Scoil Scairte Beo
song & storylines
A 9-week immersive journey into the heart and soul of Irish culture, heritage and language. Join our global online learning community and explore how language can shape how we see and sense the world and our place in it.
Scoil Scairte Beo is the Irish School you always dreamed of. Following the sell-out success of our first six live immersions, we are thrilled to announce a brilliant line-up for the upcoming seventh edition.
This 9-week journey into the heart and soul of Irish culture brings together some of Ireland’s greatest poets, philosophers, writers, dancers, storytellers, singers and cultural luminaries.
Táimid ar bís - we are so excited to shine a spotlight on the artists who are weaving the golden threads of the Irish language into a broader web of creative relationships for this Scoil Scairte journey. We will be guided by a host of inspiring bilingual multidisciplinary artists and language keepers including:
Kathy Scott {Host, Founder of The Trailblazery}, Theo Dorgan {Poet, Writer, Lecturer}, Annemarie Ní Churreáin {Poet, Editor}, RÓIS {Composer, Vocalist, Multi-instrumentalist, Electronic Artist}, Joseph Jones {Actor, Model, Múinteoir}, Siobhán O’Kelly {Actor, Gaeilgeoir, Mama}, Professor Kevin Whelan {Scholar, Author}, Jenny Ní Ruiséil {Musician, Teacher, Writer}, Ciara O’Donnell aka Domhan {Artist, Multi-instrumentalist & Songwriter}, Michael Gallen {Irish Composer, Writer, Performer}, Dónal Ó Céilleachair {Filmmaker, Founder of Anú Pictures}, Caít Ní Riain {Traditional Singer, Multi-instrumentalist, Member of The Weaving}, Lillis Ó Laoire {Sean-nós Singer, Lecturer in Irish language, Folklore and Celtic Civilisation}, Michael Keegan-Dolan {Director, Choreographer, Teacher}, Edwina Guckian {Dancer, Teacher, Author}, Ciara Ní É {Bilingual Irish Writer, Performer, Podcaster, Presenter}, Ella Noah Bancroft {Bundjalung woman, Writer, Educator and CEO/Founder of The Returning}, Leah Song {Singer-songwriter, Multi-instrumentalist, Storyteller, Poet, Artist, Activist, Rising Appalachia} and Duncan Wickel {Violinist, Composer, Rising Appalachia}.
Ticket price: €276 incl. VAT
Payment plan available: pay in 2 installments
Bígí linn - Join us.
Scoil Scairte is sponsored by Foras na Gaeilge.
Please ensure you have read our Terms & Conditions before purchasing from The Trailblazery
Course Dates & Times:
Thursdays, Apr 03 - May 29. 7pm Ireland | 2pm ET | 11am PT
Meitheal Community Meet-ups every Tuesday, Apr 08 - May 27
All hosted via Zoom
“An Irish drumbeat with a global resonance”
Scoil Scairte is an award-winning, online cultural learning experience connecting the Irish language, heritage and indigenous wisdom with individual, social and ecological wellbeing. Scoil Scairte: Song and Storylines invites the Gaeilge-curious on a 9-week odyssey that will shine a spotlight on the song and storylines inspired by An Ghaeilge.
Is modh cumhachtach é Scoil Scairte chun Gaeilge a fhoghlaim. Mar chuid den chúrsa seo, pléitear gnéithe den chultúr, cruthaitheacht, dúchas, seanchas, agus críonnacht dhúchais i dteannta le sláinte an duine aonair, an pobal agus an timpeallacht. Thar tréimhse 9 seachtainí tugann muid cuireadh do dhaoine chun teacht le chéile agus dul i mbun iniúchadh, foghlaim agus cleachtadh ar an nGaeilge mar chuid de phobal foghlama domhanda.
Supported by Foras na Gaeilge, this unique programme invites participants on a voyage of discovery with cultural guides and ambassadors from the comfort of their own home, bringing a sense of intimacy and authenticity to each weekly gathering.
The guides are keepers of the flame, who honour the old ways, in new ways.
More than an Irish class, Scoil Scairte is an immersion in the psyche and soul of a powerful language, culture and place. It creates a supportive environment to inspire people to connect with themselves, each other and the living world through the potency of this ancient living language.
We all descend from ancestors who told stories and sang songs. If you are one of the 80 million diaspora who claim Irish heritage, or live on the island of Ireland, then Scoil Scairte is for you.
Together we will reclaim our dúchas, finding community and kinship along the way. Join Scoil Scairte and explore how language can shape how we see the world and our place in it.
What people are saying about Scoil Scairte
What you will receive:
✦ 9 weekly Zoom events with cultural guides, live music & language teaching (Thursdays, 90-mins each)
✦ 9 weekly digital care packages with Field Notes PDF slides and bonus resources for exploration
✦ 2 Immrama Immersions led by Kathy Scott & produced by Brian Crosby
✦ 8 weekly Irish-language practice circles. Optional conversation circle, hosted by Siobhán O’Kelly on Zoom via our community space Meitheal (Tuesdays starting Week 2, 60-mins each). Beginners and Intermediate classes available.
✦ Curated Field Notes & Resource List
Why Scoil Scairte?
Back in the 1700s Irish education was outlawed and the process of learning took to the land. Hedge Schools or Scoil Scairte gathered wherever people could find shelter: in hedgerows, in fields, by rivers and under the stars. In this time of global uncertainty, there is a call to reconnect with some of the traditions and practices that supported and nourished our ancestors.
Irish is one of the oldest living vernacular languages in Europe. It has shaped the cultural identity of the people on the island of Ireland for thousands of years. If a language dies we lose access to meaning, memory and our ways of being human. Despite a turbulent history the Irish language has survived and is encoded with a wisdom that can help us today.
Rooted in Ireland, this online learning programme is designed for people living on the island of Ireland and for the millions of people all around the world who feel a call to engage with indigenous ways of seeing, sensing and knowing.
Investment
We believe that Scoil Scairte should be available to people from all walks of life especially in our current circumstances so we have created sliding scale payment options via partial scholarships for people who need support. Sliding scales are a tool of economic justice. We ask that people who have the means to pay at the top of the scale do so, supporting others, for whom cost may be a barrier, to have the opportunity to participate in Scoil Scairte. Partial and full scholarships will be made available after all general admission tickets have been claimed. Note: with partial scholarships the ticket price is reduced from €276 to €133.
We really appreciate your support in these times. Thank you for walking this path with us.
We have also created an instalment payment plan splitting the course price into 2 monthly payments of €138 for those who may need alternative options to access this course.
What people are saying about Scoil Scairte
What's Involved
Scoil Scairte offers a roadmap to help reorient and root people back into relationship with the language and the wild world around them. A key element of the programme is a focus on holistic learning, so that participants will come away with a direct experience of the language both in the head and the heart.
Each week, a new guide will take us on a journey into the soul of the Irish language through a broad range of shared experiences from storytelling and music to dancing, folklore, hip hop, hurling, knitting, sean nós singing and other creative practices.
The creative syllabus features weekly 90-minute bilingual learning sessions with inspiring teachable moments, live music by internationally renowned artists and a language learning component led by Seosamh Mac Seoin, our resident teacher (múinteoir). There are break-out sessions, homework, care packages, resources and special weekly bonus treats.
We are passionate about creating a methodology that provides a range of root pathways into the language (featuring visual, auditory and experiential practices) to include all kinds of learners. Offerings include the Immrama Immersions listening experiences.
Participants also gain 3-months free access to our private community membership space: Meitheal, where we can gather together outside of the classroom to connect with each other and nurture our relationship with the Irish language. This space is also home to weekly guided conversation circles for both beginners and intermediates.
What people are saying about Scoil Scairte
What you will receive:
✦ 9 weekly Zoom events with cultural guides, live music & language teaching (Thursdays, 90-mins each)
✦ 9 weekly digital care packages with Field Notes PDF slides and bonus resources for exploration
✦ 2 Immrama Immersions led by Kathy Scott & produced by Brian Crosby
✦ 8 weekly Irish-language practice circles. Optional conversation circle, hosted by Siobhán O’Kelly on Zoom via our community space Meitheal (Tuesdays starting Week 2, 60-mins each). Beginners and Intermediate classes available.
✦ Curated Field Notes & Resource List
scoil scairte is for you if
✦ You have lost your comfort with the Irish language
✦ You are keen to explore the Irish language for the first time
✦ You are seeking new ways of engaging with nature, landscape and the inner realms through the Irish language
✦ You would like to meet like-hearted people in the company of a global learning community
✦ You are drawn to discover more about Irish culture and heritage
✦ You feel pulled to revisit the Leaving Cert Irish you learned at school
✦ You are called to engage with indigenous ways of seeing, sensing and knowing
✦ You would simply like to enjoy an cúpla focal
meet our guides
