DUBLIN : Thousands of miles from the glitz of Sunday's Oscars, the first Irish language film to earn a nomination is sparking renewed interest in a native tongue spoken by so few it is considered endangered by the United Nations cultural agency.
"It took me a while to accept that actually to be given another language and to be given our native language was a beautiful thing and a gift really," said Bairéad, who raises his two young sons in Irish with his wife and"An Cailín Ciúin" co-producer Cleona Ní Chrualaoi. But Irish is thriving in the arts. It is now difficult to find an Irish language director such is the demand, said Cúán Mac Conghail, whose award winning films "Arracht" and"Róise & Frank" received funding through the same government-backed initiative as"An Cailín Ciúin".