Giving Gaeilge a voice

Ros na Rún actress Máire Eilís Ní Fhlaithearta muses how her character Caitriona Ní Loideáin would react if faced with the current pandemic.

“I’d say she would either be high drama, not go outside the door, definitely not touch anything and probably wear the mask, the gloves and everything.

“Or, she could be a little bit ignorant, and diss some of it and say, ‘Oh what harm’. I don’t know what the writers would make her do.”

Máire Éilís has played Caitríona since the soap first began in 1996. She is one of five actors working on the show since the very beginning. Ros na Rún, on TG4, is Ireland’s only rural soap opera and is filmed in Spiddal in the Connemara Gaeltacht.

Máire Éilís grew up in Spiddal and now lives right beside the show’s set. In fact, she literally hops the wall to work.

Naturally, over the years Caitríona has been involved in lots of different storylines. She has been married, had a child and also had several affairs.

At present, she is grappling with an online shopping addiction. But Máire Éilís has grown quite fond of her.

“I absolutely love her. You love her and you hate her,” she says.

“I mean sometimes, some of the stuff, I’m like, oh my God, I can’t believe she would do this. And then I kind of go, absolutely she would do it.

“You do distance yourself from her. I’m here long enough to know that there’s a difference between me and her.

“Sometimes I still get a surprise when some people can’t see the difference between the two.

“It can be funny, but other times it can be a little bit like, ‘Really, do you think I’m that bad?’ I do love playing her. I think she’s quite a challenging character.”

Fashionable ladies

Although Máire Éilís and Caitríona are clearly very different, the one thing they have in common is that they are both very stylish, even though the actress says she and her character have different tastes.

“I think I like the idea that she’s glamorous. Sometimes it’s hard work, it takes longer to do.

“The girls in hair and makeup are amazing, but sometimes like that, when you’re doing curls and all the rest, it takes a little bit longer than to throw the hair up in a ponytail and walk out the door.

“Myself now on the other hand, I come up to work in my workout gear or a tracksuit. Sometimes I threaten to come up in pyjamas,” laughs Máire Éilís, “because I am only coming up over the wall.”

Ros na Rún runs for 41 weeks of the year, but is filmed in a six month block from August to February.

I did it for five years and as they say, you have to give any business 100%

For some time, Máire Éilís made good use of this, as she owned a boutique locally too. She loved running her own fashion business, but having kids and a hectic schedule with Ros na Rún, meant something had to give.

“I got out at the right time, before the last downturn. I did it for five years and as they say, you have to give any business 100%,” she explains.

“I still wanted to be in Ros na Rún and still wanted to have time for my children. I had two (of three) babies at the time.

“So something had to give. Personally, that’s the way I felt. Some people can do it all, but that’s the way I was.

“It was an opportunity I had. I took it. I did it and I finished up on good terms. And never say never that I wouldn’t do it again.”

New horizons

Growing up in Spiddal, Máire Éilís never considered pursuing acting as a career. She contemplated being a teacher and an airhostess, but never an actress. She did a degree in hotel and catering, before going on to complete a postgrad in communications.

Around this time, new television networks were starting up, including TG4. Having been involved in amateur drama, Máire Éilís went for the Ros na Rún casting.

“I said I’d try it out. I always loved acting. I had been involved in drama societies, but nothing professional, nothing paid.

“I loved everything about acting really. Like that, when I got the part, I didn’t know if it would last a week, two weeks or a year. I had no idea. I’m still here, so it’s good.

“To say I would be working next door, in my locality, through Irish, absolutely never dawned on me, and I have been doing it for 20 odd years. It’s wonderful.”

Máire Éilís is a native Irish speaker. Growing up, her family spoke Irish at home and she attended gaelscoileanna. Now the tables have turned and she’s the one speaking Irish with her three daughters, as they attend the same schools she did.

When she was younger, although they had Raidió na Gaeltachta, there was no Irish language television station or series akin to the English programmes she watched.

Máire Éilís can clearly remember rushing to get her homework done so she could watch Home and Away. To think now there is something similar in the Irish language is surreal, she says.

Gaeilge going forward

Overall, the actress feels both Ros na Rún and TG4 have had a very positive influence on the Irish language.

In Connemara, it’s quite normal to hear very conversational Irish, i.e, English words with Irish grammar rules applied. For example, mo bhicycle would regularly be used in the place of the word rothar.

“Sometimes you would get stuck for a word and it would never stop us from throwing something in.

“My youngest daughter was cooking yesterday, she was doing it all in Irish and she said, ‘crackáil mé an ubh’. She couldn’t think of scoilteann ubh. That’s totally normal to us, obviously it’s not correct, but it’s totally normal to us.”

Interested in her take on promoting gaeilge, Irish Country Living asks Máire Éilís if relaxing the grammatical rules a bit is the way to go.

“Obviously saibhreas teanga, the richness of the language as we would say, is lovely.

“Even myself, when I hear people speaking on the radio, it’s lovely, it’s beautiful and you envy it. You go, ‘I’d love to have that’. Then you’re thinking, unless we find a way to keep it going, how do we manage?

“Do I find fault with people throwing in English words? Absolutely not, if they are making an effort. You might say it wrong, but it’s not the end of the world.

“At the same time, it’s nice if you can learn it properly, or if someone corrects you, to take it on board.

“If somebody corrects me and says, ‘What did you say there?’ and they say, ‘Is it not this?’ If I don’t know, obviously I would be delighted if someone would correct me.”

Máire Éilís never envisioned she would be able to work through Irish in Spiddal, but now she is right next door to her house.

Ros na Rún has not only created opportunities for this Galway girl, but also allowed Gaeltacht communities and Irish speakers all over the country to see their language and culture represented on screen.

Ros na Rún on TG4 is currently showing season 24, which finished filming in February. At present, they’re looking for new Irish speaking talent for season 25, which is due to start broadcasting this autumn. To be in with a chance to audition, forward your self-tapes to leiriuchain@rosnarun.com before 29 May.

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