'Blessed' - Longford woman launches Irish language book after approach from US publisher

A young woman from Longford has had her Irish language book published in America before it launches in Ireland next month. 

24-year-old Laura Packenham was approached by US publisher Simon and Schuster to write her book 'Speak The World: Irish.' 

She has a social media following on TikTok where she posts short videos speaking and teaching Irish to her followers. 

"The content I already made aligned with the design and the audience they wanted to curate for the book. Essentially, the book is all about integrating Irish into your everyday conversations. It's that first way to dip your toe into the land of Gaeilge," Laura explained.

Each page has a word or phrase in Irish along with a pronunciation guide and explanation.

"It's almost like little diary entries. There's an explanation of where the phrase comes from, grammar notes, and how to use it," Laura added. 

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Another main focus of the book is called 'Irish History and Culture Through Language. 

It looks at aspects of Irish culture and how the language intertwines with that and has shaped the culture of Ireland. 

It also explores the historical context of language in Ireland. 

"One of the main things we really, really wanted to focus on, was it tying in with my TikToks, that it's maybe a 30-second or a minute-long video, a bite-sized little bit of Gaeilge. The book is being sold globally so it's for people who've never studied Irish in an academic setting. They need to be able to just have digestible bite-sized chunks of Irish," Laura explained. 

The book is being sold in multiple countries across the world including America, Canada, Australia, India, Pakistan, Brazil, and more.

It was launched in the US and Canada on January 20 and will be launched in Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand from February 26. 

"To be completely honest, I probably naively didn't even think it was going to be sold in Ireland. I guess the way the book was framed, it was to draw people into the Irish language and maybe people who were having their first exposure to it. I've done so much deep diving, and I've seen it for sale in India. It's on Amazon Brazil. It's for sale in Pakistan. It's for sale in the Netherlands. It's crazy," Laura said. 

Because the book is yet to be launched in Ireland, Laura hasn't had the chance to see it in a book shop yet and so has been reaching out to her followers asking them to send her a photo of the book.

Laura has been promoting the Irish language for about three years online now, but having everything that she knows put on paper and published has been hard to grasp the gravity of.

"It feels weirdly intimate is the only way I can describe it. People are going to be buying and picking up and flicking through essentially my brain, but on paper, which is crazy. It's been really hard to fathom the scale of it," she explained. 

She isn't sure the scale of what she has done will hit her until she walks into a bookshop and sees her name among everyone else who has written books to promote the Irish language.

Being a published author has always been a dream for Laura, as has working as a children's presenter. 

Both of these are things she thought she would achieve in her thirties or forties, yet both have been achieved before she even turned 24. 

At the age of just 22, Laura was working as a Nuacht presenter for Cúla4. 

"I wrote the book when I was working full time with Nuacht Cúla4 and oh my God, it was crazy. It was like presenter by day and then coming home, sculling a can or two of Red Bull, and into the laptop for the night until the wee hours of the morning. It was a lot. It is genuinely unfathomable. I'm like, what do you mean? I'm a worldwide published author," she said. 

"Irish just fills my soul and my heart, which I know sounds so corny, but it really, really does. I just feel like this is exactly what I was meant to do and the path I was meant to end up on," she added.

When asked what's next for Laura she answered (jokingly) "Oh, I am ready to retire. I'm like, get me on a cruise." 

In reality, she hopes the momentum keeps going.

"Every day the ball just keeps rolling and it just keeps picking up more gravity. It is a snowball effect. One thing leads to another, leads to another, leads to another. I have genuinely just been so beyond blessed with my career so far, and getting to do things that I would have only ever dreamed of doing. It's like, 'God, what do I do now and how do I keep the snowball going as well?'" Laura said. 

Her online community, which she has described as "so special" and "really beautiful" have helped to give her the fire to keep on going. 

Many people have been reaching out from all over Ireland and the rest of the world to say they have ordered it or to express how proud they are of Laura.

"I'm just like, 'wow, people really are there in my corner,' even though sometimes it just feels like it's me and my phone and I'm just proud of that and equally proud of me. The late nights and the sleeplessness and the hard work, it all puts it into perspective. It's really worth it," she said. 

'Speak The World: Irish' will be available for purchase in Ireland from February 26 or you can order it from Amazon now.