We sat down to chat about all things Irish with the founders of Edi’s Irish Society

Calling all Irish students and enthusiasts!

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This semester the Irish Society of Edinburgh has been launched into the heart of Dropkick Murphy’s. Led by a fantastic committee, the club offers all students a supportive and fun environment where Irish culture can be embraced and a home away from home can be established.

From left: Matthew, Tadhg, Grace and Darragh all met in a maths tutorial this year and after becoming fast friends they realised in the grandeur of the law library that “there was no Irish only dedicated society.” 

During our interview, they explained their motivations for starting the club.

Education of Irish culture 

Commencing this month, the Irish society are celebrating ‘Seachtain na gaeilge’, translated as Irish language week, and will be giving the opportunity to Irish language speakers of any level to learn and live in the language. Looking into screening Irish language films, all of their upcoming events will be released on their Instagram

Irish dancing is “definitely something we want to look into,” as “there is such a strong ceilidh culture here, and we’d like to show people our spin on it.”

They even dabble in five aside football, filling two teams and having an all-Ireland final where the Ireland B team beat the Ireland A team and won Five Guys vouchers.

“It’s important we run these events, especially the non-drinking ones, as it helps us create a more accurate, public picture of who we are.”

To have fun!

Taking place in the only Irish owned pub in Edinburgh, Dropkicks, a table for every Irish national sporting game will be reserved. Gaelic football replays and the current Six Nations Rugby matches are hugely popular, and all are encouraged to come. As an Irish person myself, it is great to have an environment where you can watch a game with peers who are supporting the same team, my experiences so far have been nothing but positive.

As mentioned before, the core reason for the building of this society is to create a supportive community where you can make friends, enjoy yourself and hopefully learn something.

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