Intrepid duo translate Famous Five into Irish

By Bernie Ni Fhlatharta

A gap in the market in the range of Irish language books for pre-teens has led to two mothers translating some of the classic Famous Five series by Enid Blyton.

The Irish language books, An Cúigear Cróga, published by Cló Iar-Chonnacht, which were launched only two weeks ago have already been critically acclaimed — and probably more importantly are proving to be a hit with the youngsters.

Bosom buddies since childhood, Máirín Ní Ghadhra and Gormfhlaith Ní Thuairisg, who work together as broadcasters in RTE’s Raidió na Gaeltachta enjoyed translating the eight books and haven’t ruled out doing more of Enid Blyton’s book if asked to do so by the publisher.

Máirín, the mother of two girls aged 9 and 7, was fed up trying to find age-appropriate books for her daughters in Irish at the library.

One day she spoke to the librarian who suggested she translate them herself.

“And that’s exactly what I did. I knew Gormfhlaith had the same problem, so we spoke to the publishers who were very open to the idea. We split up the number of books and in just over a year we are happy to see them in the shops,” Máirín explains.

Both women say the job was enjoyable. Máirín hand-wrote the translation of four of the books before typing them. Neither woman conferred with one another or read each other’s drafts but both their translating styles are similar.

Gormfhlaith explains that while they work together at RnaG, they don’t usually have the time to chat and both live busy lives outside of work.

She has four children aged, 13, 11, 8 and 4, three boys and a girl, who’s the eldest.

“If there are Irish books available for Irish speaking children, they will read them, but they have to be suitable and age-appropriate. Children love plot-driven books and The Famous Five are a great example.

“I have read Irish version of The Hobbit with my children but when they wanted to read the follow up Lord of the Ring books, they weren’t (and still aren’t) available, so I started reading them, translating as I went along. I managed two chapters, maybe, and had to give up as it was too much of a challenge,” she said.

Both women agree that there are plenty of baby and pre-school books available in Irish, as well as young adult fiction but there’s very little in the 8- to 12-year-old market.

Their books are aimed at fluent Irish speakers aged 8-10 and are suitable for those up to the age of 12 who have less Irish.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.