Úna-Minh Kavanagh (; born 4 July 1991), is an Irish travel writer, journalist, and video game producer.

Biography

Born in

Hanoi Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

on 4 July 1991, Úna-Minh Kavanagh was

adopted Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...

at three days old by Noreen Kavanagh, a primary school teacher from

Tralee Tralee ( ; , ; formerly , meaning 'strand of the River Lee') is the county town of County Kerry in the south-west of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town is on the northern side of the neck of the Dingle Peninsula, and is the largest town in ...

County Kerry County Kerry () is a Counties of Ireland, county on the southwest coast of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. It is bordered by two other countie ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. Kavanagh was brought to Ireland at six weeks of age and raised by her mother and grandfather Paddy Kavanagh. She learned Irish as one of her spoken languages. She continued to study Irish in

Dublin City University Dublin City University (abbreviated as DCU) () is a Third-level education in the Republic of Ireland, university based on the Northside, Dublin, Northside of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Created as the ''National Institute for Highe ...

and earned a degree in Irish and

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

. Kavanagh came to national attention after an event which occurred on 30 May 2013, in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. She was standing at Parnell Street with a boy, when a group of teenagers, grabbed her face and spat on her whilst calling her racial slurs. Her response to this and other similar events in her life where she experienced racism inspired her to make an online

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

campaign celebrating the diversity of Irish people. Kavanagh created a blog about travelling with her mother, and wrote a book about growing up as an Irish speaking person overcoming loss, and racism, as well as her love of the language. Increasingly Kavanagh is known for being an advocate for the Irish language and is a Duolingo-partnered streamer for Irish and English. Today Kavanagh works as a video games producer, freelance journalist and content creator. She created the website ''We are Irish'' which is designed to share good news and stories about Irish people, the country and anything related to either. She has worked on

TG4 TG4 (; , ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television channel. It launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on-demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was initially known as (TnaG), before bein ...

and with the trade union

Fórsa Fórsa (; "Force") is an Irish trade union for public service staff. With over 89,000 members,it is the largest public service union in Ireland, and second largest trade union in the state.Niall Murray, 80k-member union to be largest public sect ...

. Her YouTube videos are centered on travel vlogs and gaming videos, both in the Irish language, and were funded through her

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account. In 2020, Kavanagh joined the new independent Anti-Racism Committee. Kavanagh was made a member of the TG4 Audience Council in 2020 and will serve on that group for five years. She was also one of the National Ambassadors for Culture Night in 2020. In July 2021, Kavanagh worked alongside three other to launch the official Irish-language translation of the online multiplayer video game ''

Among Us ''Among Us'' is a 2018 online multiplayer social deduction game developed and published by American game studio Innersloth. The game allows for cross-platform play; it was released on iOS and Android (operating system), Android devices in J ...

''. She also created two compilations of resources for learning Irish entitled ''DIY Gaeilge: 150 Online Irish Language Resources'' and ''DIY Gaeilge Part Two: 50 More Irish Language Resources''.

Bibliography

* ''ANSEO.'' New Island Books. October 16, 2019. . * ''DIY Gaeilge: 150 Online Irish Language Resources''. * ''DIY Gaeilge Part Two: 50 More Irish Language Resources''. * ''Experience Ireland''. Lonely Planet. Mar 2022. .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kavanagh, Úna-Minh 1991 births Irish adoptees People from Tralee Alumni of Dublin City University 21st-century Irish women writers 21st-century Irish non-fiction writers 21st-century Irish memoirists Irish women memoirists Irish women non-fiction writers Living people Women travel writers 21st-century Irish travel writers Writers from County Kerry