Lifelangs Living Observatory

06/08/2026

Have you met the team steering LIFELANGS? Stay tuned here, as we'll be sharing their takes on what the project is about!

LIFELANGS is co-led by two Principal Investigators: Professor Lorna Carson (Trinity College Dublin, left) and Dr Aisling O'Boyle (Queen's University Belfast, right), pictured here with Abdullah Karaakin, our Project Manager (centre).

Lorna on the project's aim: "This project will build a better understanding of how to build better shared dialogues, more social cohesion, and greater inclusivity for a shared future on the island of Ireland."

Aisling on where it starts: "The team's first job is building a database of language data from right across the island, eventually opening it up as a public, searchable website by 2029, covering every language spoken, signed, and seen in Ireland."

And keeping it all on track: Abdullah Karaakın, our Project Manager. Originally from Turkey, Abdullah holds an MSc in Translation Technology from Dublin City University, where his research focused on translation in crises, a background that turns out to be surprisingly good preparation for coordinating a four-year, cross-border, multilingual research project.

He's our first point of contact for LIFELANGS
queries: [email protected].

What language do you speak at home?

Tell us in the comments! It's exactly the kind of everyday language use LIFELANGS wants to hear about.

Languages Connect
Languagenut Ireland
TCD Centre for Deaf Studies

16/07/2026

Thank you to everyone who attended our public lecture last Thursday on the topic of Racism, Language and Educational Materials, by Professor Bassey E. Antia (University of the Western Cape, South Africa), and with discussant Dr Rebecca Loader (Queen’s University Belfast).

Recordings of the lecture are are now available. You can watch the lecture as a video or watch a slide share version, whichever you prefer. Each recording also includes a transcript and closed captions, which you can enable via YouTube.

🎥 Video: https://youtu.be/eKZPJcfdMjY?si=GplBt11xum70Y59i

📊 Slides: https://youtu.be/XGFfyduWQi4?si=N-3iQ21zVTAoHdlU

We hope you will benefit from the lecture and invite you to share it with others who may be interested.

LIFELANGS Public Lecture 9 July 2026Canada Room, Lanyon Building,...

15/07/2026

There's a poem you haven't sent anywhere yet.

Maybe it's not finished. Maybe it's too personal. Maybe you wrote it at 2am and aren't sure it counts.

It counts.

The 2026 Frances Browne Poetry Competition is open - English, Irish and Ulster-Scots. €250 top prize per language.

Anonymous judging, so the words do the talking.

Deadline midnight, 19 August 2026.

Send this to your favourite poet.

🔗 Link in comments.

Donegal County Council Go Visit Donegal Donegal Democrat / Donegal Live Donegal Bay and Blue Stacks Festival Visit Donegal Go Visit Donegal Creative Ireland CreativeIrl Poetry Ireland / Éigse Éireann

11/07/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the first LIFELANGS Annual Lecture, "Racism, Language and Educational Materials," delivered by Professor Bassey E. Antia from the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, at Queen's University Belfast on Thursday. The lecture was hosted by our project’s Co-PIs Dr Aisling O’Boyle and Prof. Lorna Carson. Discussant Dr Rebecca Loader provided insightful observations and connected the lecture's key ideas to the Northern Ireland curriculum context.

Racism continually evolves to redefine itself, morphing into less objectionable categories by swapping its biological premises for increasingly hidden, cultural ones. Racism has developed sophisticated mechanisms that conceal the very dynamics of its exercise.

While researchers frequently draw attention to overt racialized verbal interactions inside and outside the classroom, the ‘non-standard’ forms of language racialized text personas are permitted to use in prescribed texts, and the exoticized descriptions and visual profiling of these personas, much less attention has been paid to the grammar that actively sustains an insidious politics of knowing within educational materials.

Drawing on research into apartheid-era school textbooks, Prof. Antia also shared practical approaches for recognising and challenging these hidden biases in teaching and curriculum design.

It was an extremely engaging lecture that prompted valuable discussion. We are grateful to Professor Antia for sharing his expertise and insights.

Subscribe to our mailing list at www.lifelangs.com to hear about our next events.

08/07/2026

Bronagh Byrne, Professor of Deaf, Disability and Children’s Rights at Queen’s University Belfast and guest editor of VIEW’s 2021 issue on the Deaf community, reflects on a landmark moment as she shares her joy at the Sign Language Bill passing its final stage at Stormont - https://viewdigital.org/my-joy-over-landmark-sign-language-bill-moment-for-the-deaf-community/ - Una Murphy Richard Dougherty Wendy Newbronner Bronagh Byrne

08/07/2026

How to find us tomorrow!

08/07/2026

A Point of View! Find us tomorrow 9 July in the Canada Room Queen's University Belfast for our first public lecture with Prof Bassey Antia, University of the Western Cape, on “Racism, Language & Educational Materials”. All welcome!

07/07/2026

LIFELANGS team member Dr Jayne Duff was honoured to speak recently with An Taoiseach Micheál Martin at Queen's University Belfast, where he delivered the 2026 Lord Trimble Lecture.

LIFELANGS is one of four cross-border projects funded in Call II of the North South Research Programme, supported by the Irish Government’s Shared Island Initiative.

Jayne shared the vision for our Living Observatory of Shared Languages and Cultures on the island of Ireland.



Languages Connect
Irish Association for Applied Linguistics - IRAAL
TCD, Centre for Language and Communication Studies - Language Courses
Languagenut Ireland
TCD Centre for Deaf Studies
Centre for Cross Border Cooperation

04/07/2026

Recent research from the ⁠Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey shows broad public support for the Irish language and Ulster-Scots.

The study, led by LIFELANGS Co-PIs ⁠Dr Aisling O'Boyle and ⁠Professor Lorna Carson of Trinity College Dublin, and ARK Co-Director Dr Paula Devine , found that robust public support for both Irish language and Ulster-Scots as enriching life in Northern Ireland.

For learning and knowing about two of Northern Ireland’s languages, heritage and cultures, adult language learners favour accessible, community-based, and experiential forms of linguistic and cultural engagement rather than formal or institutional learning models

Explore the survey findings here:
https://ark.ac.uk/ARK/sites/default/files/2026-06/RU172.pdf

The ⁠Northern Ireland Life and Times (NILT) Survey is a joint research initiative by Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University, led ARK ( Access Research Knowledge ), Northern Ireland’s social policy hub. The findings of the research report were widely featured in the media.



Languages Connect
TCD, Centre for Language and Communication Studies - Language Courses

Languagenut Ireland