TG4 has announced its line-up for the Winter season which includes new Cogar documentary ‘Saol Faoi Thalamh’ and new series ‘Taisce na Tuaithe’, ‘Teorainn’, ‘Ceol Daniel’ and ‘Rapairí’.
‘Teorainn’, a new four-part Irish Language documentary series, starts on Wednesday, November 11th on TG4 and explores the 90 year history of the Northern Ireland border.
Produced by Doubleband Films and directed by Fiona Keane (Turas Teanga), the story examines the implementation of Article 12 of the Anglo-Irish treaty, what is more commonly known as the ‘Boundary Clause’.
This first episode of the ‘Teorainn’ series explores the events that led to the initiation of the border in 1920 and the little known story of the establishment of the controversial three-man Boundary Commission.
In the following episodes audiences will be made privy to the risky early deliberations of the three-man Boundary Commission, appointed to redraw the highly contentious border in 1924, a re-examination of the controversial decisions of the Boundary Commission in 1925 and the enduring tensions that exist even today as a result of this decision. The series will also investigate the collapse of the Boundary Commission.
Contributors to the programme will include Gaelic games analyst for BBC and TG4, Éamon Ó Cuív; journalists Eamon Mallie and Eoghan Harris; senator and journalist Joe Kernan; GAA football manager and newspaper columnist, Joe Kernan; journalist, Nell McCafferty; the Minister for Community, Éamon Ó Cuív Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Former President of the GAA, Peter Quinn.
The ‘Teorainn’ series is produced by Dermot Lavery (Beckham and the Battle with Argentina) and the director of photography is Michael Quinn (Endgame in Ireland), The project is edited by David Gray (My Big Fat Moonie Wedding) and supported by the Northern Ireland Screen Irish Language Broadcast Fund and Sound & Vision at Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) Initiative and was made for TG4 and BBC Northern Ireland by Doubleband Films.
‘Teorainn’ starts on Wednesday, November 11th at 9.30pm on TG4 and Sunday, November 15th at 7.00pm on BBC Two Northern Ireland.
‘Cogar: Saol Faoi Thalamh’ broadcasts on Sunday, November 15th at 9.30pm and examines the last generation of men to work the Arigna Mines in Co Roscommon which closed in 1990. Leaving school as young as 13 or 14 young lads were enticed by the wealthy trappings of the miner’s lifestyle and the fact that the teenage miners were the envy of their peers – but it was a dangerous and unhealthy life and bred a heavy drinking culture. In addition to personal reminiscence, the use of archive footage builds a picture of life inside and outside the mine. The director of ‘Cogar: Saol Faoi Thalamh’ is Sean McGinley (Gleann Ceo), producer is Cyril Kelly and editor is John Martin
New series ‘Taisce na Tuaithe’ starts on Wednesday, November 18th at 7.30pm and looks at a time before county boundaries were set down and long before Ordinance Surveys when the island of Ireland had a completely different set of regions and boundaries - ancient kingdoms governed by clans and their chieftains and kings. ‘Taisce na Tuaithe’ looks to bring us on a journey round those kingdoms, to the most remote parts of the countryside in order to explore some of the characters and stories which have shaped our history and sense of community and identity.
The first episode of the series takes presenter Pilib Mac Cathmhaoil, in his classic Volkswagon camper van, to the historical region and O’Neill country of Tyrone and South Derry. He visits the crowning seat of the O’Neill clan, discovers a mass rock which narrowly avoided destruction, learns how a town was wrongly named and enters the ruined dwellings of the last native Irish speakers of Ulster before meeting the man who became a friend of the last generation of Irish speakers from the Sperrin mountains in the 1950s.
The six part series will also feature the last few people living in the Blue Stack mountains of Donegal, a house in Leitrim where a shrewd woman kept her family alive during the famine, the birth place of Ireland’s 17th century Robin Hood – Redmond O Hanlon, the grand homesteads of the noble women of the Glens of Antrim who founded the famous Feis and a pub in County Down where it will be revealed that Guinness is really Mc Cartans!
The series is a co-production between Tobar Productions and Independent Pictures and was funded by the Irish language Broadcast Fund, BBCNI and TG4. It is directed and edited by Steve Glenn, produced by Pilib McCathmhaoil and the director of photography is Mark Jervis (The American Experience).
Another new series starting is ‘Ceol Daniel’ which starts on Thursday, November 19th and will be presented by Daniel O’Donnell. Throughout this series audiences will get to see concerts from the Kincasslagh man. In addition to the concerts which will feature Daniel’s well known ballads and gospel songs sung by himself and occasionally Mary Duff. The series will broadcast a new set of interviews with Daniel where he looks back at this amazing career and at the good times and bad of a life on the road.
‘Ceol Daniel’ is directed and produced by Christy King (Turas Teanga), edited by Keith Garvey and the project’s director of photography is Billy Keady (director, Paisean Faisean)
Finally, ‘Rapairí’ is a new six-part series which depicts, in dramatic form, the lives of six of Irelands most famous highwaymen. By interweaving contemporary stories with outlaw folklore this series also explores the attitude of the Irish to the law and to law breaking.
The first programme in this series tells the story of one of the first Tories, Dudley Costello who lost his lands in Mayo in the middle of the 17th century, and examines the circumstances which can force a law-abiding citizen to defy the law. The following programmes feature the story of Eamonn an Chnoic or Ned of the Hill from Tipperary, Cahir na gCapall, an outlaw in Laois at the beginning of the 18th century, Highwayman James Freney from Kilkenny who at the end of the 18th century wrote an account of his own life and Meath highwayman, Michael Collier, who lived at the beginning of the 19th century
The series is directed and produced by Dónall Ó Maolfabhail, is edited by Oliver Fallen and will broadcast on Thursday, November 19th at 10.00pm
For more information visit www.tg4.ie
