ÉIST

Éist! is a project about story-telling in the Irish language, to be delivered in partnership with writer/facilitator Alison Ní Mháirtín across five libraries in Wexford in summer 2025: Wexford Central Library, Gorey Library, Enniscorthy Library, New Ross Library, and Bunclody Library. The project features an audio installation of small tents for children, each containing headphones enabling library visitors to experience Irish and Irish/English audio stories written and performed by artists in Ireland. In addition to this, there will be an Irish-language workshop in each library. The workshops will invite young people to contribute to a brand-new Irish-language story inspired by their favourite Irish words. This story would be released at the end of the summer and shared with young people in Wexford via radio and through three more listening party workshops in libraries.

During the summer, lots of families attend libraries regularly, both for events and just for books. Past incarnations of this installation have demonstrated the appeal of the tents- young people love to sit in them, and are delighted to listen to the stories. We will present a mix of stories fully in Irish and bilingual stories in Irish and English.

The audio installation will be set up in Wexford Central Library and two other libraries at the start of the school holidays, and moved to the two remianing libraries at the end of July. To launch the installation, each library will host a workshop with Alison Ní Mháirtín, which will be facilitated primarily in Irish, exploring the sounds of the Irish language as well as identifying some of the young people’s favourite Irish words.

Meanwhile, Alison will be working on writing a short audio story in Irish based on the words, sounds and phrases chosen by the children in the initial workshops. The story will then be professionally recorded by Miriam Needham (a performer extensive experience of recording Irish-language dialogue and stories).
At the end of August, the new story will be launched at an event at the Wexford Central Library, followed by two more workshops at the other libraries, where young people will have the opportunity to listen to the story. Invitations will also be extended to the original workshop participants to come hear the story they contributed to.

Through these activities, the project will engage with local young people and their families throughout county Wexford, encouraging them to listen to Irish-language stories, attend workshops in Irish, and even write their own stories in Irish. This is essential in order to shift their view of Irish from an enforced school subject to a medium of creativity and fun. The focus is not on ‘getting it right’, but rather on getting involved.

Thanks to Wexford County Council and Wexford Libraries for their support.