Derry mum's journey to parenthood to feature in new Irish-language TV series

A new TG4 series, beginning on Wednesday, November 11, follows Donegal-born, Belfast-based presenter Caoimhe Ní Chathail as she explores love, motherhood, purpose and the pressure to have all the answers.

During her travels across four programmes, Caoimhe meets women from across Ireland, including Derry and Belfast, asking the question: what if we’re not supposed to have it all sorted by 30?

That’s at the heart of Spriocanna Saoil, a new four-part Irish-language documentary series produced by New Street Television, and supported by Northern Ireland Screen’s Irish Language Broadcast Fund.

At 32, Caoimhe Ní Chathail has started asking herself whether she should be thinking about having children.

Is there such a thing as meeting the right person at the right time?

Should she know what her purpose in life is by now?

And when it comes to looking after herself, is going to the gym really enough?

Over four episodes, Caoimhe takes these questions into the real world, meeting people whose lives have taken very different paths and exploring the expectations we place on ourselves, often without asking why.

Filmed in Derry, Belfast, Dublin, Achill Island, Bearna in Co. Galway, Dingle and Donegal, the series brings together honest conversations and personal experiences, with Caoimhe reflecting on her own life and the choices she faces along the way.

The first episode on Wednesday, November 11 at 9.30pm explores motherhood and the idea that women should have children by a certain age.

Caoimhe meets women who have taken very different paths to parenthood, including those who have chosen not to have children and have built happy, fulfilling lives of their own.

In Derry, she chats with Shania O'Donnell before and after she gives birth to baby Croi, to gain some insight into the journey to becoming a mum.

While in Belfast, Brídín Ní Choinn became a mum as a 20-year-old student. She talks about the challenges she faced, the joy her son brought to her life and the support she received from her mum.

Caoimhe meets Milène Fegan and Méabh Nic Alastair, also in Belfast, at cultúrclann - a weekly Irish language class for parents and their children which takes place in the Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich in Belfast.

They share their parenthood journeys with Caoimhe.

The series then turns to love and relationships, asking whether there really is a right age to meet ‘the one’.

In the second programme on November 18, Níosa Ní Fhionnáil from Belfast and her partner Theo are starting to plan their wedding. Níosa shares with Caoimhe how she knew Theo was the one for her.

From those who found love early to those who found it later, and people who are happily single, the conversations challenge the idea there is one right way for life to unfold.

The third programme on November 25 looks at purpose and direction, meeting people who have changed course, discovered new passions later in life or realised that what they wanted in their twenties wasn’t necessarily what they wanted in their thirties or beyond.

Seventy-year-old Breda Finn from Belfast is back at the University of Ulster studying Irish.

The final episode explores health and wellbeing, asking what it really means to look after ourselves and feel well, not just physically, but in the context of our everyday lives.

There are no easy answers in Spriocanna Saoil, and that’s part of its appeal.

Life rarely follows a neat and perfect plan. Some of us will become parents, others won’t.

Some will meet a partner young, others much later. Some will know exactly what they want to do, while others will change their minds along the way.

Through these conversations, and her own reflections, Caoimhe asks whether we might be happier if we stopped measuring our lives against someone else’s timeline.

Perhaps we don’t need to have everything sorted. Perhaps we’re allowed to take a different path, change our minds and work things out as we go.