The Irish language is having a moment. Amidst the rise in active Irish speakers, particularly the younger generation, and conscious of the need to create open spaces for more people to practice the language, Dublin City Council has developed ‘Gaeilge365’ in partnership with the Department of Rural and Community Development.
From music to film, podcasts to social media, rarely has it been more popular to have a ‘cúpla focal’. In response to the growing popularity of the Irish language, the ‘Gaeilge365’ programme has been designed to bring Irish into the heart of public services, rather than it being seen as a legal obligation.
The success of the programme has seen its expansion across Dublin’s four local authorities, and it was recently recognised at the Better Public Services Awards 2026, where it received the ‘Best Innovation Project at Scale in Public Services’ accolade.
“The traditional approach to Irish language in a lot of public sector provision has been in forms that need to be in Irish or a fada missing on a road sign,” according to ‘Gaeilge365’ Programme Manager Dáithí de Buitléir.
“Those things are all important from a rights-based perspective. However, what we’re looking to do is see how we can maximise the developmental impact of local authority services to accelerate the journey towards a bilingual future which so many people, particularly younger generations, are really striving towards.”
A 2022 survey of Dubliners found that at least two-thirds would like to see or hear more Irish in the capital, with interest highest among 18-to-34-year-olds. Younger people were also more likely to speak Irish regularly compared to older respondents. Overall, the majority agreed that the language should be used more widely in local services, businesses, and signage.
One year after this survey, ‘Gaeilge365’ was born. Beginning as a Dublin City Council (DCC) project, Dublin’s other local authorities soon saw the benefits an innovative programme like this could bring to its communities and came on board in 2024.
According to de Buitléir, changes to the Irish Language Act, committing the public service to a target where 20 per cent of its new recruits will be Irish speakers by the end of 2030, “started a lot of conversations within the sector”.
“The likes of Richard Shakespeare (Chief Executive) and Eileen Quinlivan (Assistant Chief Executive) in DCC recognised that there was a real opportunity. If we’re just bringing loads of Irish speakers into the system and not necessarily thinking about how we can unlock the additional skills that those people must drive more impact, then we’re missing a trick.
“At the same time, if we’re not seen to be driving impact in relation to building a bilingual Dublin, it is going to be a lot harder to attract the bilingual workforce, because people will ultimately gravitate towards employers that share their values.”
