On Saturday, November 8, 2025, visiting Speaker Dr. Fionnghuala Nic Roibeaird will address the Global and Area Perspectives (GAP) Symposium as a guest of EURO and REEI.
Nic Roibeaird is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool. Her current research focuses on minority/ised rights in the North of Ireland, with particular attention to the campaigns for an Irish Language Act and same-sex marriage. She earned her Ph.D. with a dissertation examining the relationship between Gaeloideachas (Irish-medium education) and community regeneration in West Belfast, highlighting how language reclamation and education serve as tools for political and social engagement. Her work combines qualitative and ethnographic methods with theories of decolonisation to explore how grassroots activism produces material social transformation. Nic Roibeaird’s scholarship contributes to debates on language rights, gender equality, and post-conflict transformation, and she is actively involved in public discourse around Irish language infrastructure and community empowerment from below.
Dr. Nic-Roibeaird's talk is titled "Language Reclamation from Below in West Belfast":
Centuries of colonial violence and language shift in Ireland pushed Gaeilge (Irish) to the margins of extinction and was viewed by many as the language of poverty, stupidity, and shame. For those in the partitioned North of Ireland who wished for reunification with the south, Gaeilge was held as a source of communal dignity and identity but was inaccessible to the impoverished and oppressed Irish population. With its roots in a radical language reclamation movement that began in the late 1960s, Gaeilge has been reframed as central to people’s material wellbeing in the context of decolonisation and community regeneration and empowerment. Crucial to this movement is Gaeloideachas (or Irish-medium education) which has educated thousands of young people and given them access to their indigenous language and inspired them to contribute to the reclamation movement. This paper explores the role of Gaeloideachas in language reclamation and explores this movement for decolonisation in Britain’s doorstep colony.
EURO and REEI invite anyone interested to register and attend the GAP symposium, which will take place on November 7th and 8th. Read more about the event and other speakers here.
Read more about Dr. Nic Roibeaird here.