Students have 50 hours to record 50 actions promoting the Irish language as part of national #Dúshlán challenge competition on Twitter
Third level Irish-language societies and secondary school students around Ireland will have 50 hours to complete 50 actions through, and on behalf of, Irish next week as the national #Dúshlán challenge competition gets underway across the country from Tuesday to Thursday (2 – 4 February 2016).
All the teams are being asked to register their details at www.cnag.ie/dushlan by this Friday (29 January 2016), and while there is no limit to the numbers of teams entering from each school or third level institution, there must be a minimum of two people and a maximum of three people per #Dúshlán team.
The aim of the competition is to encourage students to use and promote Irish in a fun way, whereby they are challenged to undertake various actions on behalf of the language and record evidence of their activism on Twitter by using the #Dúshlán hashtag to win points for their team.
Edel Ní Bhraonáin, Third Level Student Coordinator with Conradh na Gaeilge says:
“Some of the challenges for the #Dúshlán competition could be as simple as using Gmail in Irish or sharing an Irish-language news story on Facebook, while others such as requesting state services as Gaeilge might involve a little more effort, but the actual actions won’t be released until Tuesday afternoon. Then each team will have only 50 hours to complete every challenge, to record them on Twitter using the #Dúshlán hashtag, and to finally send them to us via email to
Niamh Ní Chróinín, Second Level Student Coordinator with Conradh na Gaeilge says:
“We have some fantastic individual prizes up for grabs for each team member on the two best teams, as well as a prize each in recognition of the best college and the best school taking part in #Dúshlán. It’s such an exciting and inspiring way to get third level and second level students active in using and protecting their language rights, so is everyone ready for the #Dúshlán challenge?!”
The team that takes first place will win an iPad Mini for every #Dúshlán team member, and the team in second place will get a One4All voucher worth €100 or £75 for each member, while a special cup will be presented to the best third level institution and the best secondary school to recognise their collective efforts. Each team member must be a registered second or third level student to qualify to win a prize, but members of the general public are also invited to take part and to register to receive the #Dúshlán challenges at www.cnag.ie/dushlan.
The challenge competition will begin at 2.00pm on Tuesday (2 February 2016) and participants will have until 4.00pm on Thursday (4 February 2016) to complete this year’s #Dúshlán. Funded by Foras na Gaeilge, this national #Dúshlán competition is being coordinated byConradh na Gaeilge, Glór na nGael, Seachtain na Gaeilge, Irish Second-Level Students' Union (ISSU), and The Union of Students in Ireland (USI).
Teams can register their details at www.cnag.ie/dushlan or more information about the #Dúshlán competition is available by emailing
