Imelda May has spoken about the “fear” and “shame” many people feel around the Irish language on Friday night’s Late Late Show, saying “it’s not your fault that you don’t speak Irish”.
The Liberties singer appeared on the RTÉ One chatshow where she told host Patrick Kielty about her new documentary series Imelda May: Amhráin na nGael.
The series follows the singer as she challenges her relationship with the Irish language through sean-nós singing.
Imelda May went on ‘personal journey’ in Irish language series
“It’s a long time coming,” May said of the six-part series, adding that the inspiration for the programme came while she was filming Lily & Lolly: The Forgotten Yeats Sisters, which explores the story and legacy of Susan (Lily) and Elizabeth (Lolly) Yeats, alongside Gaeilgeoir Maggie Breathnach.
“While we were travelling all around, we were talking about the [Irish] language,” May said. “She’d try to encourage me to speak, but I’d just seize up. I’d say, ‘Oh, I can’t, I can’t speak with you, you’re a Gaeilgeoir.'”
Imelda May say “a lot of people feel a little bit left behind” when it comes to the Irish language
“That’s really where the conversation began. We ended up saying we needed to do something about this, because the more I spoke to people, the more I realized that it wasn’t just me who feels like this – there’s a lot of us that feel like that.”
The singer, who performed a song as Gaeilge on the Late Late couch, continued: “There’s a lot of people like me who feel a little bit left behind and you don’t know how to start.
“You have Raidió na Gaeltachta, TG4 – I can’t keep up with them. I wanted to do this for me and for everyone else who feels the same, and put myself in that really awkward, embarrassed, mortified position that you’re 10 years old at school again.”
When Kielty said there is “a fear” around the Irish language, May agreed.
“There’s fear, the shame,” she said, adding that she was encouraged by sean-nós singer and ethnomusicologist Lillis O’Laoire while making the show.
“While I was talking to Lillis, I realized it’s not my fault, it’s not your fault that you don’t speak Irish. It’s not our fault – it was taken from us,” she said.
“I didn’t wake up and learn to speak Irish as a child, and it’s not my fault. And that’s what gave me the way forward through it.
“He said, ‘Get past your shame. It’s not because you didn’t pay attention in school. It’s deeper than that.'”
The Late Late Show, Friday nights at 9.35pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.