Oireachtas Festival Launches New Irish Language Series 'Seanchaí'

The opening of the Oireachtas festival in Derry on November 1 is the launch of the new Irish language drama series, 'Seanchaí' which begins transmission on BBC Northern Ireland the following week.
Thousands of gaeilgeoirí from all over the country will be flocking to Derry for the Oireachtas, being held in the city this year for the first time ever and, just prior to the official opening ceremony in the Guildhall, an invited audience will be able to get a preview of the series in the City Hotel.
Seanchaí is a series of six dramatised stories narrated in Irish but with bilingual dialogue. Produced by Westway Films for BBC Northern Ireland and mainly funded by the Irish Language Broadcast Fund, Seanchaí revives a format that was first pioneered on television more than ten years ago with the first series.
“The new series is a bit different from the original,” said producer and co-director Joe Mahon, “but retains a lot of the same characteristics. We wanted to update it, set it in contemporary Ireland, in real and recognisable locations with real and recognisable modern characters. I think we’ve achieved that in the stories, but I still have a hankering for the traditional and the rural so, in arriving at a compromise, we’ve also arrived at a kind of thematic link for the series. Even though the stories are all free-standing they each deal with a kind of conflict between the modern and the ancient, between rationality and superstition. Things still go bump in the night (or day) but they’re a bit harder to hear because of the noise of the traffic.”
Since Westway Films is a Derry-based company it’s hardly surprising that the city is used to considerable effect as a backdrop to most of the stories with familiar landmarks such as the Guildhall, St. Columb’s Hall, the Walls, the Playhouse, the River Foyle and Thornhill Centre all featuring prominently. The production has been ongoing for the past year and has provided an outlet for new emerging talent in the city and beyond. “We forged strong links with local establishments like the Performing Arts School at Magee and with the Theatre Studies course at the North West Institute,” said co-director Órlagh Bann, “and I’m quite sure audiences will be impressed by some of the young talent we’ve discovered. Look out especially for newcomer Rebecca Toland who has since gone on to the Guildhall School in London to pursue her career.”
Not all of the stories are set in the North West however. Co. Armagh gets a look in with 'Fomhar na nÚll' (The Apple Harvest) and in this episode the production company employed the services of a group of migrant workers from Poland who had come to Armagh to pick apples. Little did they realise they’d end up in an Irish language drama on television.
Other titles in the Seanchaí include 'Oiche Shamhna' (Halloween Night) which, of course, is set against the Halloween festivities for which Derry has become famous, 'Cloch na Mallacht' (The Cursing Stone) based on one of the various legends associated with Colmcille and “An Ceamara” (The Camera) which is shot almost entirely in the splendid surroundings of St. Columb’s Hall.
'Seanchaí' begins screening on BBC2 N. Ireland on Monday, November 6 at 10 pm.
(DS)