By Dara Bradley

A soccer club on the edge of the Connemara Gaeltacht may have to change its official name to the ‘Gaeilge’ version in order to secure planning permission for new pitches.

Barna/Furbo United FC has lodged a planning application with Galway County Council for the construction of new playing pitches at Knockanavoddy, Furbo, which is situated within the official Gaeltacht.

The club, founded in 1996, has applied for permission to build two new soccer pitches, two astro-turf cages, as well as access paths, ducting, drainage, lighting columns, landscape works and equipment storage facilities.

Údarás na Gaeltachta, which has a responsibility to promote the Irish language in the Gaeltacht, has urged the planning department of the Council to be cognisant of Gaeilge, and the importance of the language to the area, when it makes its decision on the proposed development.

In a submission to planners, Údarás asked that the Council would stipulate that all of the signs associated with the development would be in Irish; that the name of the business be in Irish; that the club would always give priority to the Irish language; that the Irish language would be at the same level and standard as any other language in every aspect of the development; and that recognition would always be given to Irish in every aspect of the development.

The submission said that evidence available to Údarás suggests that the status of Irish as a language used within the community in Furbo is currently ‘strong enough’. It said that measures need to be taken to strengthen use of the Irish language in the area, into the future.

This, it said, can be achieved through practical steps to support the Irish-speaking community; and by not diminishing the emphasis on the Irish language in the community and social facilities available in the area.

Read more in today’s Connacht Tribune