The Fulbright Irish Language Assistants programme, offering opportunities for Irish language teachers and scholars to spend an academic year teaching in third-level institutions in the US, has been launched.
The next phase of the programme covers 2008-2011. At present, Fulbright foreign language teaching assistants are working with students in the Bronx, New York City, southern Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota.
The programme was launched at Wesley College, Dublin, yesterday by Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív and the US ambassador, Thomas Foley.
Mr Ó Cuív said the Fulbright foreign language teaching assistant programme represented "an excellent opportunity to travel, to gain valuable teaching practice and to experience living in the US".
Irish is growing in popularity in the United States. More than 40 third-level US colleges and universities offer courses on the language.
Courses at all levels from beginners to postgraduate are attended by Americans of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
Mr Ó Cuív's department and the National Lottery have donated €660,000 to the Fulbright Commission over the next three years to expand the programme.
In 1991, the Fulbright Commission was established by legislation as a public body supported by the US Department of State and the Department of Foreign Affairs to operate an official educational exchange programme between Ireland and the United States. Each year, the commission awards scholarships for Irish citizens to lecture, research or study in the United States and for US citizens to lecture, research or study in Ireland.
