Focail up.
Well, the moment we’ve all been waiting for is nearly upon us. After months and months of anticipation, Ireland’s answer to Love Island, Grá ar an Trá, officially hits our television screens this Monday.
Much like the popular ITV show, Grá ar an Trá provides the setting for 10 singletons to couple up, although it differs in the sense that this has to be done through the Irish language.
With equal amounts of flirting and learning Gaeilge, this is bound to be one of the wackiest tv shows to come out in a long time, and we are buzzing for it.
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Grá ar an Trá will be hosted by James Kavanagh and Bean an Tí Síomha Ní Ruairc, with Gráinne Seoige overseeing everything as the show’s Cinnire.
Ultimately the couple with the most focail will win a prize of €10,000 (and here we were complaining about the £50,000 being too little on Love Island) and be crowned the Rí agus Banríon of the Trá (clearly my own Gaeilge is nowhere near up to scratch with how it would need to be for this show – let’s hope our contestants did better in their Irish Leaving Cert oral than I did).
The catch? Only one in each couple is fluent in Irish, and is tasked with teaching the English speaker as much of the language as possible. Couples who aren’t excelling in this area may not be get a letter sent home to their parents as was the case when attending the Gaeltacht as a teenager, but they will be sent home (not quite dumped from the island, but you get the idea).
We’ll definitely be watching – will you?
Grá ar an Trá officially airs on September 25 on Virgin Media at 9pm.
Header images via Instagram / Grá ar an Trá
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