Trasna na dTonnta – A Global Irish Language Cyber-Gaeltacht created by ICUF
On Monday the 27th of March, ICUF launched a Global Irish Language Initiative on Twitter, called ‘Trasna na dTonnta’. Many may be familiar with the popular traditional Irish song that talks of going ‘over the waves’ to return home to Ireland.
With our version of #TrasnaNadTonnta, we were looking to reach across the waves for five days, with an online cyber-Gaeltacht, connecting those interested in the Irish language together (from beginners to fluent speakers) through tweeting ‘as Gaeilge’ with our hashtag #TrasnaNadTonnta.
On each day of the campaign ICUF and Fulbright Teagascóirí / Irish language Scholars across North America curated the Trasna na dTonnta Twitter page, giving the global Irish language community a taste of what their lives entailed as Gaeilgeoirí (Irish language speakers) abroad, and encouraging others to do the same.
Thanks to the success of the campaign there was a huge upsurge of Irish language tweets made from overseas. Irish expats and beyond were using their cúpla focal along with our hashtag. We received tweets from the likes of Japan, Australia, Tanzania, Hawaii, Serbia, Seria, Norway, Sweden, Hungary, Slovenia, Brazil, Argentina, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Mexico, France and beyond!
By day 4 of the campaign we had already reached all of the places marked blue on the above map
By the final day of the campaign we had also reached Hong Kong, South Africa, India, Jamaica, Qatar, Columbia, Cambodia, Kuwait, Nigeria, Indonesia and Tunisia.
Throughout the campaign our Twitter profile was visited over 13,100 times, and our hashtag made almost 3 million impressions online!
Above is a display of the other most popular hashtags used alongside our hashtag #TrasnaNadTonnta on Twitter. There has been over 3,600 tweets made with our hashtag to date!
We would like to take this opportunity to say go raibh míle maith agaibh to everyone who got involved, shared their stories, photos and art and became a part of a global Irish language conversation. The conversation has only begun!
To keep up to date with future Trasna na dTonnta activities be sure to follow us on Twitter and our new Instagram account.
This campaign was kindly supported by Fulbright Ireland and Glór na nGael – míle buíochas as bhur gcuid tacaíochta a chairde, tá muid ag súil go mór le comhoibriú libh amach anseo!