Dr Micheál Ó Duibh’s recent appearance on the VistaTalks podcast captured the presence of someone who sees language not as an abstract academic puzzle but as a living force that shapes people, communities, and culture. What followed was a thoughtful and generous conversation that moved from grammar and community advocacy to AI, inclusivity, and the future of Irish itself.
Micheál Ó Duibh: A Career Shaped by Curiosity and Commitment
Dr Ó Duibh’s path has never been linear. He began in academia at Ulster University, where he completed both his degree and his PhD, diving deep into the work of a renowned Irish grammarian. That early fascination with structure and nuance stayed with him, even as his career expanded beyond the lecture hall.
He went on to teach at Ulster University and the University of Galway before moving into public service. There, he played a direct role in establishing an Irish medium primary school and childcare facilities in Ballycastle, work that blended advocacy, community development, and a personal dedication to language revitalization. He later became CEO of the organisation responsible for Irish-medium education in Northern Ireland, guiding the national strategy for 5 years.
Today, he leads his own company, a translation and strategic development firm that supports the growth of Irish across Ireland and abroad. The work bridges the technical and the cultural. It touches everything from high-level planning to the smallest linguistic details, such as how to choose a new verb that feels authentically Irish rather than artificially imposed.
Expanding the Bigger Picture
One of the central themes of the conversation was what Dr Ó Duibh calls the bigger picture of the Irish language. Irish is not simply a heritage language or a cultural artefact. It is active and evolving, with communities of native speakers, learners, and new speakers shaping its future.
For Irish to thrive, he argues, it must grow at the same pace as global languages. That means building vocabulary for modern life, refining grammatical structures, and having strong internal processes so that translators, teachers, and learners all move forward in a coordinated way. Much of his team’s work involves creating or standardising terms that do not yet exist in Irish, especially when English or other languages draw sharp distinctions that Irish has not historically.
What makes that work compelling is the care taken to keep new forms grounded in tradition. A verb must feel natural to a native speaker. A term should carry the rhythm of Irish, not the shadow of English. The process is equal parts innovation and stewardship.
The Challenges Beneath the Surface
Every language has quirks. Irish, with its deep Celtic roots, carries some challenges that become especially pronounced when meeting digital technology.
Dr Ó Duibh spoke about the facultative case, which can alter the form of nouns in ways that clash with digital placeholders. He explained the competing traditions in Irish numbering systems, where communities differ on whether to favor the traditional or simplified approach. He spoke frankly about the difficulty of adapting pronouns and grammatical gender to meet modern expectations for inclusivity. These questions do not have quick answers, because they sit at the intersection of grammar, identity, and cultural memory.
He emphasised that even the simplest words can become surprisingly complex. The word multiple, for instance, created unexpected problems across dictionaries and translation systems until very recently. These are the points where linguistic theory meets the practical needs of translators and software.
Micheál Ó Duibh on a Realistic View of AI and Machine Translation
On AI, Dr Ó Duibh’s perspective is refreshingly balanced. He sees AI as a tool that can support translators, never as a replacement for them.
Machine translation has improved, particularly for Irish, but it still struggles with the nuance and sensitivity of human language.
He expects the translator role to evolve, perhaps becoming closer to that of an editor or linguistic guardian. But he is clear about one thing.
Language requires humans. Remove the human presence, and you lose the spirit that makes a language alive.
What he hopes for is better learning mechanisms in AI systems, better corpora, and more opportunities for technology to draw on real-world use in the community. That would accelerate accuracy, fluency, and trust.
The Heart of It All, Speak the Language
Late in the conversation, Dr Ó Duibh returned to a personal and compelling topic. If the future of Irish belongs anywhere, it belongs with the people who speak it daily, especially native speakers in Gaeltacht communities. He encouraged them not to defer to dictionaries or outside authorities, but to lead by using the language naturally, creatively, and confidently.
He offered a striking example from Tory Island. Locals there call a zipper enclosure reatha, the running button. It is simple, vivid, entirely their own. No committee created it. No glossary invented it. It grew from the community, which is precisely how Irish has always evolved.
A Closing Thought
Dr Ó Duibh reminds us that Irish is at its strongest when people use it. When they text, speak, argue, joke, invent, and adapt the language to the world around them. Every contribution feeds a larger ecosystem that supports both tradition and innovation.
His conversation on VistaTalks was a valuable reminder that language work is never just about rules or dictionaries. It is about people and the stories they tell in the words that feel most like home.