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Imelda connects with Irish language through music in new show

- BY LARISSA NOLAN

SINGER Imelda May challenges her relationship with the Irish language in a very personal new documentary series for RTE.

The blues queen from Dublin's Liberties makes a longed-for connection with our national language through sean-nos singing in the new six-part series that starts this Friday.

Entitled Imelda May: Amhrain na nGael, she travels across Ireland's gaeltacht areas, meeting musicians like Liam O Maonlai along the way.

She said: "Making this series was such a personal journey. I travelled the length of Ireland's precious Gaeltacht areas in search of a way back into our beloved mother tongue, after it was forced and kept out of many of us.

"I discovered that song seems to be a magical key to unlocking the path forward and I was met with such kindness, wisdom and warmth along the way by some of Ireland's finest singers, poets and scholars.

"I hope I reflected on the often unspoken and sometimes complex relationship many of us have with our language.