Writing In Irish

Last week the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild / Cumann Drámadóirí na hÉireann organised a conference at the Galway Film Fleadh on Writing for the Screen in Irish.

The conference was mostly conducted as Gaeilge, with translation into English for visitors and those with a poor memory of the mother tongue. The Minister for the Gaeltacht, Éamon Ó Cuív, opened the meeting. It was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Ros na Rún screenwriter Greg Ó Braonáin, in which Mario Bolduc, a screenwriter from Quebec, and Roger Williams, a screenwriter from Wales, discussed their experiences of working through non-English languages for television.

After a tea break Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin, a writer and script editor on Aifric, chaired a lively, and sometimes heated, discussion on the experience of writers in Ireland trying to make a living writing for the screen in Irish. The panel members consisted of Emer NÍ Choisdealbha a senior screenwriter for Ros na Rún, Máire Ní Chonláin, the commissioning editor for TG4, and Máire Ní Thuathail, the executive producer of Ros na Rún and other programmes for TG4.