BELFAST'S Irish language teams make the journey to the Atlantic coast this weekend to take part in the annual Gaeltacht football festival – and for the first time you can follow their matches live on Raidió Fáilte.
The Falls Road radio station will also be heading to Donegal to broadcast on all the action from Comórtas Peile na Gaeltachta in Cill Charthaigh.
The first match for Laochra Loch Lao’s men’s team will take place on Saturday and Raidió Fáilte will broadcast pitchside from 11.30am-2pm on the clash with Tuar Mhic Éadaigh from Mayo, with a throw-in at noon. That match takes place at Art an Rátha.
The following day they will be broadcasting from Cill Charthaigh itself when Mná Laochra Loch Lao take on the winners of the match between CLG Chill Chartha and Na Gaeil Óga from Dublin. Throw-in is at 1.30pm and the live broadcast will run from 1-3.30pm.
If the teams win, the station will be following their subsequent matches.
Raidió Fáilte manager Cillian Breatnach said: “It wasn’t easy to get permission to broadcast at this event as it is a major one in the GAA calendar and Raidió na Gaeltachta and TG4 put huge resources into covering it all.”
The station will have four commentators working in Cill Charthaigh – Cillian himself, Jack Mac Íomhair from Derry, Ciarán Mag Uidhir from Fermanagh and Aodhán Ó Baoill from Derry.
The broadcast comes as the station got news this week that it was awarded a 10-year extension on its broadcasting licence. In September it will be celebrating 20 years of broadcasting under an Ofcom licence with a massive celebration at Belfast City Hall.
Cillian said: “This is a special time for Raidió Fáilte. We will be broadcasting live at a sports occasion for the first time ever and I’m looking forward to it more than most – my grandmother was born in Tamhnaigh Chill Charthaigh and I spent many years of my youth there, especially down at the playing field. Every summer we’d stay with an uncle just a few hundred feet from the club.
“I feel proud that I’m returning to the place of my grandmother, Isobel Uí Mhealláin (Née Erskine), who taught me my first Irish words, to broadcast live in Irish to our listenership.”
He said he had been worried at one point that the radio licence might be in danger as they had to be renewed every five years.
“We were in reality considering that it might come to a point that we had to broadcast without a licence after September 14 2026. But we petitioned the authorities that the licence should be extended for a considerable time after the present one runs out – and this week we got the news of the 10-year licence – until 14 September 2036 to be precise.
“This is recognition of the great work that the team here has done for the last five years and I’m extremely proud we were able to achieve it.”
You can hear the live broadcasts from Comórtas Peile na Gaeltachta on 107.1fm in Belfast or on raidiofailte.
