Kevin Ferry and Ciara McBride with their baby Rosie.
BY SEÁN P. FEENY
A NEW TG4 programme following three ‘lads’ as they get ready to join the ranks of fatherhood with their partners features a young West Donegal couple.
“Lads mar Dads” is an innovative series which starts next week and takes a look at what fatherhood is really like for the first timers in Ireland today.
Will they be the metrosexual fathers with the man-bag on hand at all times, ready to change a nappy in any situation, or will they lapse into the traditional role of the Dad and leave it to ‘those who know best’ on the new series by Good Company Productions? One of three couples featured on the six-part series are Kevin Ferry (32) and his partner Ciara McBride (25) who live in Dungloe together with their six-month-old daughter Rosie.
Kevin, who was born in Edinburgh and grew up in Rann na Feirste, and Gaoth Dobhair girl Ciara had heard about the programme through a friend and decided to apply.
“We didn’t have much about being selected as my Irish isn’t great, but thankfully we were selected. The main thing that encourage us to apply was that it will be lovely to have all this footage of Rosie when she was young in years to come,” said Kevin.
The programme follows the young couple from last May, while Ciara was expecting, right up until last week when all three couples met for a final recording.
“They basically covered everything in the lead-up to Rosie’s birth on July 29 and her first six months, mainly filming it from the expecting father’s point-of-view.”
There are a lot of funny moments in the programme and Kevin revealed that his relationship with nappy-changing might feature a lot. “I will change them if I have to, if there’s no one else there, but it’s one thing I’m still not big fan of,” he laughed.
During the programme we will also see how Kevin and his father John get on when they buy Rosie’s first pram and have to assemble it together. Will they succeed?
We also see how Kevin and Ciara prepare together for Ciara going into labour. “I downloaded all these apps onto my phone; you can make all the plans in the world, but in the end you just wing it,” he laughed.
Kevin said he really enjoyed being part of the programme withCiara and baby Rosie and he is ready for the ‘slagging’ from friends and family.
“Having grown up in Edinburgh in my early years, my Irish isn’t great and I know I’ll get slagged about it at home in Rann na Feirste, but I really enjoyed it and it was great practice for me.”
Lads mar Dads, funded by BAI, will be hitting our television screens every Sunday night at 21.30, starting on February 16, only on TG4 (repeated Monday night’s at 7.30pm).