One of the big problems I experienced raising my kids ‘as Gailege’ in New Zealand back in the early 2000s, was trying to get decent reading material to teach them with. Back then, there was relatively few ‘modern’ books for children (particularly in somewhere as isolated as New Zealand) and the cost of ordering them from the likes of ‘Siopa Leabhar’ and other outlets (who insisted on charging VAT even for overseas sales) was prohibitively expensive.
Fortunately, I was able to return to Ireland on a relatively regular basis and, on each occasion, I’d scour the shops for suitable books in Irish. One series of books which my kids absolutely loved was the ‘Cití Cailleach’ series (the Cití the Witch series) translated to Irish from the original ‘Winnie the Witch’ written by Valerie Thomas and illustrated by Korky Paul.
Yesterday, my daughter (now grown up) discovered a batch of the books we’d kept and was desperately looking for the Cití Cailleach series. Sadly, I’d passed them onto other Irish parents who were trying to raise their kids ‘as Gaeilge’.
As I was looking online however, I found this excellent video resource at Glór na nGael where one of the book is very ably read by Donach. I wish I’d had this kind of resource all those years ago!
You can find the you tube video HERE