Tanya gets French honour this weekend

This Friday will be a special one for Kilcullen woman Tanya Flanagan, writes Brian Byrne, as she'll be receiving the Ordre des Palmes Académiques from the French Government, for her work in promoting modern languages in the Irish school system.

Tanya teaches in the KWETB St Farnan's Post Primary School in Prosperous, but for ten years she oversaw the development of the Modern Languages in Primary Schools Initiative in the Department of Education and Skills. It involved the introduction of Italian, Spanish, German and French for fifth and sixth-class pupils. The programme was discontinued in 2011 by then Education minister Ruairi Quinn.

A founding member of the One Voice for Languages advocacy group, Tanya started her career lecturing in the French and Italian departments in NUI Galway, close to her native home of Ballygar. She has also worked with the Cork College of Commerce.

The presentation of the award by the French Ambassador to Ireland, M Stéphane Crouzat, will take place in the French Embassy in Dublin on Friday evening.



Photographs use Policy — Privacy Policy