Glor Na Mona
Building Solidarity and Empowering Youth in West Belfast
Howdy folks,
Thank you for being a part of the growing community at Redneck Gone Green!
This Monday, Sept 29th at 3pm pacific, 6pm eastern we will conclude our three part series exploring what we can learn from folks in Belfast about how to resist colonization. This conversation will be with some amazing youth leaders at Glor Na Mona, based in West Belfast.
A friendly reminder that we broadcast live on the Democracy at Work YouTube channel. You can join the conversation and make comments by clicking here,
As usual, I have written a deeper thought piece immediately below my signature.
Onward to the world we deserve,
David Cobb (he/him)
The Redneck Gone Green
Glór na Móna: Irish Language, Community Power, & Youth Empowerment in West Belfast
Glór na Móna is one of those grassroots groups that quietly does far more good with far fewer resources than most. In the rough-and-tumble history of Belfast and the traumas that came with sectarianism, displacement, and the long shadow of the Troubles, Glór na Móna has grown into a beacon for language, culture, activism, youth empowerment, and community self-determination.
Glór na Móna was founded in 2004 by local activists, students, and Irish-language lovers in the Upper Springfield area of West Belfast. It began as an effort to create social and educational spaces for people who wanted to live through the medium of their indigenous Irish language, and has evolved into a pillar in Irish-language revival, community cohesion, and cultural resistance.
In 2016 they opened their own hub, Gael‐Ionad Mhic Goill, thanks to a mix of funding from the Irish Language Investment Fund, Belfast City Council, and the Department for Communities. Over the years they’ve taken on more and more: heritage-recovery, participatory democracy, language planning, festivals, youth work, political education.
Importance to the Community
Why does Glór na Móna matter? Because it does more than teach Irish or throw festivals. It builds places for people to gather, speak Irish, learn their history, reclaim their narrative. It gives young people a ground to organize, to demand rights—language rights, educational equity, heritage recognition—and to push back against neglect.
When funding was nearly cut in 2022—98% of youth-service funding threatened—Glór na Móna didn’t panic. They did what they do best– They organized.
Young people, parents, and community groups rose up. The cuts would have shut down youth nights, thrown 160 young people literally out onto the street. They fought and they won some breathing room.
They also do real solidarity. Fundraisers for Palestinian refugees. Cafés that double as heritage showcases. Environmental and public discussions. They knit history and politics and struggle together.
Current Programs: Culture, Justice & Regeneration
Glór na Móna runs a lot of different programs. Here are some of the big ones:
Irish-language classes & youth‐sessions: For kids, teenagers, learners, including special-needs youth provisions. Staying connected to the language socially, not just in school.
Festivals & heritage projects: Féile Gaeilge le Bród; Féile na gCloigíní Gorma; heritage projects like Croí na Carraige, which aims to build a full multipurpose community, youth, family, heritage hub with long gallery, interactive history exhibits, café, etc.
Solidarity & activism: They throw fundraisers for oppressed and colonized people across the world (recently they have focused on sending food and medicine to Palestine), public meetings, campaigning to save services, pushing back against cuts; activism around Irish language rights/
Community regeneration & space making: The café Anam – Caifé na Carraige, is both a meeting space, an art, culture and heritage space, and a café.
Youth Empowerment
Putting youth first isn’t just something Glór na Móna says—it’s what they do.
They run youth clubs five nights a week with membership of ~160 young people aged roughly 8-18. They include Sólás na nÓg, a project aimed at youth with additional learning, physical, social or emotional needs, all through Irish. That’s rare, and it matters.
Young people are not just involved in their campaigns They lead them.
Youth are fighting the cuts to their own club, and helping shape what programs happen. They lead or co-lead community lecture series, film clubs, environmental heritage projects. The youth involvement builds confidence, skills (communication, organizing), a sense they belong, a sense they have power. And it’s done through the medium of Irish, which means cultural identity is part of the empowerment.
Challenges & Future Visions
Of course there are obstacles: funding instability, political neglect, sometimes with education authority cuts threatening the core services. There’s also the challenge of building infrastructure: making the current hub expand into the envisioned Croí na Carraige hub. That takes money, time, and political will.
But the vision is strong. A permanent multi-purpose centre that holds not just Irish classes, not just youth nights, but heritage, social spaces, cafés, meeting rooms—all woven together as a place where community builds its own future.