RTÉ Radio 1 has announced a selection of new and returning factual, arts, and music series to engage and entertain listeners for the summer season.

New five-part show Reignite with RTÉ presented by Áine Kerr, will provide inspiration, tools and knowledge to help people re-start their personal and professional lives as they emerge from Covid-19.  Featuring a cast of renowned inspirational authors, coaches, business leaders and experts, the series will empower people to reassess, reboot and retrain when it comes to changing careers, restarting a business or beginning something brand new. It is part of RTÉ’s #BoostMyBusiness, which will see content across RTÉ helping Irish businesses bounce back. RTÉ will be supporting and promoting small and medium enterprises, around the country, as they deal with the challenges and the opportunities that lie ahead. It will highlight how powerful community support can be to local life, and to the greater economy.

Starting this Friday, Keywords is a new eight part series from presenter and producer Zoë Comyns, recorded over the lockdown period, that invited writers, radio producers, sound artists and musicians to record a conversation, an observation, talk about an experience or a moment, write a poem, essay or story. Each episode is guided by a keyword: Distance, Things Left Unsaid, Light, By Nature, Common Ground, Windows, Patterns and Maps. Writers and producers include Eimear McBride, Donal Ryan, Sinéad Gleeson, and Julian Gough.

Pantisocracy continues to bring together interesting folk doing inspiring things. From scientists to singers, poets to polemicists, writers to readers, Panti’s parlour is an intimate gathering of story and song. In the first episode of a new season, Panti Bliss is hosting three people who found themselves launching their beloved projects, the results of years of work, in the middle of a global pandemic and lockdown.

Highlighting ideas and insights about Ireland and the world, returning series Brainstorm, presented by Ella McSweeney, will look at such areas as sport, weather, infants’ brains, nature, food and the future of work.

The Almanac of Ireland is a compendium of stories from all over Ireland. Each episode is filled with serendipity and adventure, as presenter Manchán Magan embarks on a journey of discovery into Ireland’s cultural, linguistic, artistic, musical and culinary and natural heritage.  Over 13 episodes he explores the origins of hospitality and the healing salve of outdoor art, delves inside the brain to find the source of beauty, and admires the richness and diversity of pond life, and more.

Like Family will examine the effects of the pandemic on family life, from homeschooling to giving birth to marking milestones, all against the backdrop of Covid 19. On an August Bank Holiday Special and two programmes in September, Brenda Donohue will meet experts and revisit families to discuss, what the enduring impact of this crisis will be.

The award-winning Documentary on One will continue a season of documentaries telling the stories of the personal and impactful, the emotional and real. Throughout the season, listeners will get an inside view from one of the biggest robberies in US history; and to the Bloody Sunday massacre in Croke Park, where the grandnephew of one of the Tipperary team who played and escaped, retraces his Uncle’s journey.

In Sure ‘Twas Better, presenter Will Hanafin and his hilarious panel of Pauline McLynn, author Emer McLysaght and writer Jules Coll rummage through RTE’s 1990s archives with 2020 vision to see if it was better or worse back then.

In a new Drama on One this coming Sunday, 5 July, A Long Story Short, starring Angeline Ball and written by Tracy Martin, Karen is one of the lucky ones. Nobody she knows personally has fallen sick from Covid 19. While the world outside screeches to a halt Karen turns her focus to what’s happening on the other side of the garden fence.

Writing on One features contemporary and celebrated authors reading their own writing. Among those to feature this summer are: artist Sara Baume’s Handiwork; Belfast-based Wendy Erskine’s story To All Their Dues; Tyrone writer Benedict Kiely’s selection of essays; Rosita Boland’s essay Bali from her highly praised book Elsewhere; Offaly writer Ian Maleney’s award-winning non-fiction book Minor Monuments; and Cork bilingual poet Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s much-anticipated book A Ghost in the Throat.

Davis Now Lectures podcasts continues to publish a regular edition through the summer with forthcoming talks on Irish writing with contributors including Eavan Boland, Ailbhe Smyth, Terence Browne, Declan Kiberd, Lorna Reynolds and Thomas Kilroy

Miscellany 50 Live at the Project, a weekend of concerts, recorded in 2018 with a live audience and offering a brilliant selection of specially written and composed essays and music marking the first 50 years of Sunday Miscellany continues to broadcast on Saturday evenings. Contributors in these programmes include Melatu Uche Okorie and Kevin Barry, Lisa McInerney and Emilie Pine, and Jessica Traynor and John Kelly.

On August Bank holiday Monday, Simply Folk’s Ruth Smith travels to New Orleans in search of the story of one of our best loved songs, The Lakes of Ponchartrain. A firm favourite in setlists across Ireland, the story of the song and of the creole girl still remains a mystery even to those who have sung it for years. Ruth takes us in search of the story behind the song, and along the way discovers the extensive history of the Irish in New Orleans.

RTÉ CO Presents Sounds of the Summer will feature some of the big Irish summer hits, with guests Picturehouse, Ryan O’Shaughnessy and more with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.

If you are on the go this summer, take RTÉ Radio 1 with you, online, on your radio, or on the RTÉ Radio Player app.

Head of RTÉ Radio 1, Tom McGuire said: ‘Across the RTÉ Radio 1 schedule listeners will have an opportunity over the summer to reacquaint with old friends, make some new ones.  The variety of shows highlight the quality and professionalism of broadcasters within the station and in the independent sector. Sit back, listen and enjoy.’

Notes:

Broadcast information:

•  Keywords – an 8 part series from Friday 3 July at 10pm.
• A Long Story Short, 5 July
• Brainstorm – an 8 part series from Wednesday 8 July at 10pm
• Pantisocracy – 7 part series from Thursday, 9 July at 10pm.
• The Almanac of Ireland – 13 part series from Wednesday 29 July at 10.30pm
• Reignite with RTÉ – a 5-part series from Saturday 1 August at 10am.
• Writing on One – a 6 part series from Saturday 1 August at 7pm
• By the Lakes of PonchartrainAugust Bank Holiday – Monday 1.30pm
• RTÉ CO Presents Sounds of the Summer August Bank Holiday – Monday 2pm
• LikeFamily – 3pm on Monday August Bank Holiday and two more programmes in September 3rd and 10th at 10.30pm.
• Sure ‘Twas Better – 3 part series from 27 August at 10pm.