As Seachtáin na Gaeilege comes to a close on St Patrick's Day, Muineachán Le Gaeilge, has told Northern Sound that Monaghan is likely to be designated a Líonra. Answering a Dáil question from Cavan-Monaghan TD, Pauline Tully, the Minister for Culture, Arts and the Gaeltacht, Catherine Martin, who is originally from Carrickmacross, indicated Monaghan is now a strong candidate to achieve the highest level of designation for Irish speaking regions, outside of the Gaeltacht.
The status of Líonra - which translates as "network" - is the third stage in a scheme by the Department and Foras na Gaeilge to promote the Irish language at community level. In a recent survey, 34 per cent of people in Monaghan described their Irish as "good", placing the county top in the country, even ahead of gaeltacht areas.
Monaghan also has the highest number of people who say they speak Irish every day and the highest number of students in Irish medium primary education. Stiofán Ó Connachtaigh from local Irish language group Muineachán Le Gaeilge said those statistics are the result of hard work on the ground by supporters of the Irish language in Monaghan: "It's well deserved by the Irish speaking community in this county," Stiofán told Northern Sound, "There's been serious work going on for years and years to promote the language here; whether it's through gael scoils, committees like ourselves, Muineachán Le Gaeilge, and now the status Líonra will recognise that work and it increases funding available to do that work, increases our responsibilties and increases the responsibilities of local authorities and on the state to support the Irish language community in Monaghan."
[CLIP]
