The key to the How To Gael podcast’s soaring success is driven by the “real pride” Irishness and the Irish language, Louise Cantillon has said.
The podcast began in 2023 as the brainchild of three young women, Doireann Ní Ghlacáin, Louise Cantillon and Síomha Ní Ruairc.
All three have a grá for Gaeilge and decided they wanted to do something to help others who did not have the same fluency as them, but still had a passion for the language.
“It was born from great friendship between the three of us,” Louise Cantillon explained on The Claire Byrne Show.
“Three girls in our early thirties, I suppose, fighting for similar jobs in media.
“We’d be coming up against each other for gigs, so we thought it would be mad altogether to do something le chéile and have a bit of craic with it and work together?”
However, while the podcast started out as a business, it has since become a true passion project for the trio.
It is also hugely successful and the podcast is due to perform a live show for fans in Paris – never a traditional heartland of the Irish language.
“Every time we put on a live show, we’re surprised at the diversity in the audience,” Doireann said.
“Anytime we meet our listeners, we’re very surprised at how diverse it is.
“I think everybody wants to engage with the Irish language, but the bother is that some people feel like they can’t engage if they haven’t got that level of Irish.
“Or they feel unsure about themselves.
“So we’re delighted to say we have we have idir óg agus aosta, that we have younger listeners, older listeners, men, women, everything in between.”
Not everyone who listens to How To Gael is fluent in Irish – that’s the reason why it’s bilingual, not entirely as Gaeilge.
And while the trio are themselves fluent, they acknowledge it is hard to learn a language.
“And I think people forget Irish is a subject that’s really hard and to be good at it, you have to sit down and learn it,” Louise said.
“You have to put time into it; it’s like learning any subject or becoming a runner.
“You have to start with the short runs and build it up bit by bit.
“You need to chip away and start immersing yourself, even if it’s a small bit through a bilingual podcast or if it’s maybe something more hardcore, like full on Raidió na Gaeltachta.”
But while Irish might be hard to learn, Louise added their listeners are motivated by a “real pride” in the language.
“People are so proud to be Irish and the language is such a massive part of Irishness and our culture,” she explained.
“I think that it gives you such pride in your identity when you can speak a language that is thousands of years old.
“And it almost opens all these doors to new experiences and new music, new ceol, different aspects of our culture and mythology.”
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