Galway City Council is conducting its monthly meeting through Irish this afternoon.
It is the first time in the history of the local authority that the entire agenda will be dealt with as Gaeilge.
A translation service is being provided to assist those who do not have fluent Irish.
The initiative came about following a meeting of a recently established council subcommittee, to promote use of the language.
Opening the meeting, Mayor Peter Keane said it was very important that measures were taken to promote the language, which he described as an unbroken chain between contemporary Galway and its origins.
Cllr Keane said Irish was a unique feature of the city and cited research which he said suggested that 80% of people living locally would like to use it more every day.
The council’s CEO, Leonard Cleary, said it was timely to reflect on the work that had been carried out to promote the language in the city.
He said that the Official Language Act contained a stipulation that 20% of staff in public bodies would be competent in Irish by 2030.
Mr Cleary said this would pose a challenge but it was one that the council was keen to progress.
Mr Cleary said he hoped this would in turn encourage people to use the language "in a welcoming space" when engaging with the council and other public bodies.
He concluded his remarks by reciting the poem by Máirtín Ó Direáin, Fear Lasta Lampaí, in which the poet details the work of a lamplighter in Galway in 1928.
His remarks were followed by a number of councillors who expressed their support for the initiative, before proceedings moved to the monthly agenda.
