Film fans give Irish a crack as Oscars starts language boom
WITH its profoundly moving story and mesmerising central performances the Oscar nominated Irish film The Quiet
Girl has tugged heartstrings globally. But ahead of last night’s ceremony, it has also had an intellectual impact – inspiring cinemagoers to learn Irish.
Figures show that the story of a young girl sent to live with a foster family has helped boost interest in the language.
Some teachers reported that many enquiries came from people who did not realise Irish was a distinct language until they saw the film.
With most of the dialogue in Irish – including that of its young star Catherine Clinch – The Quiet Girl or An Cailín
Ciúin – has become the highest-grossing Irish language film in history and the first to make over €1 million (£884,000) at the Irish and UK box office.
The Quiet Girl has been nominated for Best International Feature Film at yesterday’s 95th Academy Awards, becoming the first Irish film to be nominated in the category’s history.
Observers say that success has translated into a growing appetite to learn the language spoken by Cáit, 9, and the County Wexford farming couple with which she spends the summer of 1981.
Conradh na Gaeilge, the Dublinbased organisation which promotes the Irish language worldwide has seen a surge in interest since the film was released in May 2022, with registrations for its classes up 20 per cent overall over the past year. Since the start of 2023 alone over 1,000 people have registered for its classes.
Conradh na Gaeilge has also seen growing demand for classes at its international branches in London, Paris, New Zealand and the US, with The Quiet Girl helping to raise the profile of the language. The language-learning app Duolingo has seen a 17 per cent increase in the number of Irish learners in the UK and Ireland in the past six months, following the film’s release, and a 25 per cent spike in the numbers studying Irish around the world in the past 12 months.
Aodhán Ó Deá, director of development at Conradh na Gaeilge, said: “The film has captured audiences. As the film gained traction internationally we saw plenty of commentary online from people who had thought Irish was just a dialect of English until now.”
♦the Oscars used a beige carpet rather than a red one last night, as the event’s creative consultants Lisa Love and Raúl Àvila decided to break with tradition.