Three Leaps of Faith and Four Giant Steps: Developing Interpreter Training in Ireland

Abstract

This chapter documents the relatively recent introduction and development of interpreter training in Ireland. The first interpreters graduated with a Diploma in ISL/English Interpreting in 1994, and interpreter training was, in the early days, only made possible with funding from the European Union: State funding commenced with the establishment of the Center for Deaf Studies at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland’s oldest university, in 2001. As we shall see, there have been four major steps towards the development of ‘permanent’ interpreter training in Ireland. It is important to note that these developments would not have been possible were it not for some key Deaf community-led developments that paved the way for change. But first it is important to outline the Irish interpreting scene, before turning to the Irish Deaf community.