As part of a three year project, eight Transition Year students and two teachers from Coláiste Oiriall spent five days in San Sebastian.

San Sebastian is in The Basque Country and they took part in a ‘Wikithon’, collaborative Wikipedia editing workshop, where they shared knowledge, researched and wrote Wikipedia articles about local female artists and enjoyed many wonderful cultural experiences in the beautiful city. The other partner schools were Antigua Luberri Public School in San Sebastian, The Basque Country and schools from Friesland in The Netherlands.  

Chaith ochtar scoláire agus beirt mhúinteoir cúig lá i dTír na mBascach, sa Spáinn chun páirt a ghlacadh sa dara Vikitón i dtionscnamh Wiki na mBan. Tar éis na seachtainí dian-ullmhúcháin agus dian-oibre bhí siad réidh chun a gcuid eolais a roinnt leis na pairtnéirí tionsnaimh ón Fhreaslainn agus ó Thír na mBascach. Turas ionspráideach cultúrtha go Tír na mBascach a bhí i gceist chun ár mionteangacha agus mná a cheiliúradh. 

Our Basque hosts brought the Coláiste Oiriall students to their traditional boat-building shipyard and to local art exhibitions, developing our understanding of Basque culture and how their determination to use their native Basque language parallels in many ways to that of the Irish and Frisian experience. This is the second Wikithon as part of this minority language exchange programme. Coláiste Oiriall hosted the Frisian and Basque partners last year and the final Wikithon will be next Autumn in Friesland. 

Coláiste Oiriall have been part of an ambitious Erasmus minority language project, Wikiwomen, for a number of years now, a project spearheaded by a group called Learning Hub Friesland in The Netherlands, in conjunction with Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia. It’s not every day that a school is afforded the opportunity to partake in an ambitious cultural exchange with two other countries working with two other minority languages. 

The primary aims of the Wikiwomen project are to decrease the gender gap in the Irish, Basque and Frisian Wikipedia domains, where women are significantly underrepresented. The Irish language Wikipedia is called Vicipéid and the students in Coláiste Oiriall have spent the past two years researching and writing articles as Gaeilge about women in our society and publishing them online in Vicipéid, contributing significantly to the online presence of the Irish language and increasing the presence of women in digital media.. 

Ní thiocfadh eispéireas an turais seo a shárú. Beidh cuimhní ag na scoláirí seo go deo ar an tseachtain iontach seo. Bhí am ar dóigh acu agus iad ag meascadh le daoine óga ó cheantair eile agus an trí chultúr agus an trí theanga ag meascadh lena chéile. Mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sí! Buíochas don Mhúinteoir Roisin Uí Chuinn agus don Mhúinteoir Seán Ó Máirtín a rinne na scoláirí a dtionlacan ar an turas. Buíochas fosta don Mhúinteoir Faela Mhic Dhomhnaill a thug coincheap WikiWomen isteach go Coláiste Oiriall an chéad lá riamh