As any Caoimhe, Siobhán or Medb living abroad will tell you, Gaeilge uses different spelling conventions to Béarla. Students who struggle with this might be interested to hear more about Manx, the Gaelic language of the Isle of Man, which uses English language phonetics.

Manx also has the distinction of being declared dead and interrupting its own funeral.

In this week's episode, Darach, Gearóidín and Clodagh chat with Katie Kermode, an Ohio native who started studying Manx and got hooked. She tells the gang about Manx today - its Gaelscoils, radio station and ceilís - and shares some favourite Manx words.

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Contact the show at https://twitter.com/motherfocloir or email us at [email protected].

Darach's new book, "Craic Baby: Dispatches From A Rising Language" is published by Head of Zeus and available in good bookshops now.

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Every summer, the Irish people sacrifice thousands of teenagers to Lú, the sun god, so that he will offer them good weather. This sacrifice is called "The Leaving".

There's more to Irish than the Leaving Cert and the points race; this is what we've been trying to show in the topics we cover on this podcast. However, it would be pig-headed of us not to mention the Leaving Cert course at all.

In this week's episode, Ola and Darach chat with Noirín Ní Mhurchú, who is currently shepherding students through the Leaving Cert course. They talk about sraith pics, the difference between school Irish and the way Irish is spoken socially, whether single-sex education affects the texts chosen, and how we learn more than Gaeilge when we learn Gaeilge.

If you're sitting the Leaving Cert in 2019, be sure to bookmark the following sites to your fón póca:

www.teanglann.ie (also available as an offline app)

www.focloir.ie (also available as an offline app)

www.tearma.ie

www.nos.ie

www.tuairisc.ie

www.raidionalife.ie

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**Gadhrach (adj): dog-living, full of dogs.**

Despite her massive popularity over here, Saoirse Ronan's hosting slot on Saturday Night Live earned her a slew of criticism. The very idea that Irish people were unusually keen on dogs, an assumption which one of the sketches was based on, was nonsense… wasn't it?

As the Irish language shows, there's always been an affinity for our canine cairde here- nine native breeds, a plethora of dog-based animal words and a seanfhocal or two to boot.

In this week's episode, Peadar and Gearóidín tell Darach all about the dogs in their lives and what motivates them. Is owning a dog harder than raising a child? Are we ready to reintroduce wolves to Ireland? And what are certain breeds called as Gaeilge?

Darach's new book "Craic Baby: Dispatches From A Rising Language" is available in bookshops now

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**"Is doiligh drochrud a mharú" - it's hard to kill a bad thing. (Irish proverb)**

It's Hallowe'en again and the time is right for a Motherfoclóir Samhain Special! Is Annual Sweetgiving Day a capitalist ploy or is it I inherently socialist? Is the pagan or Christian, American or Gaelic?

The spookiest time of the year is arguably more Irish than Saint Patrick's Day; it's certainly a recent arrival to our British neighbours, who were traditionally more invested in Guy Fawkes Day.

Darach and Peadar discuss the enduring popularity of vampire stories and consider the Irish origins- most famously Dracula but also the Derry legend that haunted Bram Stoker's imagination.

Please mind your pets on this hard fire-working night.

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**Diaspora: from the Greek word diaspeirein "to scatter about, disperse," from dia "about, across" + speirein "to scatter".**

The word "diaspora" was not used in the Irish context until Mary Robinson did so, powerfully sending a message about the global Irish community and the pain felt at both ends of the split of emigration. But 28 years later, is the term still apt?

In the final part of our Uachtarán Trilogy, Darach talks to Peadar and Gearóidín about how presidents have presented Ireland to the world. As well as Professor Robinson's iconic light in the window, they look at Douglas Hyde's careful neutrality, Hillery's moment as Germany's Doctor Dishy and McAleese's bridge building.

Inevitably this leads to a discussion of Saoirse Ronan's "Brooklyn", sentimental 80s ads and suitable judo wear.

The opinions of Peadar Ó Caomhanaigh are not the opinions of Headstuff, its shareholders, sponsors, staff, advertisers, past or future investors or associates.

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Few writers ever managed to achieve the triple crown of critical acclaim, popular success and sustained relevance that Brian Friel managed in his five-decade long career. In this week's episode, Darach, Peadar and Siún discuss his masterpiece "Translations", which tells its story of doomed love and dark politics against the backdrop of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland in 1830 - a critical moment in the colonial project when Irish placenames were carelessly and significantly rewritten.

What was the significance of this? How did it compare to other countries? And did "Love, Actually" borrow one of Friel's greatest scenes? The gang consider the text as well as the good, the bad and the ugly of Irish placenames in general.

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Contact the show at https://twitter.com/motherfocloir or email us at [email protected].

Motherfoclóir was invited to the Kildare Readers' Festival in Newbridge in October, and this episode is the recording of that show.

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On Wednesday 10th of October, Darach, Gearóidín, Peadar and Éimear swooped upon the Sugar Club on Lesson Street to discuss the importance of the Irish language to the role of president. Three presidents in particular are directly associated with watershed moments in the history of the language - Douglas Hyde, Éamon De Valera and Michael D. Higgins.

The gang discuss the implications of their support for an interest in Gaeilge, which inevitably includes a discussion of the 1996 movie Michael Collins, TG4 dating shows, the Gaelic Leinster monarchy, Roscommon and coddle.

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"Hamlet has been performed in Klingon" Aisling Carolan.

For a poet, the fact that the Irish word tír (country) and the English word tear (a sad drop of water) sound the same is profoundly significant. For a linguist, however, this is a coincidence and a cursed one at that.

How much weight should we attribute to similar sounding words with similar meanings in different languages?

In this week's episode, we consider the theory, popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, that Hebrew and Gaelic languages are linked… and that the source of this link is that the Gaels were a lost tribe of Israel. Some of this is down to soundalikes, but do grammatical parallels prove a deeper link? Darach and Clodagh are assisted in their work by crafty classicist/linguist/artist Aisling Carolan, who is determined to prove a link between Pokemon and Púca.

Today's episode is swear-free.

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It's Mailbag time again, when the Motherfoclóir team review correspondence that has been submitted to the show by email to [email protected]. In this week's visit to the postroom, Darach, Ola and Peadar read and discuss exciting epistles which deal with topics ranging from Greek and Latin, less vs fewer, the widow's memory, an aimsir ghnáthchaite agus an aimsir ghnáthláithreach, the differences between ye, yous, youse, yis and yisser… and the great coddle debate continues.

Happy birthday (or even breithlá sona) to Raidió Na Life, who are 25 this week! Ola and Peadar both present their own shows as Gaeilge on this fine station - find out more at http://www.raidionalife.ie/ga/

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Irish presidential elections are rare and brutal, but voters have chosen some truly remarkable and inspiring people for the role. Perhaps more than the role of Taoiseach, the presidency has reflected the hopes and values of Irish people and successive presidencies have marked distinct eras in the evolution of the Republic.

The Motherfoclóir Team are going to bring you a short series of episodes about the presidency in advance of this year's election - in today's episode, Gearóidín and Darach discuss what the job entails as per the Bunreacht and give an overview of its soft power. Naturally this leads to a discussion of Mary Poppins.

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