Former Kerry footballer and broadcaster Dara Ó Cinnéide investigates the century-old murder of a Kerry man in new RTÉ documentary 

Rian na Fola airs on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player on Monday May 4

Rian na Fola is a one-hour documentary that follows former Kerry footballer and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta broadcaster Dara Ó Cinnéide as he investigates the century-old murder of a Kerry man, Patrick M. Foley, uncovering long-buried secrets on both sides of the Atlantic in the early 1900’s. The programme will air on Monday 4 May, 6.30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.

Patrick M. Foley, writer, historian, nationalist and native of West Kerry published two important histories of the Daingean Uí Chúis peninsula and Blasket Islands shortly after the turn of the 20th century. However, his writings, adventurous life and violent death have been largely forgotten in the mists of time.

This Irish-language documentary unearths the twists and turns of an intriguing life led by a Kerry man whose journey takes viewers back to Depression-era America, from the Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht in West Kerry to the dust belt of Oklahoma, revealing a life shaped by curiosity, hardship, and the shadow of violence.

Patrick M. Foley emigrated to America in 1909. His travels took him through Mexico, Cuba, Niagara Falls, San Francisco, the Midwest, and the American South. It was in Sallisaw, Oklahoma, deep in the rural South, that Foley spent his final days, a place he entered and never left. 

After accidentally stumbling across one of Foley’s books, Dara Ó Cinnéide was driven by curiosity and a sense of cultural duty, to uncover who Foley really was and what happened to him.

His search begins on the cliffs of Dún Chaoin in Kerry, revisiting Foley’s writings and the West Kerry landscapes that shaped them. From there, Dara crosses the Atlantic to 1920s Boston, imagining the emigrant experience during the turbulence of 1916 and the Prohibition era. From there, he travels to the ‘Bible Belt’ of Oklahoma, a region marked by prohibition-era violence and populated by figures such as Bonnie and Clyde and Pretty Boy Floyd. Along the way, Dara tracks down archival material, traces family connections, and uncovers new revelations with the help of historians, journalists, and forensic experts.

What emerges is a portrait not only of a mysterious death, but of a turbulent, adventurous life lived against the backdrop of the Great Depression, anti-immigrant hostility, and the upheaval of early 20th-century America. 

Featuring stunning landscapes, archival storytelling, and Dara’s personal reflections, Rian na Fola restores Patrick M. Foley to his rightful place in the cultural record of West Kerry, as a writer and historian whose story shaped the past and whose legacy continues to echo today.

At a screening in the National Library of Ireland on Wednesday 29 April, Patrick M. Foley’s granddaughters Mary McGillick and Mairéad Bolger donated Foley’s original writings and documents that were sent home from the US following his death to the library’s archive collection.

Rian na Fola will air on Monday 4 May, 6.30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player. 

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