With over 55,000 views, Ashleigh’s TikTok shows the lighter side of the Irish language
UL student Ashleigh Wood recently went viral in Ireland after posting a clip to the TikTok account of the Irish society, An Cumann Gaelach. Inspired by a visit to the capital, she created the video featuring Dublin’s iconic Molly Malone statue.
Molly Malone and a Viral Moment
Ashleigh made a pun as Gaeilge about the statue of Molly Malone on Suffolk Street as they passed by, saying “d’ith Molly mo lóin”. The pair recorded Ashleigh repeating the line in front of the Dublin landmark. “We posted it like two days later and literally straight away everyone was like: ‘that’s so funny’, ‘that’s hilarious’,” Ashleigh recalls. The video has amassed nearly 55 thousand views.
A Passion for Gaeilge
“I think it’s very much alive”, the Applied Languages student states to regards to the state of the Irish language today. 21-year-old explains there are people like her, who have a grá for the language and never had somewhere to speak it, but the Cork native insists: “if you find the right group of people, it opens up this whole other world for you”. Ashleigh is a Gaeilgeoir, she speaks Irish fluently.
The Challenges of Promoting Irish
She is very critical of the government’s inaction in the promotion of the language: “If the government showed a positive attitude towards Irish, then it would go in that direction naturally”. She feels that the government knows what must be done to save the language. However, she also thinks that government parties “don’t follow through on their policies”.
The student believes the language would flourish if the way it is taught in schools were improved: “There should be a greater focus on spoken Irish.”
An Cumann Gaelach: A Growing Community
Ashleigh is from West Cork and was raised in an English-speaking family. She admitted that she “never really came into contact with real-life Irish speakers” until she came to UL and joined the Cumann. She remembers thinking: “Woah there’s actually people that speak Irish!”
The Irish language is thriving in the University of Limerick. An Cumann Gaelach has recorded its highest ever membership. The 153-strong society holds several weekly events promoting the language on campus.