A chairde,
Winter Greetings! Hope everyone is taking the dark evenings as an opportunity to cosy up in hibernation mode and getting some vitamin D in the patches of sunlight when possible. The highlight of November has definitely been our trip to Friesdland for the final multiplier event and cultural exchange of the Wiki Women Project! We also celebrated science week with a writing contest (that is still open!) and a trip to the Houses of the Oireachtas. Read on to catch up with what we have been up to and don’t forget to fill in the Doodle Poll if you would like to join the final community meeting of the year.
The image below is from the Eleven Cities Tour, a legendary 200km ice-skating race that took place in Friesland before the impact of climate change meant less ice to skate on. We learned all about this on our Wiki Women Eramus+ exchange and it is a fascinating feat of human endurance. Read about it here.
The Eleven Cities Tour 1956,
Saffier1, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Enter the Wiki Science Writing Contest until December 15th!
For Science Week at the start of November, we launched the Wiki Science 2024 Writing Contest and there’s still time to enter! The aim of this Wikipedia writing Contest is to close the gender gap and celebrate women in science.
We encourage entries about Irish women, women affiliated with Ireland or living in Ireland but this is not essential! We also welcome entries as Gaeilge (in Irish), to help to improve the content on Vicipéid.
The contest will run until December 15th 2024. You can find guidelines here and information about the prizes up for grabs (there’s a special prize for articles written in Irish!).
We are also delighted to announce that Dr. Ingeborg Birnie (University of Strathclyde) and Dr. Liz Coleman (University of Galway) will form the esteemed judging panel for the contest. You can read more about these fabulous women and their work in the field of Science here.
So, what are you waiting for? Become a digital activist and help us to increase the visibility and information about Women in Science on Wikipedia!
One of the winning images of Wiki Science 2023 taken by Anthony’s Astro. The photo contest will be back next year!
WikiWomen Eramus+ Trip to Friesland
In November Wikimedia Community Ireland travelled to Friesland in the Netherlands for the final Multiplier Event and Partner meeting of the WikiWomen Eramus+ Project.
For the last four years, partners from Ireland, Friesland and The Basque County have been piloting an educational programme that focus on teaching digital literacy skills to secondary school students who speak minority languages. Secondary school students become digital activists by creating Wikipedia articles about women who are missing from the online encyclopedias in Irish, Frisian, and Basque to close the gender gap in information.
For the final meet-up, partners from Wikimedia organisations, language advocacy institutions and schools travelled to Leeuwarden for a week of cultural exchange and celebration of the work that has been done.
The Wiki Women Erasmus+ Multiplier Event also took place during the exchange in collaboration with the Explore the North Arts Festival. Students, teachers and partners made presentations about their experience, and lessons learned and answered questions about the project. A key result of the project is that toolkits and lesson plans for teachers, pupils and GLAMS (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) are freely available in multiple languages and open for anyone interested in getting involved to use. Keep an eye out on our webstie for the full Friesland Exchange Report soon.
Find out more about the free WikiWomen Erasmus+ teacher’s toolkits here.
Partners and Students in Friesland
Visit to the House of the Oireachtas for Irish Language Outreach
In November our Irish Language Officer attended the launch of ‘The Recommendations submitted to the Houses of the Oireachtas by the Joint Committee on Irish, the Gaeltacht and the Irish Speaking Community’ in the Houses of the Oireachtas.
This event was one of the last events before the 33rd Dáil Éireann adjourned ahead of the general election.
Amy had the opportunity to meet many TDs who are working diligently on behalf of the Irish language at a national level. WCI is now working to secure support and funding for our Irish language outreach and efforts to develop Vicipéid as a vital resource for language revitalisation.
You can read the full event report here.
MLIS Internship Programme
In 2025 Wikimedia Community Ireland is set to become one of the hosting partners of the MLIS Internship Programme at University College Dublin. Run by the School of Information & Communication Studies the programme offers internship opportunities in libraries and information organisations for students.
These internships are an important part of service learning for many students and allow them to gain valuable workplace experience and develop employability skills relevant to their programme. This will be overseen by Sophie, our Projects and Communications Manager.
We hope that Key learning outcomes from the internships will include digital skills enhancement, data and information literacy, activism, event management and enhanced understanding of the open knowledge movement. Interns with Irish language skills will also get to work on digital translation and communication skills and gain experience working with and safeguarding the Irish language. We look forward to hosting interns from UCD this summer!
Celebrating Community Member Sae Wikimedian of the Year Nominee!
Every year our friends at Wikimedia UK organise the UK Wikimedian of the Year Awards to recognise members of the community. This year we were delighted to hear that Sae, who is our Wikimedian in residence at Trinity College Library was nominated for the UK Wikimedian of the Year Award and received an honourable mention.
In addition to being a Wikimedian in Residence at Trinity College Dublin, Sae devotes much of her time to projects that aim to improve content on Japanese Wikipedia taking an innovative cross-cultural approach. Sae has also been a wonderful and enthusiastic addition to our community in Ireland. we are extremely proud of her achievements. Congratulations Sae!
Collage of images from Wikimedia Commons, collated by Katie Crampton (WMUK) CC BY-SA 4.0
Celtic Knot Videos are now Available
I am happy to announce that the videos of the Celtic Knot Conference 2024 are now available to watch here.
We co-hosted the Celtic Knot Minority Languages Conference with Wikimedia UK this September. The Conference is a gathering that acknowledges the diversity of Celtic language communities and their presence within the global Wikimedia ecosystem. Rooted in the spirit of collaboration and community empowerment, the event serves as a nexus for Wikimedians and language activists to come together and explore innovative approaches to language preservation, promotion, and recognition of Celtic and minority languages in the digital space.
If you couldn’t make it to the event or livestream you can catch up on the presentations that were made by a wide range of inspirational and innovative speakers, or if you were lucky enough to join us there you can relive the experience!
Nóta ón Oifigeach Gaeilge
Ar an gCéadaoin, an 6ú Samhain, bhí an t-ádh orm freastal ar sheoladh na tuarascála ‘Na Moltaí atá leagtha faoi bhráid Thithe an Oireachtais ag Comhchoiste na Gaeilge, na Gaeltachta agus Phobal Labhartha na Gaeilge’ i dTithe an Oireachtais. Bhí an ócáid seo ar cheann de na himeachtaí deireanacha sular cuireadh deireadh leis an 33ú Dáil Éireann roimh olltoghchán na hAoine seo chugainn.
Bhí deis iontach agam bualadh le go leor Teachtaí Dála atá ag obair go díograiseach ar son na Gaeilge, agus mhothaigh mé an-mheas as an gcuireadh a fuair mé chun freastal agus dul i dteagmháil le daoine atá gníomhach ar leibhéal an stáit don teanga. Táim i mbun teagmhála leanúnaí leis na daoine seo le tacaíocht agus maoiniú a fháil don obair atá á déanamh againn i Wikimedia chun Vicipéid a fhorbairt mar acmhainn ríthábhachtach don teanga.
Féach anseo chun físéan don imeacht a fháil agus tá an thuarascáil anseo le léamh.
Chomh maith leis sin, bhí an-áthas orm turas a dhéanamh ar Theach Laighean agus níos mó a fhoghlaim faoi stair agus feidhmeanna an Oireachtais. Le linn an turais, bhí deis agam breathnú ar chuid den ealaín iontach atá ar taispeáint ann, lena n-áirítear saothar tábhachtach le bhanealaíontóir Éireannach darbh ainm Sinéad Guckian. Bhí mé faoi dhraíocht ag an bpéintéireacht Her Surrender, a thugann léargas eile ar an nóiméad stairiúil sin i ndiaidh Éirí Amach na Cásca 1916.
Léiríonn an saothar taobh na staire ar a raibh Elizabeth O’Farrell ina seasamh in aice le Pádraig Mac Piarais agus é ag tabhairt an géilleadh oifigiúil. Is annamh a fheictear an scéal seo ó dhearcadh na mban a bhí i lár na n-imeachtaí, agus is ceann suntasach den stair í an pictiúr seo a thugann guth agus léargas d’Elizabeth O’Farrell. Bhí sé fíor-speisialta dom an obair seo a fheiceáil agus machnamh a dhéanamh ar thábhacht na mban inár n-oidhreacht chultúrtha agus stairiúil.
Tá mé thar a bheith buíoch as an deis seo, agus táim dóchasach faoin gcaidreamh leanúnach idir Wikimedia agus an earnáil phoiblí don Ghaeilge amach anseo.
Doodle Poll for Next Community Meeting
We are hoping to have a community meeting in December to catch up online via Google Meet. If you are interested in attending please fill out this Doodle Poll. At these meetings, we discuss what we have been up to, and future plans and brainstorm ideas together. It typically takes place on a mid-week evening. We would love to see some of you there, old faces and new welcome!
Leeuwarden, the town we visited in Friesland
