{"id":379764,"date":"2026-04-03T10:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T10:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/379764\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T10:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T10:01:09","slug":"irish-language-bluey-actor-had-never-heard-of-hit-show-before-its-turn-as-gaeilge-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/379764\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish-language Bluey actor had never heard of hit show before its turn as Gaeilge \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Actor P\u00f3l \u00d3 Gr\u00edofa, who voices the character Bandit in RT\u00c9<\/a>\u2019s Irish-language version of the hit children\u2019s television show Bluey<\/a>, has said he had never heard of the Australian<\/a> cartoon until his audition.<\/p>\n

The popular series follows Bluey, a \u201cblue heeler\u201d dog, with her mum, dad and little sister Bingo.<\/p>\n

From Monday, 26 episodes from series one will be available to stream as Gaeilge on RT\u00c9 KIDSjr and RT\u00c9 Player, with more episodes to follow.<\/p>\n

Since its debut in Australia in 2018, Bluey has become one of the most-watched animated TV series globally.<\/p>\n

\u00d3 Gr\u00edofa said he only found out just how popular the show was while recording and he could see why. \u201cThere were times when we were in stitches ourselves,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The series has been voiced by actors Gr\u00e1inne Bleasdale as Bluey, Laoise N\u00ed Nuall\u00e1in as little sister Bingo, Meadhbh N\u00ed Eidhin as Mam, Chilli and \u00d3 Gr\u00edofa as the dad, Bandit.<\/p>\n

The Connemara actor described the series as \u201cvery witty\u201d, adding, \u201cbut then again, that\u2019s the Australians for you\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very exciting to be part of something … that has an impact. It\u2019s great for the Irish language, because [children] learn more when you have these top cartoons that are very famous across the world,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\"PólP\u00f3l \u00d3 Gr\u00edofa who voices Bandit in Bluey <\/p>\n

\u201cFor RT\u00c9 to do this, I think it\u2019s very good for the Irish language\u201d as it gives it \u201ca boost, especially when there\u2019s kids involved, learning at an early age like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bafta- and multi-Emmy award-winning phenomenon airs in more than 140 countries and is the number one most streamed show in the US for both 2024 and 2025. <\/p>\n

It was the number one kids show on RT\u00c9 Player last year and continues to be in 2026. In the UK, it is the top kids\u2019 show on both CBeebies and Disney.<\/p>\n

\"AA poster for Bluey As Gaeilge. Photograph: RT\u00c9 <\/p>\n

Ros na R\u00fan actor \u00d3 Gr\u00edofa said cartoons such as Bluey in Irish would have been great for his children to have watched when they were young.<\/p>\n

He gave the example of a scene from the cartoon where they find an injured parrot and take it to the vet who later tells them the bird has died.<\/p>\n

The makers \u201cdon\u2019t sugarcoat anything … it\u2019s more realistic in that way; you can relate to it more,\u201d \u00d3 Gr\u00edofa said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Surprise! Bluey has become the Taylor Swift of children\u2019s televisionOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Suzanne Kelly, RT\u00c9\u2019s head of children\u2019s and young people\u2019s content said: \u201cWe are so thrilled to be welcoming Bluey as Gaeilge to RT\u00c9 KIDSjr. Bluey has established itself as a firm family favourite across our service, and now we get to introduce Bluey, Bingo, Mum and Dad to a whole new audience.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Actor P\u00f3l \u00d3 Gr\u00edofa, who voices the character Bandit in RT\u00c9\u2019s Irish-language version of the hit children\u2019s television…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[986,1578,93,61,60,6085],"class_list":{"0":"post-379764","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-bbc","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-rte"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}