Feature on Deaf Village Ireland
Callie Frye, Daily Moth Reporter: Hello! Where am I? I am at Deaf Village Ireland.
(B-roll videos of an Irish-style stone building and the interior of a museum that shows the Ireland flag and a Celtic cross statue)
Callie Frye
The old building is over there. Behind me is the new building. Altogether there are 12 organizations and most are Deaf-related.
(B-roll video of the exterior of DVI. There are colorful play structures and benches in a park-like setting. A video clip shows a woman standing in front of a sign that reads, “Deaf Village Ireland Manager.”)
Sylvia Nolan, Deaf Village Ireland Manager
Hi! I’m the manager of the Deaf Village Ireland. We’ve been here for ten years. Before we came here, we had a Deaf club in Drumcondra (an area in Dublin) where deaf people congregated. The Irish Government wanted to buy the building and move us out, so we got €12 million from them. Seeing that €12 million was such a large amount, we had public meetings with the Deaf community to ask what they wanted. So the DVI was built.
(B-roll of the exterior of the newer building of DVI)
Sylvia Nolan
There were many organizations that had differing views, so we sat down and after discussions, some organizations decided to move in. Altogether we have 12 organizations here. Each organization is extremely important to the Deaf Village because they offer distinct services to Deaf people from all around Ireland as well as in Dublin.
(B-roll of a Deaf Village Ireland sign that points to various buildings and organizations. The interior of one of the buildings’ common areas is shown, which has a pool table and seating)
Sylvia Nolan
We’re very strong now, working together very well now.
Callie Frye
We are going to go to the old building now. It houses the Irish Deaf Society. We’ll meet their staff and see which programs and services they offer for the Deaf community here in Ireland.
(B-roll of the exterior of the old building)
Alvean Jones, Deaf Heritage Center
The building behind me is called the Thomas Mahon Building. There are four different organizations. One is a museum. The second is IDS, which is similar to the NAD in America. And Chime is similar to the AGB in America. And Sign Language Interpreting Service — this is the sign for the company — it is a video interpreting service.
(B-roll video of historical documents about Irish Sign Language)
Alvean Jones
Similar to American Sign Language, Irish Sign Language sprouted from an older version of French Sign Language (LSF) and British Sign Language (BSL).
John Sherwin, CEO, Irish Deaf Society
I’m John Sherwin, CEO of the Irish Deaf Society.
(B-roll of IDS employees working in an office)
John Sherwin
The IDS is now developing a strategic plan for the next three years, focusing on what rights and access issues to campaign for.
David Somers, Community and Communications Officer, IDS
I’m involved in the Deaf Career project, which focuses on empowering Deaf people in getting jobs, working on their CVs (resumes) & their interview skills, and empowering them to get jobs for themselves.
Edel Walsh, IDS Advocacy Officer
We provide Deaf Awareness Training to different groups all over Ireland, increasing awareness of the Deaf Community and Irish Sign Language.
(Image of posters from rally-goers during the 2017 campaign for Ireland Sign Language recognition)
Alvean Jones
The documents you see here are from 2017. The Irish government signed a bill to recognize Irish Sign Language (ISL) as an official language in the country.
(More images of posters from the 2017 ISL campaign)
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Callie Frye
I’m going to talk with a person who was instrumental in fighting for the government to recognize sign language here in Ireland.
Lianne Quigley, Chairperson, Irish Deaf Society
The IDS campaigned for 30 years on this issue. I joined the campaign 7 years before ISL got officially recognised in 2017. During those seven years, I learned a lot from the experiences of others in the campaign. It wasn’t an easy journey, we had lots of ups and downs. One major lesson I learned was the benefit of cross-community cooperation in ISL. The Irish Deaf Society, the national Deaf-led organisation in Ireland, invited different organizations, for example, Youth, Women, Lesbians, LGBT, and so on, all the different groups united with one goal in mind, collaborating together and lobbying the Irish government to recognise ISL. It worked well. This was one big benefit of this campaign.
Callie Frye
I asked her if ISL and BSL are the same.
Lianne Quigley
Are ISL and BSL the same language? No, they are different! Each country has their own language. BSL belongs to the U.K. We have ISL here in Ireland. It’s different. But, Northern Ireland is a part of the U.K., so they have two sign languages, BSL and ISL. But for us in Ireland, we use ISL.
Callie Frye
I asked her to provide examples of words and sentences.
Lianne
[ISL] Language
Alvean
[BSL] Language
Lianne
[ISL] My name is Lianne
Alvean
[BSL] My name is Alvean
Lianne
[ISL] Color
Alvean
[BSL] Color
Lianne
[ISL] Queen
Alvean
[BSL] Queen
Lianne
[ISL] Why are you here?
Alvean
[BSL] Why are you here?
Callie Frye
Did you learn some interesting information here? You should come and check it out!