St Mary's Students Receive Irish Language Awards at Embassy

On Thursday 10th July, students from St Mary’s University, Twickenham celebrated the successful completion of their Irish language course during a ceremony held at the Irish Embassy in London. During the celebratory event, which was attended by staff, students and invited guests, Irish ambassador His Excellency Dan Mulhall presented students with a ‘fáinne’ pin badge, representing their willingness to learn the Irish language. St Mary’s offers the only postgraduate MA Irish Studies course in London and is an important component of the University’s long association with Ireland and the Irish community in London. It also provides community Irish language courses, which are funded by the Irish Government’s Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Irish Studies Programme Director Dr Ivan Gibbons commented, “St Mary’s is proud of its links with Ireland and the continued support from the Irish Government of our language course enables us to reach out to the local Irish community. Our annual awards ceremony at the Irish Embassy in London allows us to celebrate these continued links and congratulate students on their hard work.” The next semester of Irish Language classes will begin in September with an intermediate class on Tuesday 23rd September from 2-4pm and beginners class on Friday 26th September from 1-3pm. Enrolment is free. For more information please contact Dr Ivan Gibbons on ivan.gibbons@stmarys.ac.uk. You can watch a video of the awards ceremony here: