Ollscoil Uladh i gcomhar le Cumann CultúrthaMhic Reachtain a bhunaigh Éigse Loch Lao chun léann agus litríocht na Gaeilge a cheiliúradh agus a bhuanú i gcathair Bhéal Feirste trí imeachtaí léannta agus sóisialta a thionscnamh ar bhonn bliantúil. Is as an dán sean-Ghaeilge a cumadh os cionn Loch Lao a baisteadh an Éigse agus tugtar Léacht Chuimhneacháin Roibeaird Mhic Ádhaimh (1808-95) in ómós duine de cheannródaithe athbheochan na Gaeilge sa chathair. Is de thraidisiún Gaeilge Bhéal Feirste an cumasc beo sin idir traidisiún dúchasach na Gaeilge agus traidisiún na hathbheochana sa chathair agus is é aidhm Éigse Loch Lao an traidisiún bisiúil sin a chomóradh agus a bhuanú.
Éigse Loch Lao was founded by the University of Ulster and Cumann Cultúrtha Mhic Reachtain with the aim of celebrating and advancing Irish-language scholarship and literature in the city of Belfast through an annual series of events both scholarly/literary and social. The name Éigse Loch Lao (‘Literary assembly of Belfast Lough’) invokes the words of a ninth-century Irish poem composed from a vantage point over Loch Lao/ Belfast Lough and the ‘Robert ShipboyMacAdam (1808-95) Lecture’ pays tribute to one of the pioneers of the Irishlanguage revival in the city. This vital convergence of the native Irish tradition and the dynamic of the Irish revival in the city typifies the Irish language tradition in Belfast which Éigse Loch Lao embraces.
