It was epic

Mother Tongues Festival 2022

“A real beacon of hope in an otherwise very challenging time for humanity at large”

“A wonderful multicultural gathering happening in Ireland. Unique!”

“Seeing all the kids interact and their interest in the multicultural aspect was lovely. They witnessed multilingualism, something that is incredibly positive from an early age.”

“Exposure to languages, cultures and other stories from other backgrounds is eye-opening and can only be beneficial.”

WOW!!!
These are just a sample of the many words overheard by the hundreds of children, parents, couples and friends that took part in our 2022 Mother Tongues Festival last week and they really struck a chord with us.

From the very beginning in 2018, the Mother Tongues Festival’s mission has been to promote the many languages and cultures that exist in Ireland through the magic of art. Each year, we aim to provide a space where communities can connect, where families can share their languages outside of the home, where people can learn and be exposed to new or familiar languages and where everyone’s Mother Tongue feels heard.

To witness the many smiles, the laughter between friends, the excited looks on people’s faces as they connected with others in their mother tongue and the feelings of pride when someone stepped out of their comfort zone by trying something new, means that to us the Festival was a huge success and we fulfilled our mission. It was particularly special to see it all in person once again, after last year’s online edition.

Some Highlights

This year, we hosted 11 events across different languages with artists, performers and professionals from all across the globe including Taiwan, Romania, Northern Ireland, Iran, Brazil, Italy, Chile, Serbia, Nigeria just to name a few!
Each and every event played a part in making the festival a success but here are just a few of our favourite moments that we managed to capture…
We will share loads of photographs of every single event in the upcoming weeks.

If you took part in our 2022 festival, we’d love to hear your personal highlight! Please leave your feedback here!!

Thank You! Grazie, merci, gracias, obrigados, mulțumesc, danke, go raibh maith agat, teşekkürler, shukran, tak, xie xie, sukria, dziekuje…

We are so filled with love and gratitude for everyone who supported us and made this festival possible.

A MASSIVE thank you to…

Our Venues: We are extremely grateful to Rua Red, the Civic Theatre and Draíocht for believing in our project and making it happen in Tallaght & Blanchardstown.
Our Sponsors, Funders & Partners: We are so honoured to have been granted funding to pursue our dream and the many sponsors, funders and partners that have come on board this year have allowed us to make it an even more special event! We are very grateful to the Arts Council, South Dublin County Council & Social Inclusion Unit, Creative Ireland, Festival of Sanctuary, Social Entrepreneurs Ireland, RTÉ Supporting The Arts, Languages Connect, Ambassade de France en Irlande, Dublin School of Mandarin Chinese, East Asia Film Festival and The Square.
Our guests: Dignity Partnership and Saoirse-Ethnic Hands on Deck from the Cork Migrant Centre.
Our Artists & Performers: Thank you for bringing our festival to life with your incredible art. We are so grateful that you chose to be a part of our festival.
Our Volunteers: Hosting a festival is no easy feat and we could not have done it without our incredible group of volunteers from the South Dublin Volunteer Centre.
Our Attendees: Without YOU, the festival couldn’t have gone ahead. Thank you to each and every person who bought tickets, booked in for an event, participated and shared their precious time with us.
We are oh so grateful for you all!

What’s Next?!

To remain up to date on all Mother Tongues events & news and to be the first to hear about our 2023 festival, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on social media.