Motherfoclóir
by HeadStuff Podcasts
Dispatches from a not so dead language. Hosted by Darach O'Séaghdha and The Irish For… @theirishfor (https://twitter.com/Motherfocloir) Follow the show on twitter @motherfocloir or email us at [email protected]
Episodes
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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...
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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,...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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 --- 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...
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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…
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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/
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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…
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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…
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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...
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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...
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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)....
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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…
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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…
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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...
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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...
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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…
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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...
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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...
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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
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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....
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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,...
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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...
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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…
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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...
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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...
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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…
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Topics in this show
About this show
Dispatches from a not so dead language. Hosted by Darach O'Séaghdha and The Irish For… @theirishfor (https://twitter.com/Motherfocloir) Follow the show on twitter @motherfocloir or email us at [email protected]
Hosted by
HeadStuff Podcasts