival of its kind in the world.

Origins and history

The week was founded in 1902 by Conradh na Gaeilge, the organisation set up to support Irish, and it grew out of the Gaelic Revival, a movement that turned to the language's older culture for inspiration. The festival's own account traces its ancestry to gatherings of poets and scholars from centuries before: Gairm Sgoile, a fourteenth-century call to a bardic school, and the Munster Cúirt, an eighteenth-century poetic court. Those models gave the week one of its lasting features, a contest between poets writing in Irish. The event has been held since 1902.

Poetry and performance

Music, verse and competition run through the seventeen days. Céilís, the social evenings of Irish music and dancing, are common, along with concerts, table quizzes, contests and street parades. Sports fixtures are arranged during the week too. The poetry competition carries the older bardic idea forward, inviting composers to write in Irish and to be judged against one another. Because the programme is built locally, a small village and a large city may mark the week in very different ways, but the purpose is shared: the language is used out loud, in company, with enjoyment.

Support and reach

Energia backed the week as sponsor until 2025, having come on board in 2017. Each year the festival is said to reach more than a million people across five continents. In 2018, Galway's university gave its annual celebration of the week over to Máirtín Ó Direáin, a Connaught poet and modernist, thirty years after his death. The event and exhibition were titled Máirtín Ó Direáin, Fathach File / Reluctant Modernist, and drew on university, State and private archives. His daughter, Niamh (née Ní Dhireáin) Sheridan, spoke, joined by her daughter and grandson.

How Seachtain na Gaeilge is kept

Local groups decide their own programme. Over seventeen days, from 1 March to 17 March, a community might hold a céilí, a concert, a quiz, a competition or a parade, and sports events are added in many places. Schools, clubs and language groups take part, and the events happen in Ireland and in Irish communities abroad. Organisers aim to bring the language into ordinary settings, so speaking and singing in Irish sit at the centre of what happens.

When and where

Seventeen days every year, from 1 March, St David's Day, through to 17 March, St Patrick's Day. The dates are the same each year, so the week always falls in early to mid March and finishes on Ireland's national holiday.

It is kept in Ireland and in Irish-speaking communities around the world. Groups in towns and villages across the country run their own events, and the festival travels with the Irish diaspora, so classes, clubs and societies abroad hold their own versions. It is described as the largest Irish-language festival in the world, reaching more than a million people on five continents each year.

What Seachtain na Gaeilge means

The week's stated purpose is the promotion of the Irish language and of Irish culture. It was founded within the Gaelic Revival, a movement that looked to the language's older literary past, and that inheritance survives in the poetry competition. For those who take part, the value lies in using Irish together, in music and verse and talk, and in handing it on.

Days Seachtain na Gaeilge is marked

Questions people ask about Seachtain na Gaeilge

See also

HalloweenAn annual observance on 31 October marking the eve of All Saints' Day, rooted in Christian tradition and Celtic heritageValentine's DayA Christian feast day and cultural celebration of love kept on February 14 in many countries.Trick-or-treatingA custom where children visit homes in costume to ask for treats or face a playful prank.April Fools' DayAn annual day of lighthearted pranks, hoaxes and teasing kept on the first of April

Good reading and sources

• Seachtain na Gaeilge on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.