I can still inform you that níl aon scamall sa spéir, or if sceitimíní áthas is upon me, and ask you what you did on your laethanta saoire, but the Irish I find myself using nowadays is largely reduced to the suas an staighre command and the occasional slán or oíche mhaith.
So what lúcháir it is to sit down chun éisteacht le How to Gael, with the TV presenter and musician Doireann Ní Ghlacáin, the Today FM host Louise Cantillon and the broadcaster Síomha Ní Ruairc, where more than the cúpla focal find their way into a conversation that moves seamlessly between Béarla and Gaeilge. In their first episode, which dropped last October, the three made clear that How to Gael was born from what they saw as a gap in the market for a bilingual podcast with a conversational bent. Their title episode, How to Gael, sets up the stall go deas, discussing their understood definitions of the word Gael, how it differs from Gaeilgeoir, and the changing reception for those speaking Irish at home.
Each episode is structured in a similar explainer format: anything from how to organise your fridge to how to say no. It starts with a question posed by one to the other two, which sparks a discussion on the téama na seachtaine. The three are clearly close friends, easy in each other’s company, glic and quick to laugh, and with all manner of media experience and personality between them. You’ll find a no-holds-barred approach: if you want to know who lasers what part of their body and who urinates outside, you’ll depart well informed, though that is not to put limits on their content or knowledge. But there’s an easy affection there, plus the ineffable chemistry that the New York Times recently pointed up as an invaluable resource in the having-a-chat podcast genre.
The litmus test for almost any podcast of this ilk is whether you, as an éisteoir, want to spend time with the hosts, and can be wooed into embarking on a parasocial relationship with them. This is where the How to Gael trio shine: they are funny and candid, and they have enough differences in their worldviews to bring some welcome spark and definition.
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So, yes, the chemistry is there, and the loose structure provides enough scaffolding to avoid a complete weekly freewheel. But there’s also a sneaky educational component that punts How to Gael into novel territory. Each episode ends with a gluais, or glossary, of that episode, where the hosts highlight individual words or sometimes phrases to add to their listeners’ vocabularies. Who knew that to be on your ghogaide meant to cop a squat? Or that áibhéil is the word for exaggeration? I also have great plans to employ “Sin é mo scéal, má tá bréag ann, bíodh” in short order. This gem from episode 35 is translated as “That’s my story, and if there’s a lie there, so be it,” which I can imagine getting plenty of mileage out of, though I should add má tá bréag ann in any of my scéalta, please don’t sue this newspaper.
We’ve come a long way from the days of mamaí sa chistin, and How to Gael is proof of life for any doubters: tá an teanga beo beathach, a éisteoirí.
