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Dublin: 13 °C Monday 20 May, 2013

Stephen Fry learns Irish for part in Ros na Rún

QI host to appear in Irish-language soap as part of programme on minority languages.

Image: Ian Nicholson/PA Wire/Press Association Images

THIS IS QUITE interesting… English actor, broadcaster and Twitter kingpin Stephen Fry is currently learning the cúpla focal for a special role in TG4′s Irish-language soap opera Ros na Rún.

The station confirmed to TheJournal.ie this morning that the QI host will shoot the scenes at the programme’s Spiddal-based set early next month.

Fry is currently shooting a new BBC TV series on minority languages – entitled Planet Word – and was invited to appear in the popular soap during a scheduled visit to Connemara.

Fry, of course, has a well-publicised interest in Irish literature, being a scholar on James Joyce and Oscar Wilde – and played the latter in a biopic. He also recently produced a book of Wilde’s short stories.

The Connacht Sentinel reports today that Fry plans on perfecting his west of Ireland dialect when he arrives in Galway in December.

It is believed that Mr Fry was completely taken with the idea of an Irish language soap and was thrilled when he was not only invited onto the set, located in Spiddal village, but to take a part as ‘a special extra’.

Scripwriters have written a small speaking part for the Englishman and from this week, Mr Fry will be learning his Irish script though he will be touching up on his accent when he actually gets to Galway.

The Norwich City board member will first play golf at the Connemara Islands GC in Eanach Mheain before a visit to Ros a’ Mhíl harbour and then on to the Ros na Rún set.

The show’s series producer Hugh Farley said work is underway in anticipation of Fry’s arrival.

There is huge excitement here on the Ros na Rún set regarding Stephen Fry’s cameo appearance for the show.

Our team of scriptwriters are currently writing Stephen a cúpla focal for his special role and we plan to film a highly-entertaining scene with Stephen and some of Ros na Rún’s best-loved characters.

Filming is slated for Monday, December 6 and possibly Tuesday, December 7.

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Comments (8 Comments)

  • So ‘The Fry’ becomes ‘The Full Irish’ :-)

    Reply
  • Delighted to see this. Mightn’t seem like much, but it’ll give a lot of heart to the people keeping the show on the road, year after year.

    There’s just one thing about your own house-style. I always feel a bit of a rat correcting people’s Irish but this is the second time you’ve made an error with the phrase “cúpla focal” – here and in the story last week about the minor final commentary.

    “Cúpla,” meaning “few” is always followed by a singular noun, just as all numbers are followed by singular nouns, rather than plurals. It’s a quirk of the language. So it’s “cúpla focal” rather than “cúpla focail,” “cúpla bó” rather than “cúpla ba,” “cúpla duine” rather than “cúpla daoine,” and so on.

    I know it’s horrible to point it out and I know people’s psyches go screaming back to their schooldays but one of the reasons why it’s so hard to learn Irish is because there are a lot of bad examples out there. Sorry. I’ll go away now. Good for Stephen Fry.

    Reply
  • Thanks Gavan and Adrian. I appreciate you going to the effort and I know that Irish grammar is tricky, to say the least.

    Myles na Gopaleen wrote an obituary in the ‘fifties for George Thompson, Thompson being one of the English scholars who did so much for Irish at the start of the last century. Thompson was a man who liked to get things right and the story – which may be apocryphal, we can’t be sure – went that he was at the funeral of An tAthair Peadar Ó Laoghaire, another big name in the movement, and Thompson started to cry as the coffin was being lowered into the crowd.

    “Don’t cry, don’t cry,” Thompson’s friends comforted him. “Peadar was a good man, he will get his just reward.”

    “It’s not that,” said Thompson. “I saw three elementary mistakes in the inscription on the breastplate.”

    Anyway. Good for Stephen Fry. On a rough day for the country, it’s nice to see some small spark of something positive.

    Reply
  • Thanks for that ASF, corrected now. Duly noted.

    Reply

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