Ireland's oldest Irish language organisation is holding its annual Ard-Fheis in Galway this weekend.
Conradh na Gaeilge marked the occasion with the election of its first woman President in almost 30 years.
Paula Melvin is 29 years old and from Hollystown in Dublin. Her election brings to a close the five-year term of Dr Niall Comer. She said it was the honour of a lifetime to be elected.
Her goals include a focus on housing policy for Gaeltacht areas, continued campaigning for Irish language rights and building on regular use of Irish in the EU following full status being granted to the language recently.
"I want to achieve a national housing plan for the Gaeltacht so that Muintir na Gaeltachta can live in their own local communities through the medium of the Irish language", she said, adding she would also continue the campaign for Irish language rights in the north.
Over 200 delegates gathered in Salthill for the annual convention where over 40 motions were passed, relating to the Irish language and Gaeltacht policies.
A vibrant weekend for the Irish language in Galway. Newly elected President of @CnaG is 29 yr old Dub @PaulaMelvin and Irish band Seo Linn gear up for #SeachtainNaGaeilge @RTENewsRBLX @rtenews pic.twitter.com/iXUdKvDlq3
— Teresa Mannion (@TeresaMannion) February 26, 2022
This weekend also saw the launch of the Conradh na Gaeilge archive at NUI Galway. Over the last three years 600 boxes have been meticulously processed and catalogued.
Every decade is represented from the founding of the organisation in 1893, offering a unique insight into all aspects of Irish life and the development of Irish language policy.
Níamh Ní Charra, Archivist, outlined the enormity of the task.
"The biggest challenge was the immense size of this collection. When it came in there were over 600 boxes, absolutely stuffed with really amazing material but there was no order to be found there, no arrangement. So my challenge really was to get control over the collection and that comes in three stages.
Collections of note include the archives of Conradh na Gaeilge and Mary Robinson, the literary papers of John McGahern and Thomas Kilroy, the archives of a range of theatre companies, including the Abbey, Gate and Druid, the Tim Robinson Collection detailing the geography and topography of Connemara, as well as the archives of several Connacht landed estates and a number of papers relating to the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
There is a strong focus on publishing archives online as part of an ongoing digitisation programme.
Highlights in the archive include Republican prisoners' messages on cigarette papers smuggled out of the Maze prison in the 1980's and correspondence between Conradh na Gaeilge and HM Prison Service on the ban on visits in Irish.
There are cheques to and endorsed by Patrick Pearse and Terence MacSwiney in 1912 and 1920.
There is also a 1904 Guth na nGaedheal programme featuring tenor, John McCormack's possible first performance outside of Ireland at the age of 20.
