Last year I made a television series called No Béarla, in which I travelled around Ireland trying to speak only Irish. I didn't get on very well, especially in Dublin, where I was often abused and ignored. Outside the capital, people were more friendly, but they rarely understood what I was trying to say. What struck me most were the expressions I saw in people's eyes: shame, fear, anger, jealousy and yearning. I wanted to know what lay behind this complex cocktail of emotion...I'd hazard a guess that the abuse, ignorance, shame, fear, anger, jealousy and yearning (really?) were a direct result of Magan's patronising demeanour and confrontational attitude. I remember watching the first series and thinking that although I speak perfectly fluent Irish, there's no way I'd entertain that gobshite if he approached me in the street. It was all the more disappointing because I had seen him interviewed by Páidí Ó Lionáird on Árdán before the No Béarla series was first aired and he came across as engaging, funny and genuinely interested in promoting an intelligent debate about modern attitudes to the Irish language. Then I watched it and thought "oh well, ho-fucking-hum then". I'm sure series II will be a revelation.
(From today's Irish Times - The plot to make Irish an alien language by Manchán Magan)
I'll review Des Bishop's In The Name Of The Fada in about an hour (I was out at a real life Gaeilgeoir thingy when it was aired last week - well done to the clever schedulers in RTÉ who broadcast it while Des was live on stage at the big gig for Seachtain na Gaeilge). I've higher hopes for that one...
