What is the Irish for sex? Comedian Bláithín de Burca explores sexual repression in the Irish language in a new documentary

It’s often joked that there was no sex in Ireland before The Late Late Show, when in truth our society was far more connected to sexuality and fertility in the centuries before shame came to the fore. In a new documentary, comedian Bláithín de Burca explores how this conservatism affected the Irish language, particularly with regard to the female experience

The Irish for Sex

Saoirse Hanley

Have you ever wondered what the Irish word for clitoris is? Comedian Bláithín de Burca has an answer for you (brillín), as well as a whole host of other words that are often thought of as too dána to translate. “[Irish] is an ancient historical language and that’s beautiful. It’s connected to the land and the people, but, you know, the land and the people also like to rave and have sex and do all sorts of stuff that didn’t exist when the language came about,” she teases.

De Burca is well-placed to translate — as the host of RTÉ documentary The Irish for Sex, wherein she discovers just how many gaps there are in our grasp of the language. In speaking with her mother — who taught her Irish — De Burca hears how, growing up and spending time in the Gaeltacht, her mother had the word for testicles but no knowledge of how to discuss a period, or even the vagina, as Gaeilge.