Irial Mac Murchú, founder and director of leading Irish language broadcasting company Nemeton, will visit Belfast on Tuesday 4 March to address the next West Belfast Small Business Roundtable in An Chultúrlann.
And in a podcast released in the run-in to the Seachtain na Gaeilge event, the Waterford man describes how 'Gaeltacht na nDéise' effectively came back from the grave in the sixties — when just four or five families were raising their children through Irish — to the situation today where it is the only Gaeltacht in the country with a growing population.
Today the Gaeltacht of An Rinn and An Seanphobal is the home base of Nemeton which employs around 60 full-time employees to service a range of programming including live sport broadcasts, a variety of Irish language documentary series for TG4 and accredited training courses.
Irial says the birth of Nemeton in 1994 was linked to the determination of the community of An Rinn not to be left out of plans for the proposed Irish language TV station, TnaG (which was founded in 1996, and subsequently morphed into TG4).
This will be the third West Belfast Small Business Roundtable and the first entirely in irish in a nod to Seachtain na Gaeilge and the West Belfast Féile an Earraigh.
Tá comhairle chríonna ag Mac Murchú do dhuine ar bith atá ag smaoineamh ar ghnó a bhunú. "Má tá tú chun gnó a bhunú, más féidir leat na trí critéir seo a shásamh, ní stadfaidh aon rud thú," ar seisean. "Uimhir a haon: cad é an jab a chuirfidh tú as an leaba ar maidin Dé Luain thú fiú muna raibh pingin ariamh le saothrú as, uimhir a dó: cad is féidir leat a dhéanamh níos fearr ná éinne eile, agus uimhir a trí, an féidir leat bonn geilleagrach a chur faoi sin? Más féidir leat na trí cheist sin a fhreagairt, ní stopfaidh éinne thú."
Bhí ár bhfoireann #LaochraGael gnóthach i mbliana!
— NemetonTV (@nemetontv) January 23, 2025
Agus táid ag chuir tús leis an sraith anocht!
Don't miss @padraic_maher on @Laochra_Gael 9:30pm on @TG4TV pic.twitter.com/AbIYwGOQVc
And Mac Murchú has sage advice for anyone thinking of setting up their own business. "If you plan to start a business, ask yourself these three questions and if you can answer them positively then nothing can stop you. Number one, what job will get you out of bed every Monday morning even if you weren't to make a penny from it; Number two, what can you do better than anyone else; Number three, can you put an economic foundation below your business. If you can answer those three questions positively, nothing can stop you."
Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, the Roundtable founder who interviewed Irial for our podcast, says the response of the West Belfast small business community to the Cultúrlann talks series has been "unbelievable". "These breakfast roundtables help give our local small businesses the cutting edge they need to succeed. It's an additional pleasure to be able to host a roundtable entirely in Irish to celebrate Seachtain na Gaeilge."
Two places remain for the Shrove Tuesday business breakfast and can be purchased on Eventbrite.