Darach Ó Séaghdha: Unifying experience of Irish childhood is slipping away

There has been a change not just in the amount of Irish programmes but in the nature of kids’ TV itself 

Ireland is a very different country now to the one where Dempsey’s Den and Bosco ruled the afternoons.

Some time ago on my Twitter account @theirishfor, I asked followers if they had a favourite Irish word. The responses included words that just sounded prettier than their English equivalent (púca, bláthanna) and words that had an amusing literal meaning (smugairle róin, staighre beo). But the most popular word, especially for millennials from the Republic of Ireland, was uafásach. How come? Apart from being so much fun to say, people associated it with their happy memory of Bosco. While the red-haired puppet’s show may not have had the resources or production values of BBC children’s shows from the same era it still connected with Irish children through its authenticity.

“Kids sound so American these days” is a remark I hear from many other parents at creche gates, at playgrounds and at birthday parties. And while it is very much the least of my worries, I can see what they mean — a twangy cadence here and there, a notion-riddled idiom (like trash for rubbish) there. Some parents have even complained about “Mom” being used instead of “Mam”, although arguably Mom is closer to the Irish pronunciation.