Demand for youth services through the medium of Irish continues to surge in Armagh as local community development group, Cairde Teo, opened up a second youth club for those at post-primary schools. The initiative, which is part-funded by Foras na Gaeilge and the Education Authority’s Youth Service caters for students at Armagh’s Irish medium post-primary school, Coláiste Chaitríona, as well as former Gaelscoil students who now attend English medium schools. The club, which is being organized in conjunction with Fóram na nÓg, an umbrella group for Irish-medium youth clubs in the north of Ireland, will be held weekly on Wednesday evenings from 8pm in the Cathedral Road Recreation Centre. The club aims to run a number of fun and engaging programmes for the young people, as well as organize a number of trips and youth exchanges throughout the year.
The new youth club called Cumann na nDéagóirí follows on from the Key Stage 2 youth club, Club Óige Ard Mhacha, for children between Rang 4 and Rang 7 in local Irish medium schools. The junior youth club is held on Thursday evening’s and has seen a big growth in numbers attending this year, as word begins to get out about the varied programme of activities and range of day trips and visits throughout the year. The youth club recently celebrated European Language Day by taking part in sign language workshops, where they learnt basic greetings and how to spell their names in ISL, and as well as plenty of games and art, are planning further workshops based on languages and cultures from across the world, local wildlife and Armagh’s Celtic heritage.
Both clubs are organised by a number of qualified youth workers, teachers and community activists, and are ably assisted by young Irish speaking volunteers. The clubs are run in conjunction with Fóram na nÓg and national Irish medium youth organization, Ógras, and are held at the Cathedral Road Recreation Centre. Cairde Teo are inviting new members to join either youth club and enjoy an exciting programme of Irish medium youth work. The post-primary youth club takes place from 8pm on Wednesdays and the junior youth club is held on Thursdays between 6.30 and 8pm.
