The Riordans was the second Irish soap opera made by Raidio Telefís Éireann. It ran from 1965 to 1979 and was set in the fictional townland of Leestown in County Kilkenny. Its use of Outside Broadcast Units and its filming of its episodes on location rather than in studio, broke the mould of broadcasting in the soap opera genre, and inspired the creation of its British equivalent, Emmerdale Farm by Yorkshire Television in 1972.
Bertie is an IFTA-winning four-part miniseries documenting the life of former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, which was broadcast on Irish television channel, RTÉ One in 3 November 2008. The series examined in close detail how he operated as leader of the country and what drove him through his political career. Interviews interwoven with archive footage formed the basis of series. The series featured contributions from over 70 people directly linked with Ahern, including family members, schoolfriends and national and international politicians. A central aspect of the programme was a "marathon" interview with Ahern. This interview was conducted shortly after he resigned as Taoiseach and leader of the Fianna Fáil political party in May 2008. Bertie features an interview with Tony Blair and contributions from former Cabinet colleagues Charlie McCreevy and Mary O'Rourke. His former wife Miriam Ahern and their daughters, Cecelia and Georgina were also interviewed. Amongst those declining an interview were Ahern's former partner Celia Larkin. Other Cabinet ministers and junior ministers interviewed included Dermot Ahern, Willie O'Dea, Brian Lenihan, Martin Cullen, Mary Harney, Conor Lenihan and Noel Ahern. Others interviewed included Des Richardson, Joe Burke, Barry English, David McKenna, Chris Wall, Paddy Duffy and Royston Brady. Ahern's successor as Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, did not contribute to the programme.
The Daily Show is a lifestyle magazine show which aired on the RTÉ One television channel in Ireland, and which debuted as part of RTÉ's autumn/winter season 2010. It followed Four Live (Irish TV series), presented by Maura Derrane. Presented by Dáithí Ó Sé and Claire Byrne, The Daily Show began on Monday 20 September 2010. It ended on 2 March 2012 due to budget cutbacks at RTÉ.
Prime Time is a current affairs programme noted for its in-depth analysis of political and other current events. It airs on RTÉ One on Monday at 10.30 & on Tuesday and Thursday nights following the RTÉ Nine O'Clock News. Miriam O'Callaghan has been its main presenter for over fifteen years. O'Callaghan's fellow presenters are Claire Byrne and George Lee. Prime Time has been broadcast on RTÉ One since 1992. Only one show per week is broadcast during the summer months. In January 2013, Pat Kenny's current affairs show The Frontline ended with its format and presenter subsumed into the Prime Time brand as part of a re-organisation within RTÉ News and Current Affairs.
In the 1840s, a catastrophic famine brought about the decimation of Ireland’s poor and the exodus of millions from the island. This major, ground-breaking documentary, narrated by Liam Neeson, explores the famine’s international origins and development in Europe, Britain and Ireland and charts its long-term legacy as it plays out for much of the century that follows. Today the Irish famine is recognised as the worst humanitarian disaster of the 19th Century but what is less recognised is that the crisis impacted far beyond Ireland’s shores. The story of the Blight pathogen that killed the potato crop, starts in the Andes of South America and then reaches into the heart of northern Europe where the collapse of potato crops causes the deaths of 100,000 people adding further fuel to social tensions that lead to Europe’s year of revolutions in 1848.
Follow the staff of Dublin's Shelbourne Hotel as they uphold exacting 5-star standards of service during the hotel's busiest season.
The Saturday Night Show is an Irish chat show hosted by Brendan O'Connor that has been broadcast on RTÉ One since 2010. The show features guest interviews, audience participation and live music. The Saturday Night Show is broadcast every Saturday night during the autumn-spring season directly after the main evening news.
Charity Lords of the Ring is an Irish reality television competition, broadcast on RTÉ One. Presented by Lucy Kennedy and ex-boxer Barry McGuigan, the four-part series follows ten personalities compete for their charity of choice, in the field of boxing. British broadcaster BBC is reported to be interested in the show. Charity Lords of the Ring is broadcast over four episodes on 15 August, 18 August, 19 August and 22 August 2009. It is produced by Screentime ShinAwil and sponsored by Sona Vitamins. Over €100,000 is anticipated to be donated to the charities involved, with €26,000 going to the winner. The show marks the television production debut of Brian Ormond. One of the contestants left the show before broadcasts began due to a potentially life-threatening swelling to the brain. The show's finalists were Paul Martin and Sean Gallagher. The final was attended by several females including socialite and model Rosanna Davison, pop singer, television personality, and sometime glamour model Michelle Heaton as well as Pippa O'Connor and Tara Sinnott. Seán Gallagher, despite having only partial eyesight, won the series.
Winning Streak is a popular Irish game show that airs on RTÉ One, where five contestants compete for prizes up to €500,000. The show began in 1990 and has been hosted by various presenters, including Mike Murphy, Derek Mooney, Kathryn Thomas, Aidan Power, Marty Whelan, and currently Geri Maye. The show is funded by the Irish National Lottery and has been a top-rated program, although it experienced a drop in viewership in 2008/2009.
Heist is a three-part Irish crime documentary series broadcast on RTÉ One. It examined three memorable and notorious large-scale crimes committed in the country and was broadcast on a sequence of Tuesday evenings in July 2008 at 21:35. The series is produced by RTÉ Archive Unit. The first programme focused on the Real IRA's attempted robbery of a Securicor vehicle in County Wicklow. The second programme examined the 1995 Brinks Allied Heist in which an armed gang robbed £2.8 million from a Dublin depot in Ireland's most expensive cash raid. The final programme detailed the history of Russborough House, the Irish estate owned by the now dead Sir Alfred Beit, and from which priceless works have been robbed on four separate occasions since 1974. That year, an IRA gang stole nineteen paintings with an estimated value of £8 million including a Vermeer, a Goya, two Gainsboroughs and three Rubens. Beit and one of his staff members were struck by revolvers and then tied up in their library. Then in May 1986, £30 million worth of paintings were stolen by the prominent Dublin criminal Martin Cahill. Most of these were recovered in the United Kingdom and Belgium following an international police operation.
Underwater cameraman Ken O'Sullivan brings us on his 20-year journey with dolphins, starting with a lost dolphin in Clare, to filming pods of dolphins in the North Atlantic ocean.
Make 'Em Laugh is an Irish comedy show hosted by Gay Byrne. The studio-based clip show aired for one series in 1999 and featured Byrne taking a look at some classic comedy moments from the RTÉ Archives.
RTÉ News: One O'Clock is the afternoon news bulletin from RTÉ. Produced by RTÉ News and Current Affairs, it airs Monday to Sunday at 1:00pm. Like RTÉ News: Nine O'Clock, the programme is presented by a single newsreader with Aengus Mac Grianna, John Finnerty, Clódagh Walsh and Eileen Whelan working in rotation.
Teens in the Wild is an Irish observational documentary television series broadcast on RTÉ One. The series was presented by the clinical psychologist David Coleman, who previously appeared in the television series Families in Trouble. The first series, broadcast in four parts over four weeks, followed six male teenagers, each with their own individual behavioural difficulties, as they undertook a three-week activity programme at Delphi Adventure in Connemara, County Galway during September 2008. It commenced broadcasting on 2 February 2009, airing each Monday at 21:30. The series producer, Christine Thornton, was reported as stating that the series would demonstrate "often dramatic and emotional insights" in relation to teenaged behaviour. The camp was declared a "once-off" experience by Coleman in a live web chat held on RTÉ.ie on 11 February 2009. He also claimed that he would be open to doing a similar series involving teenage girls, since this one involved boys exclusively. To supplement the show, Coleman initiated a regular slot focusing on teenage issues each Wednesday on the daytime television programme, Seoige. A second series aired in 2010, this time involving an all female cast.
Ryan Confidential is an Irish home-produced television programme which was broadcast on RTÉ One until 2010. It was presented by Gerry Ryan, until his unexpected death at the age of 53 on 30 April 2010. The programme was created by the producer David Blake Knox. The format placed Ryan and celebrity guests in restaurants and hotels, designed to provide a more intimate setting than a studio. Ryan then interviewed his guests. The programme, commissioned by RTÉ's Entertainment Department, proved popular, and ran for eight seasons.
Saturday Night with Miriam is a television chat show which was first broadcast in Ireland on RTÉ One in the summer of 2005. The show runs for six weeks as a summer filler, and is presented by Miriam O'Callaghan, the co-host of Prime Time.
Tolka Row is an Irish soap opera set in a fictional housing estate on the northside of Dublin. Based on Maura Laverty's play of the same name, Tolka Row was first broadcast on 3 January 1964 and aired weekly for five series until it ended on 31 May 1968. As Telefís Éireann's first venture into soap operas, Tolka Row quickly became a staple of the new television station's schedule and set the pace for all future home-produced serials. Its popularity also resulted in the station developing a second soap opera, The Riordans, in 1965. Tolka Row is similar in format to the long-running British soap Coronation Street, from which it borrows its main premise. The show was centred around the Nolans, a typical working-class Dublin family, and their neighbours, the Feeneys. All episodes were filmed in studio at Telefís Éireann's Television Centre in Donnybrook, Dublin.
Every year in Ireland, about 120 people donate their bodies to medical science and education. Unlike organ donation, the person decides to gift their entire corpse to one of Ireland's six medical schools; becoming 'silent teachers' after death. In the Anatomy Department at Trinity College Dublin, the Body Donation programme is overseen by Joint Chief Technical Officers Siobhan Ward and Philomena McAteer. Their job is to look after each new donor, as well as their bereaved families. A PARTING GIFT follows 1st year medical students as their education is enriched by direct contact with the donor remains. The documentaries encompass science & medical history, cultural attitudes towards death & bereavement and the big questions of mortality & spirituality.
Stars Go Racing was a six-part reality programme which aired in the summer of 2011 on RTÉ One. Six Irish personalities were shown the business of horse training from six established Irish trainers and then competed against each other at race meetings in Ireland. The final of the competition took place at Leopardstown. The first episode aired on 20 July 2011. The competition was won by presenter Ella McSweeney.
