Aisling Ghéar, the Irish language theatre company based in Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich, are having their first ever celebration of Féile Drámaíochta na nGael – Irish language theatre.

The company’s mission is to contribute to the development of Irish language theatre and the valuable contribution it can make in expanding and enriching the vibrant cultural experience of this country’s unique heritage.

Established in 1997, the company has produced and toured work of consistently high quality from playwrights as diverse as  Machiavelli, WB Yeats, Tom Murphy, Rosemary Jenkinson, Eugene Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Eoghan Ó Tuairisc, Brian Friel, Dario Fo, Willy Russell and Marie Jones.

Carrie-Anne McCrudden, General Manager of Aisling Ghéar, said: “The company is twenty years old this year and we want to make a bit of a song and dance about it.

“It’s quite an achievement to have an Irish language theatre company on the go in Belfast after all this time. We were up for organising a few unique events, and we decided to broaden that out a bit and we have had things like an exhibition and a conference on Irish language as well.

“The festival of Irish language theatre is all about representing the wealth and the talent within the Irish language theatre by having a gathering of professional Irish language theatre companies, there has never been a gathering like this on the island of Ireland.

“There’s not a humongous volume of Irish language theatre companies operating in Ireland but we got round all of them and they were all madly keen to get involved.

“We are having our launch this Friday at 6pm and our patron John Linehan aka May McFettridge will be there, which we are delighted about.”

Féile Drámaíochta na nGael runs from 9th – 11th June in Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich