Irish Language and Watersports Courses at Eachléim

Coláiste UISCE runs its Irish college programme on two campuses in the Mayo Gaeltacht, and this one is in the village of Eachléim on the Mullet peninsula. It follows the same timetable and carries the same number of students as the Cuan Eilí centre: conversational Irish taught through adventure, with water sports woven into the day. Alongside the traditional Gaeltacht fortnights the campus runs a leadership course for teenagers from the Gaeltacht and from Irish-medium schools, and a Diansraith intensive stream aimed at the aural and oral papers of the State examinations, with feedback reports issued to parents.

The school offers a special discount — ask us for details. The course fee covers tuition, host-family accommodation, full board and the activity programme, and a private bus between the host families and the college each day. Coach transport to Mayo is offered from several Irish cities and is booked separately through the school.

Students on this campus stay with a Bean an Tí — a local Irish-speaking host family. All Bean an Tí houses are inspected and approved by An Roinn Gnóthaí Pobail, Tuaithe agus Gaeltachta, and the college runs a private bus service that brings students to and from the houses each day. Living in the house means Irish continues after class, which is the point of a Gaeltacht course.

Full board is included. Students eat with their Bean an Tí host family, which is part of the immersion: mealtimes are spent speaking Irish in an Irish-speaking household.

The water-sports programme is the same as at the college's other campus: sailing, surfing and windsurfing, at a college accredited by both the Irish Sailing Association and the Irish Surfing Association. Land activities and the daily Irish classes run to the same timetable, and the beaches of the Mullet peninsula are on the doorstep.

Teaching and activities run to the same timetable as the college's Cuan Eilí centre, and students reach the water through the college's own sailing and surfing programme. Accommodation on this campus is with host families rather than in a residence.

Eachléim is a village on the Mullet peninsula where Irish is the language of the street, not only of the classroom. Students live with a local family, travel in to the college by bus each morning and spend the day between Irish classes and the water. Courses are mixed, with roughly an even split of boys and girls.