Our Story
The European Academy of Celtic Languages and Culture is the cristalisation of over twenty years of language-teaching and learning throughout the Celtic countries and across the European continent. The story begins in Galway, where, in the 1980s, surrounded by traditional Gaelic-speaking areas, and endowed with a vibrant cultural scene, the Corrib-side was an oyster-bed for linguist, ethnographer and musician alike, and where in nearby Connemara, traditional Gaelic singing and a rich folklore were still part of the everyday lives of the people. Travels in Central Brittany in the early 1990s brought us into contact with a similar folk-culture, where Breton was the community language, whether in Lanrivain, Poullaouen or the Monts d’Arée, and where, at the weekly fest-noz, a host of singers and musicians could be heard in intimate and modest surroundings. Years spent later in Wales, in Lampeter and Aberystwyth, were an education regarding the many forms a culture and language must assume to withstand social and industrial upheaval to evolve and flourish with the world around it. Germany has been a home to many academic disciplines, not least to Celtic Studies, and the tradition continues there, where today, as during our time in Freiburg and in Bonn, generations of students continue to master Welsh and Irish. More recent chapters in the early days of the Academy have unfolded in Poland, a young country discovering the diversity of its European neighbours, and in Scotland, on the Isle of Skye, where, during the centuries, various cultures have co-existed with the Gael, his pipes and poetry. Today, the Academy wishes to share with you its experience, knowledge and insight into the languages, traditions, culture and literature of Celtic-speaking communities that will soon have been replaced by a more modern yet less diverse and consequently less engaging world. We invite you to join us to help hold unsevered for another generation the delicate threads of an old but resilient civilisation, and to learn with us more of our shared human heritage – Atlantic, insular, and European.