RTÉ unveils a wealth of original Irish Language content for New Season
This week RTÉ announced its programming schedule for the new season with the widest range of Irish language shows in years
RTÉ plays a central role in documenting and preserving Ireland’s cultural memory. In recent years there has been a resurgence around the Irish language and reflecting this and engaging and strengthening it, is a core part of RTÉ’s remit. The forthcoming Irish language programming seeks to entertain, engage and educate our audiences across all platforms.
We Kick start the new season with four new Irish Language series. These series will air in peak time on Mondays Tuesdays and Fridays on RTÉ ONE. We begin on Friday the 1st of September at 8.30pm on RTÉ ONE with Seisiún a music series presented by acclaimed singer and musician Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh. She visits four celebrated music venues around Ireland: McGrory’s in Donegal, Connolly’s of Leap, Campbell’s Tavern in Headford and The Cobblestone in Dublin. She meets the families who have created these iconic spaces for artists and music lovers and hears performances from some of the musicians who’ve shaped, and been shaped by, these musical meccas.
On Monday the 4th of September at 8pm on RTÉ ONE property series, Bog Amach returns with new presenter, Emer Mhic an Fhailí who helps six couples and families to relocate from overseas, from city to country, and from rural idyl to city bustle. We follow a first-time buyer; a family hoping to live on an island; a young couple relocating to Ireland from New Zealand; a couple returning from Canada after 33 years and bringing their beloved Scottish wolf-hounds; a buyer making the reverse move from deepest countryside to city living and a young couple desperate to trade up.
This is followed at 8.30pm (Monday) by Ar an Sliabh, the popular six-part series returns following communities living in Cnoc Bhréanainn in Kerry, at the foot of An Earagail in Donegal and in the Glens of Antrim. It captures the everyday ups and downs of life in these remote communities, from a young family dealing pragmatically with long-term illness to people moving back home after years in big cities – and the older generation planning for a sustainable future for their children and grandchildren. Bog Amach and Ar an Sliabh are co-produced with BBC Gaeilge.
On Tuesday the 5th of September at 7pm on RTÉ ONE a brand-new four-part series Aistear an Amhráin explores the secrets and stories behind some of Ireland’s best-known songs, from rebel songs to classic ballads. From Seán Ó Riada’s classic Mná na hÉireann and The Saw Doctors’ 1990 emigration anthem N17 to The Dubliner’s much-loved Take Me Up To Monto and divisive republican anthem Come Out Ye Black and Tans, we uncover the history, social history and some little-known facts behind some of our best-loved Irish songs.
Later in the autumn, look out for returning audience favourites, Scannal, Peataí and Cloch le Carn.
Scannal looks back at the stories that shocked and shaped us as a nation. This season, we look back at, among other stories, the disappearance in 1977 of 6-year-old Mary Boyle, the national rollercoaster that was the attempt to introduce water charges in Ireland and how Killorglin’s Puck Fair felt the heat of the heatwave – and the tabloids – in 2022.
Peataí
Vet Ellen Hegarty, groomer Paul Ó Gallachóir and animal behaviourist Paula Doohan return to our screens this Autumn, giving pet owners from across Ireland a chance to get answers to their pets’ problems. Presenter Tessa Fleming follows our experts as they work their way through a packed roster of disobedient dogs, ailing felines and excitable exotics to help pet owners and their pets through problems big and small. This is a co production with BBCGaeilge.
Cloch le Carn
We celebrate two Dubliners and two titans of music. In October Cloch le Carn will celebrate Chieftan and Ceoltóirí Chualann member, fiddle player, Seán Keane and later in the autumn, Iconic singer and Aslan frontman, Christy Dignam is remembered in an hour long special.
Documentaries:
Our one-off documentaries take us from in-depth explorations of iconic bands and side-splitting comedians to inspiring stories of incredible men and women.
Viva Mary (Banríon Sitges)
Mary, a vibrant 90-year-old, has an insatiable zest for life. In this beautiful new documentary, film maker Cathal Ó Cuaig meets mother, grandmother and Connemara native Mary Lambe, daughter of the painter Charles Lambe, as she looks back at her less-than-ordinary life. Growing up in 1930s Connemara, she is inspired by her father’s love for the landscape and people of the west, but also awakened to inequality and feminism by the poverty around her. After World War II, she defies conventions by dedicating herself to educating disabled children in England. She survives her husband’s bankruptcy and in retirement embarks on a daring Mediterranean solo sailing life. This life-affirming film celebrates a devoted Irish grandmother, mother, friend, musician and adventurer.
Foclóir Brille
Award winning, outspoken, outrageous (and bilingual) stand-up comic Bláithín de Burca takes us on a jubilant, no-holds-barred journey where no comedian has ever gone before: deep into the past, present and future of the Irish language in search of wild, wise and wanton womens’ words. Her aim: to delve into our linguistic past in order to reignite a uniquely Irish experience of womanhood. Combining comedy and cutting-edge academic study, this joyous documentary follows Bláithín’s journey around Ireland in search of old and new words and material for a new comedy routine as Gaeilge. The doc will be accompanied by the launch, on RTE.ie, of a very unique online dictionary, An Foclóir Brille so cailíns, cailleachs – and all those who are a bit of both – can discover a new/old lingo with which to fully express their sexuality.
Hot House Flowers -People
On 4th May 1988, The Hothouse Flowers released their first album, People. The album became, and still is, the biggest selling debut album in Ireland, hitting number 1 within a week of its release, rising to number 2 in the UK. A few months later they played a sold-out gig in Dublin’s RDS. It seemed to many that this trailblazing young band had just burst onto the scene. But this was no overnight success; the band had been grafting for many years, busking, playing small venues and building up a following. They were a breath of fresh air in pre–Celtic Tiger Ireland when money and jobs were scarce but Ireland’s cultural life was blossoming. It’s why so many remember that album with such great affection. 35 years on, frontmen Liam Ó Maonlaí and Fiachna Ó Braonáin look back at a landmark year that changed the course of their lives.
Dolores@70
In a very special new TV event, we mark the 70th birthday of singer and national treasure Dolores Keane. We follow her as she returns to the wellspring of her music, her aunts’ cottage in in Caherlistrane in Co. Galway, and performs some of her best-loved songs surrounded by four generations of family, and a host of Irish talent, including Paul Brady, Mick Hanly and many more.
Rí an Pharóiste, Séamus Begley
Rí an Pharóiste celebrates the life of Séamus Begley. A man who was steeped in the west Kerry Gaeltacht he grew up in, a reluctant farmer and a gifted musician and singer. His musical talent carried him all over the world including the Pyramid stage in Glastonbury. As his first anniversary approaches, his wife, children, childhood friends and world-renowned musicians and collaborators reflect on the bold Kerryman and his legacy.
This upcoming line up promises to entertain and captivate audiences, reflecting and celebrating unique Irish lives across the Island of Ireland.
Niamh Ní Churnáin, RTÉ’s Group head of Irish Language said: “RTÉ is dedicated to delivering a rich and varied slate of Irish Language programming to our audience. This Autumn, we are delivering the broadest range of Irish-language programming to the RTÉ schedule to date. I am grateful to all those in the independent production sector and our in-house Cláracha Gaeilge team who make all of this great original Irish-language content possible. I am also deeply grateful to our funding partners Coimisiún na Meán, the ILBF and our fellow public-service broadcasters on this island for their ongoing partnership and support.”