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MOTHER FATHER DEAF

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This film, directed by Sundance-nominated director Garry Keane, features the stories of three CODAs whose upbringing has given them a unique perspective.

Laura O’Grady grew up in a noisy house, with the radio up loud and no one to tell her and her siblings to keep it down, her parents Deaf voices calling her in for dinner was a source of curiosity for the kids on the street. She describes a happy childhood which became complicated in her teenage years, when a period of depression made communication with her parents a struggle and the responsibilities of being a CODA became difficult to bear.

Shane O’Reilly believes he was ‘in training’ all his life for his career as an actor. Interpreting for his Deaf parents, he describes stepping in and out of a variety of ‘roles’ and the performative nature of sign language that ensured people would always watch him when he was signing. He describes his earliest experiences on stage and how it felt as a child to see his mum in the front row, knowing she couldn’t understand his performance. Shane also describes his role as a child interpreter between two adults and the complexity of witnessing his parents being mistreated or discriminated against while having to be the one to deliver that message.

Catherine White from Tralee was the first hearing child born into a family with Deaf parents, a Deaf aunt and uncle and Deaf cousins. She describes herself and her hearing siblings as a minority within a minority. She considers Irish Sign Language to be her first language, the language she thinks in and dreams in. She recalls going to school signing and not being able to understand why her teachers weren’t signing back to her. After a period of soul-searching, she turned her childhood experience into a career and became the first Irish person to qualify as a sign language interpreter.

We hear from Shane and Laura’s Deaf parents who acknowledge their children had to grow up quicker than their peers and how frustrating it was to have to rely on them.

CODA’s walk the line between Deaf and hearing worlds and often never quite fit into either. By dipping into their experience, Mother Father Deaf offers a previously unseen portrayal of contemporary reality for Irish Deaf families.

Mother Father Deaf is directed by Garry Keane and produced by Anne Heffernan for Mind the Gap Films.

Mother Father Deaf, Thursday March 14th at 10.15pm on RTÉ One.