Mary Poppins is...

...an Irish film, who'd have thought it!

Replete with leftovers and in a semi-coma I was watching Mary Poppins during the holiday break when I was roused from my torpor by the word amadán uttered, I was sure, by the animated fox on the screen.

Yes, it definitely had said amadán. Neither idiot, nor fool, nor simpleton but amadán, a word in the Irish language that fondly conveys the meaning of all three English words, and then some.

So I looked up Mary Poppins and what did I find but that its two producers - Walt Disney and Bill Walsh - were of close Irish extraction. Walsh, whose mammy was from Ireland, also has a screenplay credit.

So whatever about the source material Mary Poppins is an Irish film, diasporically speaking, and even contains a word in the Irish language to prove it.

For illustrative purposes I may in future refer to 'Irish' films that qualify as Irish in this way as amadán films, or scannáin amadach.

Agus ath-bhlian fé mhaise duitse, freisin.