Hey all.

Just wondering if somebody may be able to help me out with something.

I'm 20 and from Wicklow and did my leaving cert over a year ago now. I'm currently studing in drama scholl and pursing music. I attended the Gealtacht once in 5th year in Achill and was one of the best experiences I've had. My Irish isn't the best, hence why I went but for somebody who appreciates his arts and culture, it's something I still endevour to improve on and add to.

I just love evrrething about it, the West in general is my favourite part of the world and somewhere I try to get to on as many occasions as possible.

I and a friend were chatting about this for months and discussed how we knew we were too old for attending the Gealtacht but were wondering was there any or would anybody know of any contacts or spots that are looking for volunteers or people to work in any of the Gealtachts?

Obviously we would love somewhere that is open to taken past students and current third level students etc.

The problem is my Irish isn't exceptional, but as I've said it's something I really want to improve on and develop. Being too old now for the courses means volunteering would give me an opurtnity to enhance the small bit I have at the moment.

So basically if anybody knew places that would have a volunteer or two for the month of August, we would be overjoyed and leap at the opurtnity.

Hope you guys can help.

Cian

I'm not sure about volunteering opportunities as to volunteer you would need to have a decent level of Irish as you would likely be speaking Irish to the pupils and even teaching Irish classes. This could vary by college though and while some will be happy to allow you to turn up and help out a little, others may not see the point in you volunteering but not actually being able to take on much responsibility. You could phone up the various colleges and ask, that's probably the quickest most efficient way to find out. Depending on where you are based I also know of a few GAA camps that run through the medium of Irish and are happy to have volunteers of all abilities. It's called Campa Chormaic, they have weeks dedicated to pupils who attend the Irish medium schools and to volunteer with these weeks you need to be fluent but to volunteer in the weeks for all other pupils you do not need to be fluent.
But on another note many of the Gaeltachts actually do run courses for older pupils, some are aimed at university students who are training in teaching and need to have Irish as part of their studies but others are simply aimed at adults wishing to learn Irish. It's definitely worth looking into courses aimed at adults as you will get more out of it in terms of being able to socialize with others your own age and having the classes aimed at adults with a similar level of Irish to you.

Ádh mór ort

The Acadamh in An Cheathrú Rua, Galway has courses for adults.
http://www.acadamh.ie/cursai/dianchursa ... index.html

And Gleann Cholmcille College in Donegal -
http://www.oideas-gael.com/en/gleann-cholm-cille/