ST Patrick’s Day celebrations started early in De La Salle College on Thursday as pupils and teaching staff welcomed Linda Ervine to the school as part of their Lá na Gaeilge events.
Irish teacher Nuala McCabe invited the Skainos Centre Gaeilgoir to the Edenmore Drive school to talk about her unionist background and decision to learn the Irish language and work for its promotion.
“Nuala contacted me to come up and speak to the pupils as part of Seachtain na Gaeilge,” explained Linda, “basically just to encourage them and let them know the wider context of the language and who I am and my learning of the language. We had a fantastic St Patrick’s Day breakfast at the Skainos Centre earlier this morning and I’m looking forward to speaking with the pupils,” she said.
Teacher Nuala McCabe added: “We were very interested in hearing about Linda’s story especially coming from a non-nationalist background.
“Linda learned Irish off her own bat and I thought it would be very interesting to let our boys hear the background as we come up to GCSE choices. We wanted to show how Irish is not only a school subject but it’s something you can develop a life-long love for and that is certainly what Linda’s story is about.”