Thursday, December 19, 2024

Hector Ó hEochagáin: ‘How can you open the door and walk in and find your mother has died?’

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The podcaster and presenter on how grief is still a learning curve

Hector

I It feels as though the Irish language is undergoing something of a renaissance. Thanks to the acclaimed film An Cailín Ciúin, Northern Irish rappers Kneecap and Paul Mescal’s red carpet cúpla focal, the language has achieved a kind of retro cool.

Hector Ó hEochagáin never gave up on it. For years known as a “Marmite” media figure, his excitable on-screen persona and indefatigable devotion to “craic” were sneered at in some quarters. But through millions of TG4 travel programmes, Hector hung in there, and, then, during the pandemic, something lovely happened: people remembered why they liked him.

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