Letter to the Editor: ‘Toy Show’ let down by lack of Irish language
Many in the Irish language and Gaeltacht community, including my own family, and others with an interest in the language were left disappointed by The Late Late Toy Show last Friday as the show didn’t represent them.
The RTÉ website refers to The Late Late Toy Show with this line: ‘What we’re saying is, the Toy Show is the perfect show for just about everyone’. It’s shameful that the ‘everyone’ RTÉ reference here leaves out children being brought up through Irish, who attend a gaelscoil or who are interested in the country’s first official language, and who, quite reasonably, would expect the language be included in the television show that has highest number of viewers per year.
Ryan Tubridy does not have to speak Irish to have an item through Irish on the show. RTÉ has a choice of many talented presenters who could present an item through Irish as part of the show with no extra cost.
I would love RTÉ to respond to a question I received from my five-year-old daughter, Sibéal, while watching the biggest children’s show of the year; she asked me why there was no Gaeilge, her native tongue, on the show? Should I have told her that her native tongue is not good enough to be used in the biggest show of the year on television?
Should I have told her that it would be stupid to think that RTÉ would ever include her native tongue satisfactorily and as a priority on the show? Should I have told her that The Late Late Toy Show wants to cater for the ‘widest range of children’ and that children with Irish are not included in their definition of the ‘widest range’?
RTÉ changed The Late Late Toy Show this year and it was good to see a co-broadcast on RTÉ News Now with sign language. But what change did they make to Irish language content in the same year? They removed even the tokenistic small amount of Irish used in previous years.
Looking to next year, could RTÉ not commit to include a satisfactory amount of Irish on The Late Late Toy Show in 2020 to cater not only for children being brought up through Irish, but also for other children attending gaelscoils and other children with an interest in the language.
RTÉ has an incredible opportunity to help normalise the Irish language in this country and it makes perfect sense that a satisfactory amount of Irish be included in The Late Late Toy Show, a show that has a huge impact on the children of the country, as a crucial step in this regard and as part of their public broadcasting remit.
