This week RT announced its programming schedule for the new season with the widest range of Irish language shows in yearsRT 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 RT '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 RT ONE. We begin on Friday the 1st of September at 8.30pm on RT ONE with Seisi n 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 RT ONE property series, Bog Amach returns with new presenter, Emer Mhic an Fhail 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 Bhr anainn 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 RT ONE a brand-new four-part series Aistear an Amhr in explores the secrets and stories behind some of Ireland's best-known songs, from rebel songs to classic ballads. From Se n Riada's classic Mn na h ireann 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, Peata 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.
Peata
Vet Ellen Hegarty, groomer Paul Gallach ir 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 Ceolt ir Chualann member, fiddle player, Se n 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 (Banr on Sitges)
Mary, a vibrant 90-year-old, has an insatiable zest for life. In this beautiful new documentary, film maker Cathal 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.
Focl ir Brille
Award winning, outspoken, outrageous (and bilingual) stand-up comic Bl ith n 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 Bl ith n'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 Focl ir Brille so cail ns, cailleachs and all those who are a bit of both can discover a new/old lingo with which to fully express
