THE IRISH FOR ‘Traitor’ is ‘fealltóir “or ‘tréatúir’.

Participants and fans of Na Fealltóirí/The Traitors (RTÉ 1) will obviously need to brush up on their ‘cúpla focail’ as the language played such a central role in the second episode of the series that aired last night – and has many of us under its spell.

The task given by the show’s presenter, Siobhán McSweeney, an actress with strong ties to Cúil Aodha in Cork’s Múscraí Gaeltacht and who gained fame for her role as Sister Michael in Derry Girls, to the participants was that they would have to go on a treasure hunt through the woods near Slane Castle, the headquarters of the game, and find a number of wooden discs with symbols on them.

In the middle of the forest then were some wooden towers with ancient Ogham script. If the contestants matched the discs with the correct symbols, €5,000 would be added to the eventual prize fund.

Among those taking part in the game is Niall, a primary school teacher from County Tyrone. And it was he and Diane, a radio broadcaster originally from the Aran Islands, who helped their fellow contestants find the correct answers within the 30-minute deadline. 

Niall had this to say during the programme on Monday night:

Suddenly I was the most likely person to survive death because I spoke Irish. Imagine if I could say that, that I was protected from death because I spoke Irish.

Don’t forget about Nina either. She was wearing a sweater with ‘Cúla Búla’ written on it – an old saying associated with people from Dublin who attended summer colleges in the Gaeltacht some years ago.

But Diane, although she spoke Irish, her fluency in the first official language was no protection for her.

In an interview with media, including The Journal, after her banishment, Diane said it was “great” that Irish was incorporated into the show and that multiple dialects were heard. She said the players had different levels of Irish ability but that everyone used at least the “cúpla focail” that they had.

Siobhán herself has been using Irish from time to time during the programme. On the first night she advised the participants to ‘bí curamach’ as they tried to bring the barrels back to the Castle.

And in the second episode she was asking the participants to ‘brostaigí, brostaigí/hurry hurry’, highlighting perhaps the teaching background of her relatives.

Mairéad Whelan, Director of Content at Kite and Series Producer of The Traitors Ireland said that they wanted to lean in to ‘Irishness’ in all its forms and make the Irish version of something as Irish as possible when adapting international formats.

Part of how we do this is by casting a diverse group of Irish people from all over the country and all walks of life. We also like to have themes that make the most of our history, heritage and humour!

“With the mission, any of the players who had a cúpla focal could give it a lash. But the gaeilgeoirs took charge and it paid off,” she said.

When asked if the production had been concerned that the Irish speakers would be voted off the programme,  she had this to say: “The truth is the producers had to get used to having absolutely no control over what happens next at any point in the game!”

We will be watching go cúramach for more Irish on ‘The Traitors’ in the upcoming episodes.

The Journal’s Gaeltacht initiative is supported by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme