Mr. Alun Ceri Jones:

I thank the committee for this opportunity to share my experience as a publisher of leisure reading material in Irish. The field of Irish language publishing consists of a few small but active publishing houses. Since Dalen joined these creative ranks in 2014, we have continually developed a range of works to delight and entertain a wide range of audiences and consumers. Our own creative ecosystem focuses on developing exciting works of an international nature for the Irish language reader, concentrating on the quality of content and delivery, repackaging works for the benefit of audiences and working in fruitful partnerships with established and new artists and cultural organisations.

The nature of the small language environment in which we operate means we are, to a great degree, values led rather than finance driven. While we acknowledge the commercial value of the skills, work and effort our commissions and titles entail, we are also aware the imperative is often a desire and willingness to make works happen, to create excellent interactions for audiences and to expect high-quality material in the Irish language because second best is not good enough. Although to a great degree publicly funded, our works are produced within trade frameworks with professional rates of remuneration, commercial fees, contracts and costs. Consequently, it is imperative our approach to works is commensurate with publishing industry standards.

As one of the few publishing houses regularly sourcing content and material from European markets, ours is a unique contribution to the Irish language publishing ecosystem, delivering such material in the language to consumers and bringing internationally acclaimed series to the Irish language market, which in turn raises the profile and perception of the language at home and abroad. In bringing content from foreign cultures and markets, our role as repackagers and creators of this content in Irish is to use language, imagination and critical analysis to transform new and unfamiliar narratives into material that is culturally relevant to our audiences and which can be enjoyed and appreciated by them. In this respect our texts can contribute to discourse and opinion surrounding linguistic and cultural perception and value, cultural self-identity and appreciation within an international context, and shaping literary, linguistic and cultural behaviour about the positioning of the Irish language and its sense of place within national and international contexts.

Our work brings together a group of new and experienced Irish language writers, translators and editors, giving them an opportunity to work on high-quality material in under-represented genres. All of our titles require extensive consideration and revision to present the most creative and inventive Irish texts possible. Literary translation is much more than transliteration of words from one language to another. It is about reflecting the nuance of dialogue; introducing relevant, natural and original humour; cultural relevance and appropriation where justified; and creating text that can stand as proud as any other piece of original work. Dalen has demonstrated its ability to achieve this within the works which now have a respected place in the Irish literary landscape.

At the core of our ambition is the aim of creating reading material that is attractive to those who may otherwise ignore literature, and Irish language literature in particular, appealing to sometimes underserved audiences, in particular teenagers and young adults, with a degree of emphasis on literarily and linguistically reluctant males. Each of our titles has its own literary merit for its intended audience, ranging from the classically notable to the contemporarily trashy, from clever artistry and storytelling to engaging pseudo-history and unabashed mass audience entertainment. The stories we bring to our audiences are selected for their discerned quality, potential attractiveness to readers, and unique potential in the Irish language book market.