
Last week, it was announced that Among Us, the fantastically popular friend-murdering game, was localised officially into Irish. For many (mostly, the Irish) it was an exciting thing; for others, the response was mostly: "But why?"
It's a legitimate question — Irish, or Gaeilge, is only spoken by around 40% of the Irish population, and is rarely used as a first language. It's what's known as a "minority language" — a tongue spoken by a minority of people in a country, like Welsh (622k speakers), Māori (157k speakers), and Basque (665k speakers). And, as with many minority languages, its speakers are invested in protecting it, rather than having it slowly eroded by the majority language, which in this case is English.

But asking "why bother" is to ignore the fact that Irish is still alive and well, and that its speakers are interested in representing it for reasons other than just being able to speak to each other. We spoke to Úna-Minh Kavanagh, the person who took charge of the Irish translation project, to find out more about the reasons behind it.

Kavanagh is a streamer who plays games in both Irish and English, with fully Irish streams every Sunday. Officially, she says, there are very few games that have Irish translations, and many of them — like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, If Found..., and Dicey Dungeons — were made by Irish people with a vested interest in their own culture.
When Among Us got huge, Kavanagh knew she wanted to add it to the rota — "it was kind of natural that I'd play it, in particular with my audience on stream," — but there wasn't an official Irish translation yet. That's not unusual, of course. Úna-Minh often ends up playing games on her stream in English, with Irish subtitles — and she ends up learning quite a few new words along the way.
"I noticed there was a mod made for Irish already," Kavanagh said in a Discord chat, "but [I] wanted to improve on it." After roping in a bunch of other Irish translators — Brian C. Mac Giolla Mhuire, Cormac Cinnsealach, and Mike Drinkwater — she tweeted a request at the Innersloth account to find out if they'd be interested.
And they were. After five months of work, Irish was finally added to Among Us at the start of July (alongside Traditional and Simplified Chinese) in version 2021.6.30 — and it was a huge hit, with Kavanagh's tweet announcing the news gaining over 2,000 likes.
I'd already heard stories about school students in Gaelscoileanna (Irish language-speaking schools) using Among Us and putting their own Irish on it and thought, wouldn't this be amazing as a learning tool.
Making the Irish translation official was a matter of accessibility, as well as celebrating the language. "The reason we would like it to be the official version rather than a mod," she explained in a tweet, "is because installing a mod is not straightforward to the average gamer."
The news will no doubt be welcome for anyone having to learn Irish in school, because like many minority languages, Irish is kept alive through the magic of education and examinations. Anyone who's ever had to learn a language in school will know that it can be a painful process, but being able to play video games or watch movies in the target language is, at least, a fun way to immerse yourself.
"I'd already heard stories about school students in Gaelscoileanna (Irish language-speaking schools) using Among Us and putting their own Irish on it and thought, wouldn't this be amazing as a learning tool," says Kavanagh. "For a minority language like Irish, it's vitally important that fresh, modern and quality content is created and that's what spurred me on the most."
The popularity of Among Us in Irish could even affect the way that Irish is taught to young people. As Kavanagh said in a tweet, "one of my biggest hopes is that the Irish media sees how IMPORTANT this is for the Irish language and for minority languages in general." She even says that Among Us could be a great Irish entry point for pretty much anyone, because "the language used in the game isn't particularly difficult" and doesn't include anything that would require specific cultural knowledge.
Kavanagh herself attended a Gaelscoil, and studied the language after learning it from her grandfather. "We always listened to the radio at home," she says, and that immersion led to her getting top marks in her exams, and eventually studying Irish and Journalism at Dublin City University.

Despite that strong background, she doesn't see herself going into localisation as a career — "it's a hell of a lot of work," she says, "as rewarding as it is!" Her goal in translation as a side gig is ambitious all the same: "I would LOVE to translate something like Skyrim," she says, "but that game is humongous." Among Us, in contrast, is a lot easier — it's largely just UI elements, and not a ton of lore and in-game books to read — but that doesn't mean it didn't have its own challenges.
"The hardest part was the quickchat, because we don't have words for yes and no in Irish," Kavanagh says. "We use the verb — so if you say 'did you drink that', 'ar ól tú é sin', you'd have to answer with the verb: d'ól mé ( I did drink it = yes) níor ól mé (I didn't drink it = no)." In the end, they went with Tá and Níl, which are a sort of "yes" and "no" that are used in things like elections. "It's not entirely correct," she admits, but says that most Irish speakers will understand it from context.
But to answer that question at the start: why bother?
To the people who would ask that, Kavanagh says, "this achievement is not for them."

"The language localisation is for those who do care," she says, "and it's clear from the reaction online and hundreds of comments on Twitter and TikTok (100,000+ views and counting!) [that people] do care, or at least care enough so say that they will play it."
A little bit of a personal aside: I have a degree in Ancient Greek and Latin, two languages which no one speaks. A lot of people, when finding out my chosen subject, would have the same question: why? Why take out a colossal student loan in order to learn two languages you can't use? What jobs can you even get with two dead languages in your pocket? I'll admit, I questioned that myself, although the answer is apparently "games journalist or Prime Minister of the UK", but my real answer is: you don't only have to learn languages in order to speak them.
Learning Latin and Ancient Greek is just as fascinating as studying History, but no one says "what's the point in learning about stuff that already happened?" (Or maybe they do, but that's also silly.) It helps with my writing ability, it means that I can read stories in their original language, and most importantly: it makes me really good at trivia.
Keeping languages alive is important for staying connected to our past, our culture, and our identities.
Keeping languages alive is important for staying connected to our past, our culture, and our identities. It also makes us better at communicating in general; there are things that can be expressed in one language, but not another — like déjà vu, schadenfreude, smörgåsbord, and tsunami. We even have a few Irish loanwords, like hooligan, craic, and whiskey, so without Irish, we wouldn't be able to express good fun or good spirits.
Being able to talk with people across the world is important, but preserving the ways we used to talk can give us incredible insights into humanity that might otherwise be lost to time.
A lot of that preservation work is done by a small, but proactive, number of people. "To keep minority languages alive, people need to simply just stop complaining that nothing is being done and go try and do it themselves," says Kavanagh. "If they can't do it, find someone with more knowledge and encourage them."
So, if you're wondering why they bothered to translate Among Us into Irish, the answer is just as Kavanagh says: if you think it's pointless, then it's not for you. Kavanagh and the rest of the team wanted to see something, and so they made it, and the fact that Innersloth welcomed it as an official mod is a fantastic step towards supporting more languages and cultures in games.
"Ultimately," says Kavanagh, "it's a massive win for a minority language."
The update that adds Irish to Among Us is available now.
Comments 42
Take note, Japanese gaming companies. If people are invested enough in your games to translate them, maybe... you know, just make them official?
I want it in Yiddish and Ladino for all the same reasons. But I won't be doing that myself, because my Yiddish is atrocious and my Ladino consists of about five words from a traditional Chanukah song.
Gaelgie is still very much a living language. There's some people over here who would pretty much refuse to speak to you unless it was in Irish. I only know a few words myself, but on behalf of l of us in Ireland, go raibh maith agat (thank you).
The answer is: because the Irish (at least, Republic of Ireland) still hate the English.
@Daniel36 I mean, Falcom recently did just that.
It really is a fantastic achievement and hopefully will give young students a more fun way to learn Gaeilge. I’m of Irish blood myself (me and my siblings have the unpronounceable-by-English-tongue names to prove it) although grandparents moved over to Scotland and so I’m not really that in touch with my roots outside Celtic. It’s just a real nice thing to see, plain and simple.
@N64-ROX absolute nonsense. It's love for one's own heritage not hatred of another. And besides, to have another language is to have another soul.
@oatmaster That’s a very telling mentality though. Apparently keeping your own heritage alive is an insult to the English.
For people who don't live in Ireland, there are some areas in Ireland known as the Gaeltacht where Irish is recognized as the predominant language. I've never been to them but I remember hearing about some people going to school there for a period of time in order to learn the language. Kids who were sent to the gaeltacht would have to speak irish all the time (both at school and with the family they were staying with)
I always wish I had a better grasp of the Irish language. I didn't really have a great introduction to it growing up, in primary school I had a teacher who taught the class almost entirely in Irish, so if you were already having difficulty with learning the language it was very easy to get lost. I'm not sure if I learned anything from his class.
@nessisonett it's very outdated at least. It's the sort of opinion for old pub bores or Very Online people. Basically just chaff.
My daughter is very good at Irish, according to her teacher at the end of year, but unfortunately she’s dropping it. This is simply a lovely, positive thing as far as I’m concerned.
@N64-ROX Good on them!
“If you think it’s pointless, it’s not for you”, is a wonderful little phrase I’ll be stealing from this, thank you. Also, Mike Drinkwater is just a fantastic name. Well played Mike Drinkwater, well played.
I think being bilingual makes you better at your main language. In my experience I've noticed that people from Ireland/N.Ireland speak English more correctly than people from England, Oceania and (especially) North America.
I've been reading NL for a few years now, and was quite surprised by this article. Really well written and shared new context and insight on a change that most would've paid little attention to. Awesome Kate!
(I may be biased as I'm a non-Irish speaking parent of two kids that attend a gaelscoil)
@Daniel36 Japanese players could say the same. Many western games either have no Japanese translation or they charge extra for it. Quite a bit of extra. Japanese fans of western games have it rough.
Great, now Silezian, please.
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Was lovely to see this, I found Irish tough to learn in my school days. I am currently trying to relearn it online!
Great to see Irish go "ó neart go neart"! Wish there was more of this when I was younger learning Irish in school, encouraging the use of the language outside the classroom and making it more accessible. Would love to see Irish in more games in the future. Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam!
@bimmy-lee I am also stealing it
were made by Irish people with a vested interest in their own culture
Good for them just cause it's in their language just tell others where it came from. We have JPN games with en(txt) and I find nothing wrong with that as well. It just goes to show they want to tell people you don't have to be only en speaker to make a game to enjoy it.
After years of learning Irish in school and being decent at it I wish I had a better grasp of it now. I guess just lack of everyday use causes it to fade. Recently started brushing up on it again. It's amazing how quickly it can come back to you. I love that we have our own language. Hope we can keep it alive.
I'll be honest, I'm one of those people who asks "Why?" about a lot of things. Though that tends to lead to the related phrase "Why not?"
I get this from a heritage perspective; many of my ancestors (the ones we can trace anyway) came from Germany in the mid to late 1800s. I really wish I'd kept up with my German. Unfortunately, if you don't use it, you start losing it.
Im from Co.Derry. Can't speak a word of Irish. A real shame and regret.
Wish the language was used by everyone.
Well, why not?
Touching on the broader topic as we are though, I don't quite understand linguistic nationalism, but then that might be because my language is spoken in some degree across most of the world.
@Double-L - It’s a nice little phrase, and it seems it can only help lead to happiness. Good luck with it.
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@Daniel36 If people are invested enough in your games to translate them, maybe... you know, just make them official?
"That's too crazy!"
Level-5
When I was in Ireland for a month, if I'm remembering correctly, there were long stretches of roads in the extremely rural, northwestern areas of the country (like County Donegal) where I would say most of the road signs were entirely in Gaelic.
Of course, this was in the late 90s tho, so it could be that that's changed, but it was really neat at the time. It's a lovely language to hear it spoken, and I think it's amazing that the developer included an Irish translation.
Dying languages need to be preserved!
This was one of favorite things I’ve read on here. Well done, Kate! I found the story well written and very uplifting.
You mentioned how Dicey Dungeons has an Irish translation, but I think it also has a Welsh one, which is pretty cool too.
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@Andy_Witmyer There are certain parts of the country where that is still the case. The Gaeltacht areas as they are known. But for all the rest of the country road signs are done in English and Irish.
@Brummieendo90 we get it, you don't like the Republic of Ireland. Is the forum of a Nintendo fansite the place to be having these discussions though? This is just an article about an interesting feature in a game.
Really good article. I only know a few word's but it would be great if someone did a Welsh version too.
I found Irish very difficult to learn back in the 80's and 90s as I couldn't follow it at all, being dyslexic. I only know a few words now which is a shame. But I know my niece and nephew love Irish now. I feel it was taught to us so badly back then up until the early 2000s that people just hated it from primary and secondary school and just moved away from it in their 20s.
It seems now that there is a resurgence in learning Irish now with all walks of life in Ireland, which makes me very proud.
Maybe I should try learning it again.
Great article NL!
To get to the other side.
There was that game "tir na nog" on the zx spectrum. Gameplay in it was brilliant.
Maybe Nintendo will someday start translating its games into Ryukyuan or Ainu.
Mapudungun, when?
Cymraeg now, please.
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