TV review: TG4 documentary explains decline of the legendary bean an tí
Eilís Ní Lochnáin on Iniúchadh TG4 – Mná Tí. Eilís is one of the declining numbers of mná tí still hosting students.
As a Gaeltacht-based bean an tí, Éilís Ní Lochnáin is an endangered species. At her home in Leitir Móir in the heart of Connemara, she hosts 12 students every summer, who attend local Irish colleges.
“I love it. Now don’t get me wrong. I do it for the money. But still you have great craic. You meet characters and you have a laugh with them,” Éilís tells TG4 reporter Kevin Magee.
Éilís features on Iniúchadh TG4 – Mná Tí, an hour-long documentary that explores the recent sharp drop in numbers of mná tí hosting Irish language students in the Gaeltacht, the impact of this and the reasons for the exodus.
The decline is certainly stark: the number of Gaeltacht-based host families has fallen by 30% since 2018. “It’s a crisis,” says Máirtín Ó Méalóid at Coláiste Pobail Chléire on Cape Clear Island. This Cork Gaeltacht had seven mná tí 20 years ago – now there’s only one.
“Our biggest challenge is how we’re going to bring new host families into the system. I don't have the answer to that.”
Across Ireland’s Gaeltachts, the story’s the same – mná tí quitting. The impact has been swift: wait lists for accommodation, falling numbers of students attending Irish colleges and fall-off in numbers of Irish colleges offering residential summer courses.
So why are mná tí bowing out? In south-west Donegal, Gearóid Ó Deoráin from Coláiste Aoidh Mhic Bhricne explains: “Covid gave everyone a fright. Everybody’s outlook changed after. Some hosts had been keeping students for 40 years… people have a right to retire.”
Aisling Ní Churraighín – her mother is a former bean tí – points to women’s changing role in society. “Life has changed… [Now] both partners in the household have day jobs.”
And there’s the money question. What the bean tí earns per student she hosts is “a bit insulting”, says Ó Méalóid.
While the documentary considers a possible solution – dormitory-based accommodation in residential Gaeltacht colleges – it’s unambiguous in telling us we’re in danger of losing something irreplaceable. The bean tí is variously described as the “heart of the Irish college”, the “sector’s backbone”.
For generations, she has been a formidable figure in our collective national consciousness: capable, welcoming, a strong force – and the linchpin in a vital linguistic/cultural/economic web.
Bolstering the Gael Linn belief that “you learn Irish at school… you fall in love with [it] at the Gaeltacht”, Coláiste Lurgan manager Mícheál Ó Foighil pays tribute to the mná tí: “I think [they’re] far more effective than most of the country’s Irish teachers in winning people over to the language”.
The documentary is comprehensive and compelling, its core message clear: ‘You don’t know what you have until it’s gone’.
- Iniúchadh TG4 – Mná Tí is available worldwide on the TG4 Player
