An Irish-language group in New York is hosting regular conversation evenings in a bid to promote the Irish language among Irish and Irish-American communities in the US. GAELTACHT NYC, founded in June 2023 by actor John R. Howley, has held 18 pop-up Irish-language conversation groups across the city, with ten more set to take place before the end of the year.
Howley said the pop-up conversations are open to people of all levels of fluency and backgrounds, with each pop-up drawing crowds of around 35 people. Sign up to IrishCentral's newsletter to stay up-to-date with everything Irish! He added that the group prides itself on its diversity and said the pop-up events promote a fun way to learn and preserve the Irish language. Howley said he grew up in a distinctly Irish-American household and "fell in love with the Irish language" because he associated it with driving with his father and listening to Clannad.
However, he noted that many people who grew up in Ireland have a less positive relationship with the Irish language because of how it is taught in schools and said the pop-up events help to make learning Irish fun. "I knew that if I and the people I was around were going to keep going with Irish, we needed to imbue fun into it," Howley said. "So, I didn't want to keep studying it in isolation or in a purely academic sense and I just started this group so that we can all have fun while studying.
" He said he also founded GAELTACHT NYC so that Irish-language speakers and thos.