TG4, in partnership with the Creative Ireland Programme of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, will celebrate Cruinniú na nÓg 2021 with a new creative series for children Cruthaím and a TikTok Drama for teenagers.
Cruinniú na nÓg will reflect youth creativity and innovation. Ruarc Ó Confhaola, a seven-year-old actor from Connemara, is one of three ambassadors for Cruinniú na nÓg.
Cruthaím will highlight the talent of young Irish speakers across the country and in Gaeltacht areas and their unique creative processes. One young Irish speaker from each county and a representative from the diaspora of Irish speakers will showcase their creativity in the series of videos being broadcast on Cúla4’s YouTube channel from June 2-12.
Young people will be given a voice and a unique opportunity to show what creativity is to them. For the first time, a TikTok drama will be produced in Irish as part of this year’s Cruinniú na nÓg. The drama will use the popular trend #Fairytale on TikTok to tell the love story of a debs fairytale or a classic teenage romance for the TikTok Age – featuring Gillian and Séamus.
The drama will be published on TikTok bloc_tg4 in segments from Saturday June 12. This fun, hyper and energetic drama has been developed by young people and mostly only features young people. It was created by writer and director Philip Doherty with input and collaboration with young people. Philip Doherty was director of the award-winning Samhlú 2020 which was broadcast on TG4 last December.
Tania Banotti, director of Creative Ireland said: “The Creative Ireland Programme is delighted to support TG4’s wonderful programme of Cruinniú na nÓg projects which celebrates and echoes the creativity of our young people throughout Ireland and beyond. TG4’s commitment to the voice of the child is so encouraging and nothing demonstrates this more fundamentally than their great Cruthaím project. Their TikTok romance is pure fun and is yet another demonstration of TG4’s unique approach to creative broadcasting and we are delighted to be part of it.”
Speaking about the new series TG4’s editor of Young People’s Content, Siobhan Ní Bhradaigh added: “We are delighted to support such an important event as ‘Cruinniú na nÓg’ 2021. The new series of ‘Cruthaím’, will provide a platform for a young representative from every County in Ireland as well as a representative from the diaspora to show and tell how they embrace creativity in their everyday lives.
“As young content creators and actors are constantly emerging, it is so important to provide a platform for their work and to provide content for them on the platforms that they are most engaged with. We hope that the new TikTok drama series will encourage young people to continue to create and to perform and to enjoy the process as much as possible.”
