Jennifer Zamparelli speaks with presenter Declan Buckley (aka Shirley Temple Bar) about growing up with sign language and the importance of ISL Awareness Week. Listen back above.
"It's one of my first languages," Buckley tells Jen. "I grew up with sign language in my home. Both my parents are deaf, so I've been using sign language since I was a little baby, and I'm still using it now."
"Sign language is important," he adds. "It's a language all of its own and it's now an official language of Ireland."
Growing up, Buckley says he enjoyed years of blasting Kylie Minogue from his bedroom with no complaints, and didn't realise that his household was in any way different until he started going to school.
"Everybody grows up in their own family," he explains. "Whatever you do in your own family is your own thing. Then, suddenly, you realise that your family is a little bit different to everybody else's family because your mam is French, or your dad is from Italy, or whatever. My parents were deaf - that's the difference for me."
Many in the deaf community celebrate ISL as being a minority language and an important part of their culture, not as a disability. For the most part, issues only arise when there is a lack of fluency in the wider hearing community.
"I am able to sign," says Declan, "which means that for every single deaf person I meet in Ireland, I'm able to communicate with them and they're able to understand what I'm saying and understand me."
"If everybody could sign it would be amazing," he insists. "Let's just look at sign language and learn it, kids should learn sign language."
"Gesture is a very innate thing," he continues, explaining that gesturing with our hands is a natural part of human communication. "It's an official language of Ireland, it's there to be taught."
Listing off the many benefits of having ISL (being able to speak with people easily from across a room, for example), Declan says that it's a useful language for everyone, and insists that children would benefit from learning it.
To find out more about ISL Awareness Week, listen back to RTÉ 2FM above.
