Lily Lieberman is a Junior at Arizona State. She is currently interning with Olytico as part of the CAPA study abroad programme.
When I first decided to study abroad in Dublin, family and friends continuously asked if I would be able to understand the accents, let alone comprehend the Irish language. I wasn’t particularly worried about learning Irish, figuring I would pick up a few words here and there during my stay. Fast forward two months and I am still hopeless at Irish but have come to admire the deep cultural impact of the language.
Seachtain na Gaeilge, Irish Language Week, is an international Irish language festival. Concerts, competitions, exhibitions and workshops are just a few of the many activities throughout the course of the festival. Seachtain na Gaeilge 2015, which ran from March 1-17 – provided an opportunity to monitor and analyse social conversations surrounding the festival celebrating all things Irish. Here’s what we found:
Key Words:
In addition to the phrase ‘Seachtain na Gaeilge’, the fortnight festival also had a number of hashtags and handles which we tracked. These included: #SnaG2015, #Snag15, @SnaGaeilge and SnaGaeilge.
Key Numbers:
Over 11,000 tweets published
Over 4,500 unique Twitter accounts contributed
Over 27,000,000 potential impressions
An estimated reach of over 6 million accounts
Top 100 Words
Of the 11,321 tweets mentioning Seachtain na Gaeilge, ‘Uptown Funk’ was mentioned 627 times due to the popularity of the Gaeltacht schoolchildren’s cover of Uptown Funk.
The Irish word ‘rang,’ meaning class, was mentioned 446 times, highlighting the importance of Seachtain na Gaeilge in relation to the classroom, schools, teachers and students.
@SnaGaeilge Lá gnóthach ar an Aoine… seo ár slabhra láimhe pic.twitter.com/JAcMyu7fLD
— NaionainGSO (@Rang6GSO) March 8, 2015
One of the top contributors, Cumann Gaelach, which promotes all aspects of Irish society, tweeted about Seachtain na Gaeilge 56 times and received 166 retweets.
Day By Day
March 11 – A spike in conversation – 1069 tweets – surrounding Gaeltacht schoolchildren’s cover of Uptown Funk in Irish:
Gaeltacht schoolchildren cover #UptownFunk in Irish for Seachtain Na Gaeilge (@SnaGaeilge): http://t.co/jGHds9L1O0 via @Clisare #SnaG
— Independent Ents (@IndoEnts) March 11, 2015
March 15 – The second highest spike – 800 tweets – was impacted by Ireland’s game versus Pakistan in the ICC World Cup. As in the tweet below – sent from Adelaide in South Australia, it’s amazing to see the Irish community all over the world supporting Seachtain na Gaeilge.
@Irelandcricket Maith sibh a fhoireann / Well done team. Táimid bródúil as sibh / Proud of you's. #SnaG2015 #snag15 #Gaeilge
— Marc Ó Conaill (@marcoconaill) March 15, 2015
Top Tweets
Seachtain na Gaeilge was mentioned 11,000 times over the course of the festival. Here are the top 5 most retweeted tweets:
Seo tús Seachtain na Gaeilge! Go neirí le bhur n-iarrachtaí, gach duine atá ag glacadh páirt! @SnaGaeilge #SnaG2015”
— Dara Ó Briain (@daraobriain) March 2, 2015
#SnaG2015 is more than a Seachtain- use #Gaeilge all year around with @CnaG https://t.co/IbpGG9d2ac
— Seachtain na Gaeilge le Energia (@SnaGaeilge) March 5, 2015
Celebrating @SnaGaeilge we have a book hamper full of Irish language books from @futafata to giveaway! RT to win pic.twitter.com/tvbO6qq1Gk
— RTÉjr (@RTEjr) March 10, 2015
Want to learn Irish? Check out Turas Teanga, now provided as a free boxset on the @RTEplayer for @SnaGaeilge http://t.co/TjZVjjrzZ0
— RTÉ (@rte) March 12, 2015
7 Irish words that don't exist in English: http://t.co/ubi7ADnkhc #snag15 pic.twitter.com/c8uxqqtZ6n
— DailyEdge (@dailyedge) March 6, 2015
#Hashtags
Hashtags are an important aspect of every campaign. In the case of Seachtain na Gaeilge, #SnaG2015 proved to be the most popular way for people to express their interest in the festival with 2,573 tweets mentioning the hashtag. We’ve identified the top 10 hashtags from a total volume of 720 hashtags.
Contributors
Below are the top 10 Contributors based on the volume of tweets published mentioning Seachtain na Gaeilge.
Conclusion
Having heard only snippets of the Irish language since my arrival in Ireland, I wasn’t quite sure if the country’s native tongue was growing or dying. Was it refined to the far west corners of Ireland and the Gaeltacht, battling for survival? Indeed not. This campaign highlights the Irish language is far from survival mode. If anything, the prominence of #SNAG15 on Twitter recently suggests the opposite. With over 11,000 tweets relating to Seachtain na Gaeilge, it’s clear that the Irish language is very much alive.
Interested in what’s being said about your festival or event? Contact us to find out more.