Fuel for our Irish souls in Leabhar Dathúcháin

Fuel for our Irish souls in innovative Leabhar Dathúcháin Rusty, Sky, Roxy, Coco, Milo, Beau, Shrek, Bailey, Roy, Bobby, Charlie, Bruno, Mossy, Benjy, Rua, Sandy, Tiny.

A roll call with a difference to start off this week’s column?! We could be said to be barking up the right tree?! You see all the above are the names of dogs who are belonging to members of the Carlow hurling team!

How do we know this? Well, it’s inside information courtesy of Louise Maher, Oifigeach Gaeilge of Naomh Eoin and the Myshall club’s Irish sub-committee who ahead of Carlow’s Joe McDonagh Cup final against Laois in Croke Park on Saturday June 6 have produced a totally unique colouring book that should prove a huge hit with the children of all ages.

But this is not just a colouring book, it is a fascinating insight into minds of the Carlow hurlers and all done in a beautiful bi-lingual manner. As Louise explained in the e-mail that accompanied her sneak preview of the book, “we have combined grá for our language agus grá for the Carlow Hurling team.

“This love led to an amazing Leabhar Dathúcháin (colouring book) as gaeilge (I may be a bit bias!). Every player from the panel is included in the book with 20 players asked to answer a few questions out of which we wrote a little profile on them as gaeilge, with English translation.

“From seeing my 6-year-old son’s interest in the profiles in the match day programmes, I thought that reading all the profiles and the repetition of words and phrases would help children engage with Irish in a fun way and who doesn’t love colouring in!

“All the players were so good and gave back great answers that are really encouraging for young players too. About team work and friendship, they are great role models and I am delighted to be able to have this book ready and available for the children of the county next week to celebrate the teams’ great success in getting to the final.

“We hope to have it available to every club whether it be dropping a box off to some clubs or leaving it into village shops to be picked up and enjoyed, maybe even get them autographed.

“The main aim of the book, which will cost just €2, is to promote our Irish language and to showcase our Carlow players. We see how much time and dedication our players show year in, year out, thar we want to give a little back.”

MÍLE BUÍOCHAS

The Míle Buíochas at the back of the book, penned by Naomh Eoin Chairman, Tom Dunne, name checks the people involved on the committee and no surprise to read that Tommy Murphy and Seán Keogh, two mighty Myshall gaels of long standing, are deeply involved and with Michaela Donohoe and Louise Maher have been pro-active in the promotion of our native tongue. A special thanks goes to Pat Ahern for use of his photographs. The book contains a head-and-shoulder colour photo of every player on the panel as well as an action shot of each player converted to a black and white art image for colouring in, an example of which you can see with the accompanying illustration of team captain Chris Nolan.

AN BHFUIL PEATA AGAT?

Among the questions was “An bhfuil peata agat? Cén t-aimn atá air? {Do you have a pet? What is it’s name?} A lot of the players answered “Tá madra agam,” and provided names for our opening roll call.

CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

When Tommy Murphy’s e-mail landed in my e-mail with the completed version of the colouring book I was transported back in time, back to my own childhood, maybe 1969, 1970 when my father cut a wonderful action shot of Jimmy Doyle of Tipperary out of a magazine and traced an outline of it on paper so as I could colour it in.

A few years later I cut out an art image from an advertisement of a hurler kneeling and coloured the body of his jersey yellow, the cuffs and collars red and his togs green by way of designing a new colourful Carlow outfit.

Now in 2026 Louise Maher and her team are providing young boys and girls with a perfect platform to express themselves with the clever inclusion of a competition page where the child is asked to ‘Scríobh do phróifíl féin anseo agus tarraing pictiúr díot féin ag imirt don chontae’ {write your own profile and draw a picture you playing for your club or county}.

PERTINENT PHRASES

Pertinent phrases are dotted throughout this amazing book, phrases in Irish with their English translation, the players favourite seanfhocals, among them the well known and oh so true ‘Mol an óige agus tiocfaidh siad’ {Praise the youth and they will flourish} and the equally true ‘Cleachtadh a dhéanann máistreacht’ {Practice makes perfect}.

We also learn ‘Ní neart go cur le Chéile’ {There is no strength without unity} and ‘Ní bhíonn bua gan dua’ {There is no victory without effort} but the deepest phrase of all is ‘Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam’ {A country without a language is a country without a soul}.

This innovative Leabhar Dathúcháin’ provides fuel for our Irish souls.