Motherfoclóir
Dispatches from a not so dead language. Hosted by Darach O'Séaghdha and The Irish For… @theirishfor. Follow the show on twitter @motherfocloir or email us at motherfocloir@headstuff.org.
Episodes
Introducing | Gaylinn
Gaylinn dives into the weird, wonderful, and messy sides of life from sports to dating in Dublin all with humor, hot takes, and plenty of Irish language thrown in. It’s perfect for learners and fluent speakers alike.
If you’re craving your weekly dose of Gaeilge, Gaylinn could be just what you’re looking for. Episode one of their new season is out now!
Listen on HeadStuffPodcasts.com or whereve
Introducing | The Greatest Matter
An audiodrama for fans of Motherfoclóir! The Greatest Matter is a new gothic crime tale set in Victorian Dublin, about a criminologist who arrives in the city and gets caught up in a murder investigation with occult connections. It's a full-cast audiodrama, with a cast of great Irish actors, immersive sound design and original music.
Have a listen to Ep 1 here, and all 12 episodes are available to
Mother Tongues and Other Tongues: Behan, Doyle and Rooney in Translation
We're back!
Well, sort of. In March 2024 Darach, Gearóidín and Peadar were reunited for a live Seachtain na Gaeilge event in Clondalkin Library (a home advantage for Peadar!)
On the occasion of the anniversary of Brendan Behan's death, the gang discussed the controversy surrounding the English translation of his Irish language play An Giall: did Behan approve of this version, and the significant
Back From The Dead: Translating Transylvania
With thanks to the Bram Stoker Festival, the Motherfoclóir Podcast was resurrected for one afternoon in October 2022 to discuss the translation of Dracula into Irish by Seán Ó Cuirreáin.
In this recording of last year's live show Darach is joined by Peadar and Siún as they consider the different motives of the politicians who commissioned the translation and the writer asked to carry out the work.
Introducing | Words To That Effect
Motherfocloir is part of the HeadStuff Podcast Network and there are lots of other shows on the network we think you might like. Words To That Effect is a show that tells stories of the fiction behind popular culture and if you're a fan of Motherfocloir we think there's a very good chance you'll like this show too. Here's a full episode, all about the history of dragons in fiction and popular cult
186: #186 | Last Orders - The Residents' Bar
Thank you for your support over the last four years.
Thank you for inviting us into your headphones and into your head. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
Thank you to Brian and Kirsten for making each episode look and sound amazing. Thank you to Éimear, Clodagh, Caitlín, Siún and Ola, and all the members of the extended Motherfoclóir family.
Thank you to our guests for teaching us
BONUS | Amy Louise O'Callaghan and the Irish Arts Center NYC
If you follow Darach's Word of the Week project with the Irish Arts Center in New York, you'll have seen the artwork of Amy Louise O'Callaghan - @amylouioc on Twitter, Instagram and Etsy - who reimagines Irish mythology in the style of Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli. More recently she has reimagined the iconography of tarot cards using well-known tales and characters from Irish mythology.
185: #185 | Last Orders - The Grass Beard: Finn Longman and Queer Readings of An Táin
Join us for the final episode of Motherfoclóir, live on Zoom tonight: https://www.patreon.com/posts/55377967
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Every artistic/visual representation of Cúchulainn presents him as a hulking, ultra-masculine figure. But is this interpretation justified by the text? In the Táin, Cúchulainn is frequently described as a small lad, girly in some ways, a person who has to change his appearance to pres
184: #184 | Last Orders - Motherfoclóir Meets Blindboy
The re-release of Professor Terence Dolan's Dictionary of Hiberno-English didn't happen by accident, but was nudged into existence by a writer who also happens to be one of the most seminal and relevant voices in Irish podcasting. And he's our guest this week!
Before we folded the podcast forever, we are delighted to bring you this conversation between Darach and Blindboy Boatclub, one half of
183: #183 | Last Orders - 32 Shades of Salach: Romance Novels with Róisín McNally
In terms of literary prestige, romance novels don't get no respect, ranking lower than sports biographies and screenplay novelisations on the scale of respectability - according to people who don't read them, anyway. But what about people who do?
Since Covid, sales of romance novels have shot through the roof, largely on account of the #BookTok hashtag on Tiktok. And one of #BookTok's stars joi
182: #182 | Last Orders - Seven Deadly Letters - J, K, Q, W, X, Y, Z
Four years ago we started this podcast off with a discussion of the letter V. There’s been much water under the bridge since then and while we always meant to give the other seven “forbidden” letters their own episode, there was always something a bit more urgent to attend to. Like translating smutty novels and so forth.
But on today’s episode, Dr McEvoy and Mayor Pete assist Darach in a whistl
181: #181 | Last Orders - Parenting Is An Irregular Verb - Séamas Ó Reilly
Everybody is talking about Twitter sensation Séamas Ó Reilly and his hilarious yet moving memoir "Did You Hear Mammy Died?"
And rightly so - it's a sensational telling of a remarkable story of a boy with ten siblings losing his mother far too young and being reared by one of the most memorable Irish Dads in the history of memoir. Can a movie be far behind?
Séamas didn't just appear out of now
180: #180 | Last Orders - Diabhal Scéal
When we say that a child is full of divilment, are we saying that they are possessed by Satan? No, we are not.
In today's episode, Darach, Gearóidín and Peadar consider the concept of the devil in the Irish language. Why does diabhal scéal (devil a story) mean no story? What's the deal with the devil being buried in Killarney? Were politicians aware of the term Taoiseach An Bháis (Lord of Death
179: #179 | Last Orders - Créatúrs, Sliabhíns & Digressions
Well, it couldn't last forever; Motherfoclóir will be ending forever before this autumn. Before we go on our separate ways, we'd like to bring you some topics and guests that we always meant to, but put on the long finger because we wanted "do more prep" or "wait until X was available" or some other excuse. Anyway, there's no time to procrastinate anymore…
First up, our Gearóidín tells Darach al
Teaser | Darach Meets ... The Europeans!
Darach chats to Katy and Dominic, the hosts of popular podcast "The Europeans".
To hear the full episode and much more visit https://www.patreon.com/darach
The Europeans podcast can be found at https://europeanspodcast.com/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
178: #178 | Fatal Deviation
Darach is joined by Mira Adama (@LostWolfling), along with a cast of other contributors, to discuss a cult classic of Irish cinema.
Watch Fatal Deviation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPne3Wh0lqk
This is our last episode of the season! You can join us on Patreon for bonus content throughout the break.
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Support Motherfocloir on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/darach
Get Kirsten
177: #177 | Let’s Start With Komets-Alef: Learning About Yiddish With Meena & Arun Viswanath
Recently, Yiddish became the fortieth language to join Duolingo, an achievement that followed hot on the heels of Harry Potter being translated into Yiddish. And would you believe that a brother and sister were responsible for these separate accomplishments? Well, when we found out about it we were struck by how many of the same kinds of conflicts and considerations that faced Irish came up again
176: #176 | BONUS: Irish Sign Language with Caroline McGrotty
Watch this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsORJSesv48
In 2017, Irish Sign Language (ISL) was officially given legal recognition in Ireland. Of course, it has a long history prior to this and in today's episode, Darach and Gearóidín meet Caroline McGrotty (@CarolineMcTweet), an ISL translator and presenter, to find out more.
Where did ISL come from? Is it different in Northern Ireland?
175: #175 | Up The Lagan In A Bubble: Line of Duty and the Irish Cop Trope
Jesus, Mary and Joseph and the Wee Donkey.
Everyone is hooked on “Line of Duty” at the moment, the latest reinvention of the cop show genre - and, fittingly, a reinvention of the “Irish cop” trope which is even older than television. But why did this format - a legacy from the era of segregation and McCarthyism - survive when westerns, Elvis movies, and musicals either die off or get resurrected
174: #174: Ceci N'est Pas Une Gickna - Louise Selkies Ní Chuilinn
When he’s not beavering away at this very podcast, Darach does a bit of work with the Irish Arts Center in New York as part of their word of the week project. This allows him to collaborate with some exciting and talented artists, such as today’s guest Louise Ní Chuilinn (as known as Selkies). Louise, an Irish speaker living in Brussels, tells Darach and Peadar about that city’s artistic scene, su
173: #173 | The Bramble: Oein De Bhairduin
There’s a song in the Mincéir tradition (made famous among settled audiences by Luke Kelly) called the 40 Foot Trailer which ends with the line
“There's a bylaw to say you maun be on your way
And another to say ye can't wander”
The implication is clear: the Traveller Community are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Despite the visibility of the Travelling Community in Irish life, in p
172: #172 | By The Banks of My Own Orinoco: The Wonderful World of @EnyaComments
One of the finest new accounts to join Twitter during the pandemic has been @EnyaComments, a deceptively simple twitter handle that shares comments written under Enya videos on the YouTube.These range from the ridiculous to the sublime.
But what is it about Enya that draws such a wide fanbase from around the world? Why do her fans feel such a close connection and associate her music with healing
171: #171 | Please, Mr Postman - Colm McEvoy on An Post & Eircodes
Every few weeks, a story goes viral in Ireland: a letter, addressed to someone like "that lady with the yellow baseball cap who owns a cat the size of a dog and a dog the size of a cat" is posted and finds its intended recipient. It's a tribute to the affection and esteem with which Irish people regard their postal service. It hints at one of a number of reasons why Ireland resisted postcodes for
170: #170 | Well, Well, Well: Vampires, Evil Fish and Holy Wells
Are things holy because we need them or do we need them because they're holy? This is something that we consider on this week's episode when holy wells are discussed. Are the legends and myths about holy wells just a roundabout way of explaining what their purpose is? Why are there so many in Limerick? What does Ryan Tubridy's surname mean?
We also discuss the theory that zombie movies are more
169: #169 | The Subh Milis Not Taken - What Is The Best Loved Poem In Irish?
Back in 2015, the Paris Review ran an article on Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken” and concluded that it is - by some distance - the best known and most widely referenced poem of the twentieth century. Nothing else comes close. And yet, it is as misunderstood as it is famous. Many poems, or extracts from poems, are misread outside their original context - like Frost’s other line, “good fen
168: #168 | Last Train To Eel Town: Thoughts On Baile In Irish Placenames
Whether it's Flann O'Brien, the Book of Kells, Dindsenchas or An tOileánach, the Irish literary and literary historical traditions respect the idea of the digression - the idea that knowledge information, truth itself does not respect the artificial categories that limited human minds try to trap them in.
Just as crabs think that eels are flying because they don't understand the concept of wate
167: #167 | A Fiadh By Any Other Name: The 2020 Baby Names
At the end of February, the CSO released the 2020 baby name statistics and after a long run, Emily is no longer the top girl name in Ireland. How should we interpret this? What does it mean for existing Emilys, especially the ones who rejoiced in the name before it became so popular in the noughties? Grace is the new top name, but how much of that is a global anglophone phenomenon and how much it
166: #166 | Turscar-red For Life: Spam In Irish
Greetings agus Salutations,
I am Motherfoclóir, prince of words, Irish, Irish words and words from Ireland. I have a very special request to make of you. If you listen to this podchraoladh about spam as Gaeilge, I will send twenty millionty squillion US Dollars in gold bullion into your earphones.
Please send me your bank details by WhatsApp voice note to +353 89 478 4713 and tell me I'm pretty
165: #165 | To Claim The Emerald
In Thin Lizzy's tune Emerald, Phil Lynott tells a tale of marching men who wish to overthrow overlords, fighting a fight they believe to be right. But they bring horrible destruction in their pursuit of this goal - children never playing again, for example - as they seek The Emerald, a talisman not unlike Tolkien's ring.
Lynott never explains what the Emerald is nor does he need to. The Emerald
164: #164 | May The Forts Be With You - Sinéad Mercier on Ringforts & Fairy Forts
We've spoken about fairy forts before. However, in the context of our recent discussion of placenames and bearing in mind the widespread incidences of Ráth and Lios in towns across Ireland, we decided to bring an expert in.
Sinéad Mercier, co-author of "The Men Who Eat Ringforts", drops in to tell Darach and Peadar all about these structures which link Ireland to its past. Is the word "fort" un
163: #163 | An Ace Up Your Sliabh: Recurring Styles in Placenames Pt. 3
Could the word slíbhín - a sly, sneaky so-and-so - possibly come from the word sliabh, meaning a mountain? Are mountain folk really that cunning, or do the people from counties with many a sliabh (counties where more Irish was historically spoken) just happen to have more fire in the belly when they move to the lowlands in search of work?
In the third of our series on the recurring Irish words
162: #162 | Inis or Oileán? Recurring Styles in Placenames Pt. 2
When is an island an Inis and when is it an Oileán?
In the second of our look at recurring words in Irish placenames, Darach, Gearóidín and Peadar consider islands. Why do some inland locations have island-based names? Why are there three places in Ireland called Lady's Island, each with a different name in Irish?
What about the island that Charles J Haughey bought in the Gaeltacht - does any
161: #161 | Cill or Coill? Recurring Styles in Placenames Pt. 1
A lot of placenames in Ireland begin with Kil-. Sometimes this is a reference to a church, sometimes it refers to a woodland. Sometimes both. What's going on? Did the early Christians steal holy sites from the pagan druids or something?
In the first of a set of episodes, Darach, Gearóidín and Peadar look at some of the recurring features in Irish placenames. This week it's Cill and Coill.
Th
160: #160 | Cliquebait: Gaeilge & Internet Subcultures
2021 has gotten off to a fairly spicy start and yet again the spotlight has been shone on online communities in light of events in America But what makes one community a supportive safe space but another a radicalising echo chamber?
Unrelated, perhaps, are a number of recent viral tweets where learners have told of disappointing experiences using Irish on social media. Is it fair to compare Iri
159: #159 | Swear It All Over Again: Megan Figueroa & the Politics of Expletives
You may have see promos for Nicholas Cage's new show on Netflix all about swear words. Well, we had the idea first. While Darach was slaving over Christmas dinner, Peadar and Gearóidín sat down with Dr. Megan Figueroa from the Vocal Fries Podcast to discuss the history, politics and even the gendered nature of dirty words.
Be warned this podcast contains wall-to-wall f*ks, b*ds, b**ks and more. No
The Angels' Share (Teaser)
As we take a break for Christmas and New Year, please enjoy this bonus clip from our recent Patreon discussion on all things Irish whiskey. For the full video and more visit https://www.patreon.com/darach
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
158: #158 | 2020 Hindsight: MoFo Seasonal End Of Year Review
And so this is Christmas, and what have you done? Not much if you've been in lockdown, lad! Go easy on yourself and remember that getting this far has been an achievement in itself.
This week Darach, Peadar and Gearóidín reflect on the year that was - highlights and lowlights online and offline. Will Wild Mountain Thyme be mentioned? Will there be speculation about the true identity of the TG4
157: #157 | Focal Point : Ireland's Word of the Year 2020
As December staggers towards the manhole of time and we all wait for it to fall in, a lot of linguistically minded people around the world consider what the word of the year is. All the big dictionaries do. What word best describes these past twelve months? What words have people been using most frequently? And what new words have been added in this time?
At Motherfoclóir we're not so different
156: #156 | Passing Irish: Performed Identity Through Language
Multinational companies like to appear somewhat local in each of the countries they are present in. This can take many forms, especially in the advertising that the business uses to communicate with the wider community. What do these ads say about the parties in that relationship?
The sociologist Erving Goffman, in his influential research, wrote about how identity is deliberately performed, es
155: #155 | Ochtó Bliain Ag Fás: Tomás Kenny & Kenny's Bookshop
Bookshops and their proprietors thrive on browsers, on customers asking for recommendations,on book launches and on all the little interactions which the pandemic has robbed us of.
So what's it like to run a bookshop in a pandemic?
As well as being a Galway institution for eighty years, Kenny's Bookshop is a family business for three generations and counting. Tomás Kenny is part of that th
154: #154 | A Great Bunch Of Lads? Info-tainment and the Great Man Theory of History
The Irish for chess is ficheall (wood wisdom).
A gambit is fiontar….
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, or so they say. But what do we learn when we learn history? How do we interpret the change in a country like Ireland between two given dates and what to we attribute that change to?
One of the prevailing theories is that the history of the world is ultimately t
153: #153 | Ghosts and Dark Flames: Doireann Ní Ghríofa
She's the woman of the moment: after a sequence of acclaimed and award-winning poetry collections in both Irish and English, Clare poet Doireann Ní Ghríofa has delivered a sensational non-fiction book, "A Ghost In The Throat", nominated in two categories in the Irish Book Awards.
In today's episode, Doireann joins Darach and Peadar to talk about her career. She chats about her first poems and the
152: #152 | Meet-Cutes and Cute Hoors - Ireland and the Hollywood Rom-Com
The romantic comedy, as we understand it, is a Hollywood form as specifically American as the Western, especially in how it shapes and exports America’s image of itself.
Although romantic comedies were the favoured form of some of Hollywood’s most acclaimed writer-directors (like Frank Capra and Billy Wilder) in the mid 20th century, the genre has often been seen as lower prestige than those gen
151: #151 | After The Silent Letters: Louise O’Neill
Louise O’Neill, Clonakilty’s literary superstar, has never been content to limit her phenomenal writing skills to a single genre. Her latest work, “After The Silence”, sees her apply her gift for world-building, Swiss-watch plot intricacy and clear-eyed empathy to the crime genre. Agatha Christie set her murder mysteries in spaces where a range of characters could neither get in or out, and O’Neil
150: #150 | Hallowe’en Special 2020 - Is Maith Sin, Pumpkin
It’s that time of the year again when Darach, Gearóidín and Peadar turn out the lights, hold torches under their chins and tell spooky stories from around Ireland.
Horror is, of course, often more about what you don’t see than what you do. What memories or untold dreads stir in your subconscious, woken by our tales of black rabbits, the League of Ireland, bishops in their libraries, supermarket
149: #149 | Dolphin De Siècle
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
Ithaca,
148: #148 | Inglorious Blaskets: Peig vs The Peig Myth
Peig Sayers (1873 - 1958) is one of the most remarkable figures in twentieth century Ireland. Her journey to publication is a story of beating the odds. An outsider from the Dublin literary scene by geography, language, gender, education and even literacy (she could write in English but not Irish), she gives a glimpse at the multitude of stories that never got told in a rapidly changing Ireland. I
147: #147 | (Almost) Nothing Rhymes with Month
Ever notice how Halloween is a month long nowadays? Darach and Peadar discuss the Irish names for months of the year and days of the week, as well as Halloween songs, whether we should rename January, working in a chocolate shop and the ancient Celtic festivals.
And the word is poioumenon. Trust us, you'll get it later.
If you're still reading this send me a voice memo
146: #146 | A Fine Bed-Mate: The Story of “Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire”
It’s not often that an eighteenth century poem finds itself in the news, but thanks to the rave reviews and public demand for Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s “A Ghost In The Throat”, this is the situation we are now in. Ní Ghríofa’s work is a memoir in which she considers her relationship with the masterpiece “Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire” and tries to discover the story of its author, Eibhlín Dhubh Ní Chona
145: #145 | OMG is Dia Dhuit Religious?
Every human society has a tradition of bereavement and a tradition of language which, while technically bespoke to its particular needs, changes at a different speed to that society. So it goes with mourning as an immigrant or minority and so it goes with the condolences we pass on to the bereaved.
As America and the world mourns the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, a recurring debate returned - is
144: #144 | Three Whales and the Universe: Motherfoclóir Meets Manchán Magan
In this week’s episode, Peadar and Darach are visited by Manchán Magan, the creator of the Gaeilge Tamagotchi project, Gaeilge Amháin and author of “Thirty Two Words For Field”, his new book about the Irish language and the ecological and social wisdom contained in its precise vocabulary, wisdom that would be lost if the language is lost too.
Manchán tells the lads about his travels, his encoun
143: #143 | Emma De Souza and the Good Friday Agreement
Once upon a time there was a young woman from Derry called Emma who loved dogs, baking and movies. She didn’t think about politics very often. Then she met a Californian called Jake and fell in love. She had no idea that she was about to find herself in the middle of a half-decade-long legal battle which would open a can of worms at a time when Anglo-Irish relations were already being tested.
On
142: #142 | [untitled game episode] with Úna-Minh Kavanagh & Sarah Griffin
Earlier this year when AOC guest starred in a Donkey Kong Twitch stream in which she declared trans rights to be human rights (while batting off criticism from greying 90s pop culture warhorses like Aaron Sorkin and Graham Linehan), it felt for many that a generational Rubicon had been crossed.
Computer games. Físchluichí. They've come a long way since Darach was playing Pole Position on his At
141: #141 | I Know What You Did Last Hot Gael Summer
It's summer again. You know what that means.
In this episode, Darach, Peadar and Gearóidín look at this year's hot takes about the Irish language
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Support Motherfocloir on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/darach
Get Kirsten Shiel art prints here: https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/kirstenshiel/
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Contact the show:
twitter - @motherfocloir and @theirishfor
email - motherfoclo
140: #140 | Forty Shades of Green Beer: Evolving Perceptions of Irish America with Thom Dunn
Darach chats with musician and writer Thom Dunn about how perceptions of Irish America have evolved rapidly in his and his father’s lifetimes, and what he hopes Irish America will be like when his newborn is old enough to understand it.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
139: #139 | Westmoreland Who? Reappraising Dublin Street Names
If you stood on Henry Street with a big smile and asked a hundred Dubliners who it was named after, it’s unlikely you’d get a single correct answer. If you walked into a history tutorial in one of the city’s finest universities and asked the students who Westmoreland was, you’d definitely get a few blank stares. And what’s the significance of Nassau Street - does Dublin have a Caribbean connection
138: #138 | UK OK Hun? With Medb Mac Daibhead
On the week that saw the world said goodbye to civil rights hero John Hume, today’s guest and topic feel especially apt. Maev McDaid is a Derry woman in London, completing a PhD on retired Irish people in that city, as well as being very active in Clapton Community FC.
On today’s podcast she talks to Darach and Peadar about the problems with “the UK” as a concept, and how the confusing term rais
137: #137 | Fadúda Fadilah - Proper and Improper Multilingualism with Fadilah Salawu
Eid al-Adha shona daoibh!
Why are some bilingual teenagers seen as a triumph of aspirational middle-class parenting, but others are treated as a problem to be solved? This is a matter that strikes to the heart of discussions around the Irish language as it forces us to think about what monolingualism and multilingualism really tell us about intelligence, culture and community.
In today’s episo
136: #136 | The Taylor & Clancy: yarn yarns
Taylor Swift broke the Irish Internet today when she wore a geansaí. It launched a thousand versions of the same joke - she looked a bit like one of the Clancy Brothers.
In today's BONUS episode we look at the history of the Aran sweater, what knitters know that the others don't, diddly-eye erasure and much more.
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Support Motherfocloir on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/darach
Get
135: #135 | Secrets of the Dandelion: the Scots-Gaelic Poetry of Niall O’Gallagher
Back in episode #74, Darach and Clodagh discussed Scots Gaelic in general and a book of transgressive verse called “An Leabhar Liath” in particular. One poem they shared - Bhruadair mi leat a-raoir - got a particularly huge response from listeners and the wider twitter community. Nearly eighteen months later, Motherfoclóir has finally managed to track down the poet who created it.
Niall O’Gallag
134: #134 | Quarantine Sessions 12: Sin É An Tae (with Laura Gaynor)
Tea. It’s a national obsession - just ask Irish emigrants to America about the first time they tred to get their hands on a kettle. While the infusion of tea leaves in hot water might unite the city dweller from her country cousin, the tiny differences in the way it’s prepared can speak volumes.
This week Darach chats to Sligo’s Laura Gaynor, formerly the tea critic with Raidió na Life. She tel
133: #133 | Quarantine Sessions 11: It’s ALIIIVE! Creating Vicipéid (with Gabriel Beecham)
Back in 2003, a schoolboy sitting at his home computer was messing around on the internet and, without fully realising it, opened a window for the Irish language. That window was Vicipéid, and seventeen years later it is still letting light and air in. But who was that boy and what did Gaeilge and Ireland mean to him?
Well, that boy was Gabriel Beecham and he is the guest on today’s show. He cha
132: #132 | Quarantine Sessions 10: Dustin’s Fifth Decade
It’s been another normal and sane week on the internet. It feels like only yesterday that we were chuckling about the Kardashians asking what the Debs was and Gucci were producing rip-off GAA shorts. Well, last Friday a bit of distinctly Irish culture yet again crossed over into the mainstream when talented midlands hunk Niall Horan was savagely roasted by a puppet of a turkey.
For Irish people,
131: #131 | Quarantine Sessions 9: Bród 2020 with Eve Belle
One of the participants in “Women in Harmony”, a charity single for Safe Ireland (which tackles domestic abuse) is Eve Belle, a singer songwriter from Donegal. While still in college, she signed with the influential Rubyworks label - the very same people who discovered Hozier and Rodrigo Y Gabriela.
In today’s episode she tells Darach and Clodagh about the creative process, moving from the songwr
130: #130 | Quarantine Sessions 8: Plastic Fantastic! 2nd+ Generation Irish Identities in the UK with Niamh Lear
Most of us have a very clear idea of what an Irish American is and have an overview of the community's journey from the Famine to the White House. The Irish community in Britain is a different and far more complicated story, however. And since 2016, it has become even more complex.
In this week's episode, Darach is joined by Niamh Lear, a PhD candidate at the University of Newcastle. Niamh tell
129: #129 | Quarantine Sessions 7: Úna vs. The Kingdom of Belgium
Meet John Hyland, an Irish NGO worker whose career took him to Brussels where he fell in love with a French woman. A perfect European love story which led, as these things do, to a perfect European family. But what happens when this most European child, born in one of the world’s most proudly multilingual cities, has a name with a fada?
In today’s episode, John tells Darach about his journey to
128: #128 | Quarantine Sessions 6: Ollscoil nó Ól-scoil? The Irish Campus Novel
This week saw the final episode of Normal People, the hit TV show based on Sally Rooney’s novel set in Trinity College. Rooney’s book is just the latest in Ireland’s long tradition of novels set primarily on university campuses, and in today’s episode, Darach chats with Éimear and Peadar about some of the other ones. Were all the great UCD novels written before the construction of the Belfield cam
127: #127 | Quarantine Sessions 5: Manic Culchie Meme Girl
Friend of the pod Póilín Ní Géidigh (@poilination) is back on the show! Since she last joined us (in one of 2019’s most popular episodes of the show) she has taken up quill with the wonderful Irish language website, nos.ie. In addition to her Tuesday lunchtime painting sessions, Póilín is the site’s social media critic, casting her gimlet eye on the mysterious otherworld of online Ireland.
In t
126: #126 | Quarantine Sessions 4: At Swim Two Tongues
The Irish for bilingual is dátheangach, which literally means two tongued. When Clodagh McGinley isn’t contributing to this podcast, sneaking off to be a guest on other podcasts (hello, “I Love This Band”) or curating her photography on instagram, she’s producing her bilingual zín
In the social media age where so much creativity is chopped into chunks of content designed to go viral, zines are p
125: #125 | Quarantine Sessions 3: Amhrán na Fíon (with Shamim De Brún)
Ireland’s relationship with wine is unusual - we drink a lot of it but we do not produce it ourselves, and historically we fall between the stools of Europe and the post-colonial “New World” which divide the wine business. These factors allow us to be completely neutral in deciding which ones we like. So what do we like? And what do we talk about when we talk about wine?
Conversations about wine
124: #124 | Quarantine Sessions 2: London Calling (with Ciara McShane)
In the past decade, certain subcultures have been identified in social media. Fiat 500 Twitter, FBPE and Scottish Twitter have all been documented to some degree as having their own implied sets of rules, values and norms which are distinct from whatever mainsteam or “normal” is. And then there’s Irish Twitter.
Whatever about Ireland itself and wherever you consider its borders to be, Irish Twi
123: #123 | Quarantine Sessions 1: Tír na nÓg
We had some very fine plans for Season 3, but, like the best laid schemes of mice and men, they have “gang aft agley” (been ruined) by external events. We have been fortunate that the team is all doing well and we send our best wishes to our listeners around the world and their loved ones at this time.
In this week’s episode, Peadar and Darach consider how rapid change and displacement are repre
BONUS | Behind The Bestseller - Sam Blake Talks To Darach Ó Séaghdha
To keep you all going during these strange times, here is Motherfoclóir's own Darach Ó Séaghdha in conversation with Sam Blake on another HeadStuff Podcast, Behind the Bestseller.
Stay safe and well.
..
Non-fiction is a different beast to fiction, and in this episode Sam Blake chats to Darach Ó Séaghdha, the Irish writer, podcaster and Irish language activist. The author of Motherfoclóir: Disp
122: #122 | The Skellig List: Irish Storytelling from Mythology to TikTok with Róisín McNally
“Basic Structure of an Irish Fairytale:
Don’t do the thing
Does the thing
Death”
Do you understand what mythology is, and its role in the way all stories are told and heard? Do you understand what TikTok is and why teenagers are spending hours preparing nine-second one-person plays in their bedrooms? How could these two things possibly be linked? Fortunately today we have a guest who c
121: #121 | Book ‘em, Gráinne: 2020 at An Siopa Leabhar
It’s a new year and Gráinne Ní Mhuilneoir from An Siopa Leabhar is here to tell us all about the new and upcoming books as Gaeilge in 2020.
====Translations now available====
Asterix agus na Cluichí Oilimpeacha
Asterix i gCoill na Cinsealachta
Tintin: Ciste Castafiore
Tintin: Slat Ríoga Ottakar
Asarlaí Oscartha Oz (The Wizard of Oz)
Ar Luch agus ar Dhuine (Of Mice and Men)
Nioclás Beag (Le
120: #120 | Raft of the Medusa: The Pogues and London Irish Identities
In a way, a band like the Pogues had to form in London rather than on the island of Ireland itself, where they would’ve been primarily associated with their town or county rather than the entire Irish community, as they are. London’s anarchic punk scene in the late 70s and early 80s created an exciting opportunity for the Irish identity to express itself and Shane McGowan’s band ran with it, creat
119: #119 | Coinín Snámh: Síomha Ní Ruairc Is Keepin’ It Réalt
Talent. Does it actually exist, or is it just an invention that takes credit for the cruel mix of hard work and good luck (or good work and hard luck) which decides our fate? Maybe we can find out by watching a talent show. Or maybe we can ask Síomha Ní Ruairc, presenter of TG4’s An Ríl Deal and Réalta agus Gaolta. She tells Peadar and Darach about how Gaeilge opened doors for her on her route to
118: #118 | Thirty-Two Carat Gaeilge - Costing and Valuing a Language
Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it. That’s a quote attributed to the Roman senator Publius Syrus, who also said that a good reputation is more valuable than money.
We hear a lot on the radio and in the news about how much Irish costs. But what do costs mean outside the context of value? We know that a car or house might be insured for one amount, sell for different figure an
117: #117 | The Blue, Blue Grass of Home: Irish in Appalachia with Rebecca Wells
When we in Ireland think of Irish-America, our minds tend to rush towards rivers died green, New York cops and maybe even a Massachusetts political dynasty. But there’s a lot more to the story than that. In particular, the Appalachian region, crossing multiple states, has its own culture and identity distinct from its neighbours in the South and Midwest, of which Irish music and language have made
116: #116 | Don't F*** With Fairy Forts
Listen. Sure lookit.
Na Daoine Uaisle. The fairy folk..
We wouldn't want to be bothering them.
In this week's episode, Gearóidín, Peadar and Darach tiptoe around the delicate business of addressing the folk of the otherworld. What do those beautiful weirdos want? Síofras? Sex? Gold?
We also consider which Irish people might actually be from the faerie/sí community.
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