Ciara Ní Éanacháin (born Ciara Heneghan), known by her pen name Ciara Ní É, is a bilingual Irish writer, performer, podcaster and television presenter. She founded REIC, a bilingual spoken word event and co-founded the

LGBTQ+ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The group i ...

arts collective AerachAiteachGaelach, with Eoin McEvoy.

Biography

Ciara Ní É was born in

Clontarf, Dublin Clontarf () is an affluent coastal suburb on the Northside (Dublin), Northside of Dublin in the city's List of Dublin postal districts, Dublin 3 postal district. Historically, there were two centres of population, one on the coast towards the c ...

. Though not raised speaking Irish, Ní É went to Coláiste Chamuis,

Rossaveel Rossaveal or Rossaveel ( or ) is a Gaeltacht village and townland in the Connemara district of County Galway in the west of Ireland. It is the main ferry port for the Aran Islands in Galway Bay. It is about from Galway city. The village is locat ...

in the

Gaeltacht A ( , , ) is a district of Ireland, either individually or collectively, where the Irish government recognises that the Irish language is the predominant vernacular, or language of the home. The districts were first officially recognised ...

, the Irish speaking parts of Ireland, during her secondary school summers. She completed a degree in English Literature and Modern Irish at

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

in 2013. After graduating, Ní É spent a year in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

with

Dorling Kindersley Dorling Kindersley Limited (branded as DK) is a British multinational publishing company specialising in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 63 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a subsidiary of German media cong ...

. In 2015, she completed a master's degree in ''Scríobh agus Cumarsáid na Gaeilge'' at

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

. Ní É founded the ''REIC'' poetry night while taking her MA course. Ní É completed a year of teaching Irish as a

Fulbright scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the peopl ...

teaching Irish at

Villanova University Villanova University is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded by the Order of Saint Augustine in 1842 and named after Thomas of Villanova, Saint Thom ...

, 2017 - 2018. Ní É is a regular broadcaster both on the national TV channels of

RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

and

TG4 TG4 (; , ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television channel. It launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on-demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was initially known as (TnaG), before bein ...

. Since 2017, she also creates a regular

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series called 'What The Focal!?' where she talks about Irish. In 2020, she is the writer-in-residence for

Dublin City University Dublin City University (abbreviated as DCU) () is a Third-level education in the Republic of Ireland, university based on the Northside, Dublin, Northside of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Created as the ''National Institute for Highe ...

References

Living people People from Clontarf, Dublin 21st-century Irish poets Irish LGBTQ poets Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Irish LGBTQ people {{Ireland-poet-stub