THE three women behind Ireland’s number one bilingual podcast are bringing the Irish language to live audiences around the world this spring as they embark on their first international tour.
How to Gael was created by Síomha Ní Ruairc, Louise Cantillon, and Doireann Ní Ghlacáin in October 2023 and has been growing in plays and popularity ever since.
With each episode beginning with a ‘How to…’ prompt, like How to be a feminist, How to be a pagan queen and How to make a love potion, the show at its core is simply a funny, relatable and irreverent chat between friends that just happens to also be bilingual.
The ladies, who all hail from Irish speaking families, flit between speaking Irish and English while discussing anything and everything from dealing with online criticisms and work-related anxieties to how to rock a croc and the joys of being a bride-chilla.
“Myself, Louise and Doireann all known each other because we were all broadcasters with TG4,” explains Síomha who also presents Virgin Media’s Ireland AM and has previously hosted the likes of Grá ar an Trá (RTÉ‘s equivalent to Love Island) and An Ríl Deal (TG4’s Irish-dancing competition).
“So, we’d crossed paths and we were all around the same age, got on like a house on fire and we all found ourselves living in Dublin.
“So we said we’d go out for a night on the tiles and How to Gael was born over a pile of margaritas that night,”she laughs.
“We did that really millennial thing of going ‘do you know what? This conversation would sound great if we had microphones in front of us’.
“But our relationship has always been very bilingual, so we said we’d just put it out there and see if people had any interest and they did.”
The Irish language is currently experiencing a revival with a growing interest in learning and speaking it fuelled by factors like increased government support, cultural pride and, of course, the likes of Cillian Murphy and more recently Belfast rap trio Kneecap bringing it into the mainstream media.
Síomha says she is “loving the fact the language is having such a moment of visibility.”
“Our language was so ‘othered’ for so many years through no fault of our own so to now to see it being normalised and see more people create content or art or music or film through our native tongue is amazing.
“I really commend anyone who’s increasing the visibility of the language because we really just need to normalise her, so people feel more comfortable speaking, hearing and/or using her.
“That is one of our aims with the podcast,” she adds.
“We want it to be a welcoming space where people can get more acquainted with Gaeilge.
“You’re not going to be fluent after listening - we’re not teachers, we’re not going through grammatical rules or anything like that - but if we can make people more comfortable and encourage them to embark on a new relationship with it than that’s a great achievement.”
However, Síomha believes one of the biggest reasons the podcast has attracted such a large and diverse audience is because of the subjects being discussed.
“One of things about How to Gael is we try to talk about Irish interests and social issues but then also just the every day stuff that you would talk to your pals about.
“I think anyone in their 20s and 30s will relate to conversations about problems with your friends, sexual issues, the stress of cleaning your house – things that just come up in your every day life and I think that is what appeals to most people.”
It’s topics like these that Doireann, Louise and Síomha will be discussing when they take their show on the road in February.
They will be bringing their culture and craic to venues all over Ireland as well as across the pond stopping in Boston, New York and Vancouver.
“When we started, we knew that there would some kind of appetite for it because there was a gap in that market but to heading over to a sold-out New York gig is crazy,” Síomha enthuses.
“It wasn’t on my bingo card but what I will say is that it was on the girls’ manifestation board because Doireann and Louise are big on manifestation.
“Last January they literally sat down and said ‘imagination we got to do a show in New York City with How to Gael’, so for that to have actually materialised…I don’t think I fully believed in magic before but now I’m kind of starting to.”
Síomha says the live show will be a celebration of banaíocht (girls supporting girls) and bothántaíocht (that very Irish tradition of having a cuppa and a yap in your home).
“It’s a brand-new show, we’ve written something really different but we’ve also made sure to inject some our own interests and personalities into it.
“We’re going to cover everything from mythology to reality TV which I think that is a fairly broad spectrum.
“There will also be guests from the areas that we’re visiting and it will really just embody everything that How to Gael is about.
“It’s going to have the same sort of buzz as Christmas Eve because it’s just going to be a party throughout.”
