New Irish language Children’s TV channel launched

The first ever dedicated Irish language children’s channel has been launched, demonstrating the importance of the Irish language for young people.

Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin officially launched the new TV channel, Cúla4, yesterday, September 8.

Minister Martin believes that the new service will, “embed and normalise the daily use of Irish for the next generation.” 

Cúla4 will air for 14 hours daily, from 6am until 8pm each day and will be available on Saorview, Eir, Virgin Media and Sky.

Cúla4 will also be supported online via the player, which is available at cula4.com and also the Cúla4 App.

The new channel, aimed at 0–12-year-olds will provide an entertaining and fun daily point of contact to the Irish language for children.

Cúla4 will include a wealth of entertainment, drama, a children’s news service, a mix of home-produced content and acquired shows as well being a valuable source of educational Irish language content.

Welcoming the new service, principal Adrian Breathnach of Cork’s Gaelscoil Pheig Sayers has said: “I think it is a fantastic idea. In our school, the kids love the TG4 cartoons, but we can only access it through the TG4 player at the moment. This new service will allow our students to have access to these Irish children programmes right through until 8pm.” 

In addition to this in-home viewing, the new Cúla4 channel will also provide support content in classrooms. To date, TG4 content has proven to be an important Irish language resource for primary schools nationwide.

“For the Irish language, it is so important to get them at a young age, so now this new service is a great benefit. We can even use it an added homework resource. I think it will be fantastic for us in a Gaelscoil, but also for any schools who want to promote Irish. It will be a great asset,” the Cork city principal told.

Karina Feirtéar, Channel Manager of Cúla4 added that, "it’s an historic day for TG4 and the Irish language. The new Cúla4 channel ensures that Irish language content is more accessible for our younger audiences, and will hopefully strengthen their engagement with it, as they are the future generation.”