Winners of ‘Aistritheoirí Óga 2023’ (Young Translators) announced

Five secondary school students made the list - one from each of the four provinces in Ireland and one overall winner.  All five winners translated texts from English to Irish. 

This year's winners come from Armagh, Carlow, Galway and Kerry (see list below). 

Leo Oisíneach Mac an tSaoir from Pobalscoil an Ghleanna in Galway was awarded the overall prize for the best translation in the country. 

Speaking at today’s awards ceremony, Patrick O’Donovan TD, Minister of State with responsibility for the Gaeltacht and the Office of Public Works said

I would like to warmly congratulate the winners today and indeed all of the entrants who took part in this year's competition. This competition is a great opportunity for secondary school students to gain insight into the employment opportunities available in Europe for those with a high standard of Irish. I have no doubt that some of the names we see here today will be working in the European institutions in the years ahead.

Seán Hade, Head of the Irish Language Department at the European Commission said that the participants in this year’s competition should be ‘very proud of what they have achieved’.

He went on to say that ‘the fact that the numbers of participating schools doubled this year shows that there is a growing interest in translation as a profession’ and that the high standard of this year’s entries was ‘inspiring’.

The Contest

This is the sixth edition of 'Aistritheoirí Óga', a now annual translation contest organised jointly by the European Commission and the Irish Government. The contest has three goals: to promote a high standard of Irish, to encourage multilingualism among secondary school students and to encourage their interest in linguistic professions. 

This year, participation increased dramatically, as 107 students from 42 schools took part in the contest, translating from English, French, German and Spanish to Irish. 

There are five categories in the competition: a prize for the best translation from each province and an overall prize for the best translation across the island of Ireland.

The list of 2023 winners:

The background to the competition

The first edition of the contest was launched in October 2017. It is open to pupils who are at least 15 years of age.

The competition is part of a wider effort to raise awareness of the importance and benefits of the full status of the Irish language as an official working language of the European Union. Since 1 January 2022, all legislation which is enacted in the Union is now translated into Irish (as was already the case for the other 23 official languages).  Moving forward the EU institutions need to ensure that they continue to have sufficient qualified staff to fulfil these new obligations.