You may have seen the hashtag #StopHidingISL popping up on your media feed of late.

It’s a grassroots campaign asking RTE to show the national anthem in ISL in full at the All Ireland football final next Sunday, September 2nd.

This came about because RTE chose only to show a few seconds of the historic first public performance of Amhran na bhFiann at the hurling final on August 19th, despite the hype and media attention that the event got in advance of the match.

There was huge disappointment and frustration in the Deaf community as a result of that decision to effectively exclude ISL from our screens at this prestigious event, which was also a momentous occasion for the Community.

This was compounded by the RTE coverage of the Pope’s visit to Ireland. Again ISL was seen from time to time, in the distance, but not in a way that was meaningful or useful for Deaf ISL users.

The Stop Hiding ISL movement came about when a few individuals decided to become vocal about the issue on social media. A few more fell in along the way. And so together with the support of the Deaf community around the country and internationally, and the Irish Deaf Society, the Stop Hiding ISL campaign has gathered speed.

There is a petition, currently with over 5,000 names. And four protest planned for tomorrow (August 30th 2018) in Cork, Dublin, Waterford and Limerick. There is still time to sign the petition (it will close tomorrow mid afternoon).

See #StopHidingISL to keep up date with the campaign.

See below for the Irish Deaf Society’s open letter about the issue.

Thanks for your support!

Update: The Irish Sign Language Act 2017 was signed into law by President Michael D. Higgins on 24th December 2017.

The Recognition of Irish Sign Language Bill for the Deaf Community Bill, 2016

This Bill is making its way through the Seanad at present. It is sponsored by Fianna Fáil, but has cross-party support.

It is expected that the Bill will pass the fourth stage this month (October 2017). Once it has completed all five stages in the Seanad, the Bill must go through another five stages in the Dáil in order to become law.

The Irish Deaf Society has been campaigning since the 1980s for ISL (Irish Sign Language) to be recognised as an official language of the state.

Back in 1988 Irish MEP Eileen Lemass put forward a EU resolution that all member states recognise their own sign language/s. Since then many countries have done just that (including Iceland, Finland, UK (which recognises in ISL in Northern Ireland), Spain, Malta, etc.), but not Ireland.

Please support the IDS campaign for ISL recognition, and the Bill, by contacting your local public representative – senator and/or TD – and telling them that ISL is important to you.

https://videopress.com/embed/F84c9Pr3?hd=0&autoPlay=0&permalink=0&loop=0

The Council of Irish Sign Language Interpreters want to echo the congratulations and good wishes that have been seen over the last few days as the Recognition of Irish Sign Language for the Deaf Community Bill approaches the final stages in the Dáil and Seanad before passing into law.

via Press Release – CISLI welcomes the imminent passing of the Recognition of Irish Sign Language Bill into law — CISLI – the Council of Irish Sign Language Interpreters

Last Saturday the 19th January, the Sign Language Interpreters Munster (SLIM) group got together for a session on mental health interpreting. Using both real-life experiences and the most comprehensive recent theories and models, we discussed issues around dealing with mental health interpreting scenarios and had a very productive and fun day.

Veronica White and Suzanne Carey were our presenters. We looked at the work of Neil Glickman and Charlene Crump in the USA in relation to exploring options in mental health scenarios, the role of the interpreter and how to interact with Deaf service user and mental health practitioner during these settings.

We used role-play and group discussion to tease out the issues. It was a fantastic session for those of us new to the area as well as those with more experience.

We had a fantastic venue in The Arches, Mallow, which was spacious, friendly and kept us liberally supplied with coffee, tea and does a great lunch!

Hello one and all… and Merry Christmas!

As 2012 draws to a close (and as interpreters around the country continue to frantically finger-flap in colleges, hospitals and courts), we thought it would be worthwhile to have a look at some of our achievements in Cork over the past few years. It’s been a busy and productive period for us. There is obviously a lot more to do in terms of improving access and awareness of interpreting services, but we feel that we can be proud of what we’ve accomplished to date, and face confidently into 2013.

There has been close collaboration among interpreters in Cork and the wider Munster area for many years, and especially since 2009 when SLIM (Sign Language Interpreters in Munster) was active before the SLIS Accreditation of that year. SLIM organised workshops to prepare for that Accreditation, and we are happy to say that Cork uses the services of 6 SLIS-accredited interpreters. We are very proud to have contributed and indeed, to have benefitted from the energies of that time – and strive to continue this work in Cork.

CorkInterpreter.com is a loose affiliation of ISL / English interpreters working in the Cork area. We’re not an agency or a representative body; just a group of working interpreters with a common goal – the increased provision of access through interpretation in the Cork and wider Munster area. We have a fantastic working relationship with each other and are dedicated to both our own professional development and the development of the profession. We work both freelance and for reputable interpreting agencies. We are in touch with each other as a way to inform ourselves about best practice and developments in the area.

Given the profile of the kind of interpreting work and arrangements for services existing here, we have felt for a long time that it was important for us to assist in getting the message out there. Deaf people have a right to interpretation in many settings; they are entitled to qualified and quality interpretation; and there are bodies that can help in achieving provision of same. We are not paid or funded for this voluntary awareness work that we do.

So let’s look at our achievements since 2009, both individually and collectively…

• With the support of the Cork Deaf Association and Cork City Council, we designed and printed an information leaflet about ISL / English interpreting for service providers, listing our names and details, highlighting our role and considerations when booking an interpreter, etc. We have placed this leaflet in the Cork Deaf Centre, UCC, Cork Institute of Technology, Cork Deaf Enterprises, and other centres around the city,
• We began a public awareness campaign, posting the leaflet and an appropriate cover letter to dozens of courts, hospitals, employers, service providers, civil service departments etc. The cover letter specifically addressed the area of service that the recipient was a provider of, and mentioned appropriate legislation to be followed in this regard.
• We have had a website up and running for 2 years now (www.corkinterpreter.com) where we list individual biographies, contact details, a detailed description of our role, relevant legislation, funding schemes for interpreters, and information about health and safety. Some of this information we have translated to ISL on the site.
• We have worked for many months now alongside the Cork Deaf Association and the Cork Deaf Club on ensuring that Cork’s hospitals provide only qualified and/or accredited interpreters for Deaf patients. This was and continues to be a serious issue in Cork, due to existing service level agreements with spoken-language interpreter agencies, and a continuing issue of untrained, unqualified and unaccredited ‘interpreters’ working in Cork and the wider Munster area. This has recently borne fruit in the form of a definite undertaking from the top levels of one major Cork hospital to contact SLIS for Deaf patients’ interpreting needs in the future. We are continuing to monitor the situation.
• We have presented on interpreting issues to both the Cork Deaf Club and staff of the Cork Deaf Association on the importance of trained interpreters, legislation, agencies, the Code of Ethics and so on.
• We continue to collaborate very closely with each other and access/disability officers in higher and further education colleges in Cork in order to provide the most comprehensive and flexible interpreter cover for Deaf students.
• We are working alongside the Cork Deaf Club and the Cork Deaf Association in organizing interpretation for VEC courses and training for Deaf people.
• We have also attended training events over the years on areas such as medical interpreting, mental health, religious interpreting etc.
• We have attended international conferences such as the World Federation of the Deaf in Madrid in 2007, World Association of Sign Language Interpreters the same year, the Association of Sign Language Interpreters in England (ASLI), “Looking Back, Going Forward” in April 2008, and the European Federation of Sign Language Interpreters in Vienna this year. We brought back news, advice, and best practice information which we gladly share with our colleagues.
• Individually we have also achieved much. Ray, Suzanne and Cormac have all worked in their free time with the Spirit of Sign Deaf drama group and found the experience hugely beneficial, both personally and professionally. Suzanne has contributed a video piece to CDS’ ‘Medisigns’ video project and other Cork interpreters have contributed to the Medisigns forum. Suzanne is also currently a board member of the Kerry Deaf Resource Centre. Cormac Leonard recently spent a year as a Committee member of the Council of Irish Sign Language Interpreters (CISLI).

We are very grateful for the support and collaboration we have experienced with the Cork Deaf Association, the Cork Deaf Club, Cork Institute of Technology, Spirit of Sign, and above all the Cork Deaf community who we have the great privilege of working with.

We hope we can continue to work together with the Deaf community and achieve even more in the years ahead!

We will soon have an ISL translation of this update.