SITTING on the fourth floor of the striking, brand-spanking new, building which is home to Raidió Fáilte and looking out its expansive window, Fergus Ó hÍr and Máire Nic Fhionnachtaigh, reflect on fifty years of struggle and progress made in establishing the Irish language as a vibrant, energetic and thriving language and its community as ambitious, talented, passionate and above all resilient.
It is no accident that the location of Raidió Fáilte is steeped, like the Irish language itself, in Ireland's history, which is expressed daily in reference to the geography and the contours and landscape of the immediate vicinity of this remarkable building.
The huge window not only provides a beautiful light for the room we are sitting in but a vista to trace the growth of the language from the middle of the 19th century.
Facing our gaze is the Soho Foundry started by Robert Shipboy Mac Adam, a Presbyterian businessman, whose surname sits alongside that of Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich at Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich, in recognition of his contribution to the revival of the Irish language.
Close by in Townsend Industrial Estate you can see the River Farset, which gave Belfast its name, Béal Feirste, mouth of the Farset.
One hundred yards to the east, the Ard Scoil was located - a nationalist cultural centre used by native speakers before and since partition - where Nora Connolly O'Brien, James Connolly's daughter, reported to a republican gathering during the 1916 Rising.
Immediately behind the radio station are the twin spires of St Peter's Cathedral and the imposing Divis Tower, both with long histories in the story of the working class community of the Lower Falls, and the armed struggle which erupted after the Pogroms and Curfew.
The top two floors of Divis Tower were occupied as a military post by the British Army to spy on local people.
Raidió Fáilte's distinctive black and yellow colours were not randomly chosen.
They are the colours of the Blackbird, long associated with Belfast.
The Irish language poem, 'Lon Dubh Loch Lao', 'The Blackbird of Belfast Lough', written over a thousand years ago, is linked to that association. It hangs on a fabric pendant in the mayor's parlour in Belfast's City Hall.
The architect and Irish language campaigner, Ciarán Mackel, has designed a building with a wow factor - a warren of rooms, corridors and landings, all basking in a beautiful and uplifting natural light: it instils a mood of pride and confidence in the growth of the Irish language across Belfast and the north.
The building is a statement of intent and recognition. Intent of where the pioneers of the growth of the language are going and the journey and struggle travelled.
Fergus Ó hIr's first words in Irish were taught to him as a four-year-old by his voluntary teachers, Jimmy and Máire Drumm, both leading republican figures.
Maire, vice-president of Sinn Féin, was assassinated by loyalists while a patient in the Mater Hospital.
In 1978 Fergus was the science teacher in the first Irish language secondary school in Belfast, and later became the first principal of Meánscoil Feirste, now Coláiste Feirste, when it opened its doors in Cultúrlann on the Falls Road.
And now he is manager of Raidió Fáilte - home to Ireland's second Irish language station, the only one in the north and the fourth in the world.
All popular movements of such longevity as the Irish language movement need finance and administration expertise, not to mention, the fuel of life - food.
And Máire Nic Fhionnachtaigh, provided both. An Caife Glas in Cultúrlann - now Bia - was the public face of the spectacular growth of the language as people of all ages, especially children, gathered daily to eat and speak the revived tongue, alongside the equally popular institution, An Ceathrú Póilí bookshop.
Last year at the Celtic Media Festival, Raidió Fáilte won the prestigious 'Radio Station of the Year’ award.
The Raidió Fáilte building has four floors, six studios, a performance area, a boardroom, a meeting room and a café, An Lon Dubh.
It is a social enterprise and can be hired but most of all it is the newest institution, joining many others, carrying the Irish language on the airwaves on the frequency 107.1 FM just like the blackbird carries itself on the airwaves over Belfast.
