I grew up in a very happy household in Lucan in Dublin. We were a bilingual household, so we were brought up with Gaeilge because my mam is fluent in Irish, as is her whole family. It was our first language at home, spoken by myself and my sisters with my mam, which gave me a very unique experience at that time in Ireland.
It would have been seen as unusual at the time. We were known as the Gaeilgeoir family. Now, people wouldn’t bat an eye at a mother speaking a different language to their child in the supermarket, which is a great sign of progress.
Once I left secondary school, I went to Maynooth University, and studied Gaeilge agus Ceol. It was only then I realised how lucky I had been to have Gaeilge growing up at home. I had taken it for granted, and then I went to college, and I was like, “Oh, actually, what I had is special, and I can do something with this.”
I didn’t love college, it wasn’t where I excelled. It took me a few extra years than it should have to get through my arts degree, but once I finished, I went straight into working with Conradh na Gael for Seachtain na Gaeilge. I am still working with Conradh na Gaeilge eight years later. I found my feet working within the Irish language sector and community. I felt like I found my tribe.
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I have a new daughter, born six weeks ago, and it is my default language at home with her. There was no question about how I would raise her. It was always going to be with Gaeilge. I have spent a lot of my life and my career focused on promoting the language and activism on behalf of the language, so it’s satisfying now to see that I’ve physically made an extra Gaeilgeoir to add to the Gaeilgeoir population of the country.
My partner Cathal has a great understanding of Gaeilge and he’s learning all the time. I suppose all it’ll do is improve from here on out, if the rest of us are speaking it.
There’s also the method of one parent, one language, which is when one parent speaks one language to the child and the other one speaks the other, and it creates bilingual children from the word go. It’s a very successful way of teaching children.
She’s going to be a sponge for the next 12 years, and I’m going to pack that sponge full of Gaeilge.
I was six months pregnant while filming Slé Anois go Cúramach, a new quizshow on TG4 with secondary school students, mostly from scoileanna Béarla. The emphasis wasn’t on having “Gaeilge fhoirfe” or perfect Irish; it was on the quiz aspect, not the language.
I think shows and pieces of media like this are really important for people to interact and engage with the language at a fun level; the Gaeilge and how they are speaking it isn’t the number one thing they’re thinking of, but how they’re feeling is the priority.
That’s one of the reasons Doireann Ní Ghlacáin, Louise Cantillon and I started the How to Gael podcast. We saw that there was a way for us to bridge the gap between Irish language and English language content.
Obviously there are essential broadcasting services out there like Raidió na Gaeltachta and TG4 that do such amazing jobs. But for those people who are intimidated by the language, we decided to create something that was a little bit more informal. That’s how How to Gael was born.
We are all in the same industry, we are all going for the same gigs as Gaeilgeoirí, it would have been easy for us to see each other as competition. But working together has actually made every single one of our careers even better, because How to Gael has done really well and resonated with people.
We call ourselves the gateway drug to the language, because unfortunately not everyone gets to experience the language like I have, and that is through the vibrance and fun of community, or with my family or friends. For a lot of people, they have only experienced it in a classroom setting.
That is not the natural setting for this language; she’s living, breathing, doing all sorts all around the country, especially within our gorgeous Gaeltacht areas. If How to Gael can give people even a taste of what the lived language is actually like, I am delighted with that.
In conversation with Niamh Browne. This is part of a series of interviews with well-known people about their lives and relationship with Ireland. Slé Anois go Cúramach is on TG4 on Tuesdays at 7.30pm.
