Filed under Teilifís (Television) …

May 17 2012
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Fantaisíocht (Fantasy), Léirmheasanna (Reviews), Leabhair (Books), Teilifís (Television)

Jeremy Brett – The Quintessential Sherlock Holmes

I’ve always been a bit of a Sherlock Homes fan (or the much more impressive Irish form, Searbhlach de Hoilm!), especially since he was born of the imagination and pen of an Irish-Scots writer, one Artúr Iognáid Conán Ó Dúill or Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle. Doyle’s relationship with his ancestral homeland was problematic, to say the least, and there is a strong argument that he tapped into the anti-Irish prejudices of his day for the Sherlock Home’s stories, most tellingly in the Irish surnames he choose for Holmes’ two chief protagonists: Moran and Moriarty. He himself veered in his politics over the span of a lifetime from un-apologetic British Imperialist and Unionist to possessing somewhat more nuanced and socially liberal views of the world and Ireland in particular (by 1911 Doyle was convinced of the need for Home Rule or limited autonomy for Ireland within the so-called United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, though that is as far as he could bring himself to go).

Arthur Conan Doyle’s interests in Irish revolutionary movements and the covert (and at times not so covert) war between them and the British colonial state in Ireland clearly influenced his writing. The Fenians in particular, both the Irish and Irish-American arms of the movement, were a major concern to him and at times he allowed himself caught up in the hysteria of the late Victorian age and its obsession with “Irish secret societies” (the surnames of Moran and Moriarty were identified in the British press with alleged Fenian officers operating in Britain in the late 1800s). In some ways the “Irish question” became central to the Sherlock Holmes canon, always implied though rarely stated.

Scholar Catherine Wynne details the Irish influences in the works of Doyle and his Sherlock Holmes’ tales in particular with her short study Mollies, Fenians, and Arthur Conan Doyle, which I highly recommend for any enquiring Sherlockian – or indeed anyone interested in how British society and culture viewed (and feared) the Irish people in the late 19th century. You can also read a full account of all this in her excellent book The Colonial Conan Doyle: British Imperialism, Irish Nationalism and the Gothic, especially the section Imperial War and Colonial Sedition (preview via Google Books).

All this has helped me in my own writing (with a nod to Kim Newman), in particular my subversion of the Sherlock Holmes tales by turning them on their head and writing them from the point of view of Professor Moriarty, or rather Séamas Ó Muircheartaigh, 19th century Irish famine-child and exile turned revolutionary (and the efforts of his arch-nemesis to thwart him: the conflicted British Imperial agent Sherlock Holmes, and his baleful older brother Mycroft). Whether those tales of mine will ever see the light of day is of course another matter ;-)

But for now, a slight twist, as I turn to the Guardian and an excellent article on the late great Jeremy Brett, the British actor who for many of us was Sherlock Holmes. A true thespian (and a genuinely courageous person who overcame many personal problems and tragedies in his life until his untimely death), he defined what Holmes should look like, sound like and act like for a whole generation of television viewers (and still does). From the retrospective by Natalie Haynes:

“You can keep Basil Rathbone, fond as I am of him. You can keep Robert Downey, Jr, Benedict Cumberbatch and Peter Cushing. You can even keep Michael Caine in Without A Clue (my secret favourite portrayal of Sherlock Holmes on the big screen). You know why you can keep them? Because, in exchange, I get Jeremy Brett, the Sherlock for the connoisseurs.

Jeremy Brett is the Sherlock Holmes of my childhood, and perhaps (as with the Doctor or James Bond) we simply attach ourselves to the first one we see. But I don’t think so. In the ITV series which began in 1984, and ran until a year before Brett’s early death in 1995, Sherlock Holmes was as close to his literary roots as he has ever been on screen.

Brett understood completely how mercurial Holmes could be. And he could play every variant of him: loyal friend, relentless pursuer, bored logician, avenging angel and mischievous impersonator. Brett’s performance is an astonishing exercise in dynamics: he murmurs advice, whispers hints, bellows irritation, barks laughter. He is also the master of the subtextual glance. When the King of Bohemia (A Scandal in Bohemia, series 1, episode 1) wishes Irene Adler was his social equal, Brett turns to him with every facial sinew screaming contempt, for just a fraction of a second. Then he agrees, with such seeming politeness that the king is impervious to his real meaning, that Adler was indeed on a very different level. No wonder Adler leaves the country, declaring him too formidable an opponent, even though she knows she has beaten him in this encounter.

Even if Brett had not been so ill when filming the series, his Holmes is intrinsically fragile: he really looks like he forgets to eat for days on end, and that he carries the lead weight of ennui between cases.

In re-watching The Red-Headed League last week, I also detected a disdain for poshness that verges on the revolutionary. He describes John Clay (Tim McInnerny) thus: “His grandfather was a royal duke and he himself was educated at Eton and Oxford. So, Watson, bring the gun.” And because he is Jeremy Brett, he slightly rolls the r of “bring”, just so we know Holmes knows that he is funny.”

This weekend I will be indulging my Brettian-Holmes passion by watching the British television drama The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes back-to-back (thanks to a lovely DVD collection grabbed – quite literally – for a ridiculously cheap 10 euros), but here, for the rest of you, is a mere taster:

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Feb 23 2012
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An Ghaeilge (Irish Language), Cúrsaí Reatha (Current Affairs), Idirlíon (Internet), Teilifís (Television)

Try Again 2012!

Talking of the Irish language online there is certainly a lot of speculation at the moment about the new website “Try Again 2012” and the associated high-profile advertising campaign around the country (not to mention on social networks like YouTube and at Twitter under the hashtag #tryagain). The Herald seems to have got to the truth behind the rumours:

“I’M actually bi, says The Voice’s Brian Kennedy. Brendan Courtney “lost it at 16″ and and it made Paul McGrath feel “inadequate”.

But what on earth are they talking about?

A suggestive new campaign has tongues wagging in the city but the “bi” claims by singer Brian Kennedy are a lot more innocent than they might first appear.

A host of big-name celebrities have put their names behind a new campaign to get people dusting off their Irish – and speaking the language again.

It’s being spearheaded by former champion boxer Bernard Dunne. Other well-known participants include Lucy Kennedy, Ben Dunne, Baz Ashmawy, and Jennifer Maguire speaking about their own experiences of the subject matter.”

The new television-related campaign will be unveiled on RTÉ’s Saturday Night Show on February 25th.

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Feb 20 2012
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An Ghaeilge (Irish Language), Cúrsaí Reatha (Current Affairs), Idirlíon (Internet), Teilifís (Television)

Teilifís na Life?

Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, the high-profile Welsh Language Society, is to launch a new web-based television service, initially operating for two hours a week.

From the BBC:

“Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg will transmit Sianel 62 via the web to mark the 50th anniversary of the society.

Describing it as the first new Welsh language channel for 30 years, the society says Sianel 62 will broadcast two hours every Sunday at 20:00 GMT.

Organisers say the online channel, which will be operated from Cardiff and Caernarfon, will have a “fresh vibe”.

Sianel 62 co-ordinator Greg Bevan said: “The channel will offer a new platform for unique and alternative voices that tend to be ignored by traditional broadcasters.

Organisers say the channel offers a platform for “unique and alternative voices” “There will be voices and political and satirical content that we don’t see on current TV programmes.””

Now there is an idea we could borrow from the extremely pro-active Welsh Rights movement. With Nuacht 24 already providing limited web-based news and current affairs video clips perhaps there is an audience out there for something more? After all a Dublin-based Irish language channel would have a natural appeal to many of the capital’s Irish-speaking citizens (the English-speaking ones being already catered to by Dublin Community TV).

We have Raidió na Life, which is partly funded by Conradh na Gaeilge and controlled by Comharchumann Raidió Átha Cliath Teoranta (CRÁCT), a non-profit co-operative anyone can purchase shares in.  What about a web-based television service linked to the radio station, which already broadcasts on the internet as well as on the FM frequency?

Teilifís na Life?

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Feb 12 2012
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Cúrsaí Reatha (Current Affairs), Polaitíocht (Politics), Teilifís (Television)

The Sunday Independent Has An Article On Irish History – Which Favours The Irish!

Something truly strange must have happened in the offices of the Sunday Anglo Independent over the last few days. Why? Because someone has managed to smuggle an article into the newspaper examining a facet of Irish Republican history that isn’t the usual concoction of lies, propaganda and counter-factual fantasies. Unprecedented!

“Armed only with a pot of pink chrysanthemums and a walkie-talkie, a Limerick convict sprang the UK’s most-wanted KGB spy in a daring prison escape that would go down in British penal history.

The tale of how Seán Bourke helped double agent George Blake outwit his jailers is just one in a new series of stories of Irishmen who made breaks for freedom.

There was Francie McGuigan — hooded, beaten, subjected to sleep deprivation and thrown out of a helicopter — who later coolly escaped through the main gates of Long Kesh dressed as a priest.

Then, there was Charlie ‘Nomad’ McGuinness, who helped execute a high-wire escape across the walls of Derry jail before scattering cayenne pepper to throw the bloodhounds off the scent.

And there was George Gilmore, who waded to freedom through sewage, and 38 IRA prisoners in Long Kesh who used soup ladles to tunnel, Colditz-style, more than 40 metres to freedom.

“The Irish are great at two things — funerals and prison breaks. We have a long history of prison breaks, especially among Republican prisoners,” says Paddy Hayes, director of ‘Éalú’, a six-part series on notorious Irish prison escapes which begins on TG4 on Thursday.

“Some of them were reckless. Some of them had no fear for their own safety while others were opportunists. The guile these men used and the painstaking research they went into for some of these escapes was extraordinary,” Paddy says.”

If that wasn’t extraordinary enough take this:

“The ordeal suffered by IRA man Francie McGuigan makes for compelling viewing. In 1971, Francie, then just 23, was taken from his home during a British army swoop and imprisoned for seven days at Girdwood Barracks in Belfast.

There, says Paddy, he became one of the ‘Hooded Men’ — he was hooded, beaten and subjected to psychological torture including white noise, sleep deprivation and being thrown out of a helicopter.

Francie was sent to Long Kesh Internment Camp, where on being asked by the governor if he had any questions, he cheekily asked: What’s the best way out of here?”

The governor replied coldly that “the only way out is through the front gate”. Later, after his escape, Francie sent him a postcard thanking him for his advice.”

Finally, there were the 38 IRA prisoners who, in 1974, tunnelled over 40 metres to freedom outside the perimeter fence of Long Kesh.

It had been a meticulously planned escape — in the best Colditz tradition, the mouth of the tunnel was hidden under pieces of corrugated iron and the internees held sing-songs every night to conceal the sound of their digging.

The painstaking work was done over the course of three weeks using soup ladles and metal trays, and pieces of wood were used to shore up the roof of the tunnel.

On November 6, 1974, the prisoners made a break for it. One by one they crawled on their stomachs into the tunnel, through the underwater section, to freedom.”

The story comes with two different by-lines, the first giving the credit to Penny Cronin (who previously penned this historical piece) the second to Áilín Quinlan (a freelance journo with several newspapers), which is… odd.

But as the old saying goes, one swallow doesn’t make a summer. Just ask Baron Maginnis of Drumglass.

Now in its third series of acclaimed documentaries, Éalú airs on TG4 on Thursday at 10.30pm.

Below is the first part of the Éalú episode examining one of Ireland’s great revolutionary heroes, Tom Malone.

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Jan 11 2012
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An Ghaeilge (Irish Language), Cúrsaí Reatha (Current Affairs), Polaitíocht (Politics), Teilifís (Television)

Concubhar Ó Liatháin Deals With His Critics

Following on from my piece examining the criticism of TG4 by Concubhar Ó Liatháin over the airing of a new documentary series, Mná an IRA, by the channel Ó Liatháin makes a spirited defence of his position.

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Jan 05 2012
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An Ghaeilge (Irish Language), Cúrsaí Reatha (Current Affairs), Teilifís (Television)

An Irish-American Story

From the Irish Independent a story on Séamus Ó Fianghusa, an Irish-American soldier who is now the subject of a new documentary on TG4:

“A SERVING US soldier who learned Irish from the internet is the subject of the first ever warzone documentary to be produced as Gaeilge.

Sergeant Séamus ‘Na Gaeilge’ Ó Fianghusa was asked to take part in the documentary by TG4 in 2010 as he began a tour of duty in Afghanistan.

The soldier — who is known by the Anglicised name ‘Fennessy’ to his army buddies — is a member of the famed 69th ‘Fighting Irish’ regiment in New York.

He was born of an Irish father and Korean mother and raised in Brooklyn, but was always conscious of his Irish heritage.

The documentary ‘Dushlan’ (‘Challenge’) follows him from New York to Belfast and Donegal, then onwards to the extremes of the Afghan conflict.

“I would like it to be successful because it highlights the Irish language and culture in a way that is not at all traditional,” he said yesterday as he visited Dublin.

“Irish has an international relevance. Our language is vibrant and capable of change in modern circumstances, as well as having its traditional associations.”

Having learned the language over the internet six years ago, the soldier now considers Ireland — and particularly the Donegal Gaeltacht — his home from home.

The four-part TG4 series ‘Dushlan’ is about different characters captured in a variety of extraordinary circumstances or places.

In Sgt O Fianghusa’s case, that place was Logar province in Afghanistan, where he spent nine months on patrol.

“It’s very different from anything else you would see anywhere else in the world,” he reflected.

“The brotherhood you have with your fellow soldiers, being in life-threatening situations every day, bonds you more than anything else could.

“We endured many violent encounters — being shot at, IEDs — but I never really thought about how dangerous it was until I got home.”

‘Dushlan’ airs on TG4 next Monday at 7.30pm.”

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Nov 20 2011
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An Ghaeilge (Irish Language), Polaitíocht (Politics), Teilifís (Television)

Mind Your Language, Please!

The right-wing British establishment newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, carries a typically dismissive article on the Liet International Song Contest, which was held last week. The competition is an opportunity for musical artists from the minority language communities of the European Union to compete with each other. Through the Liet International organisation, which stages the event, bands, singers, schools, sporting and social groups from across Europe meet and exchange ideas and support. Which probably adds to the DT’s anglophone ire:

“The “alternative” Eurovision Song Contest was staged on Saturday night, open only to entries in tongues which few people understand. Funding, of course, came from the public purse.

Although they might not have known it, viewers tuning in to the Liet International Song Contest for minority languages heard lyrics in Sami, Vepsian, Udmurt and Rumantsch.

Now in its eighth year, the annual jamboree is funded by European taxpayers to the tune of £86,000, including £12,000 in the past three years from the Council of Europe which Britain contributes to and is currently chairing.

Organisers claim that the contest “promotes tolerance, multilingualism, friendships and combats racism and eventual risks of ethnic conflicts” – but despite its honourable intentions, the competition has yet to make an impact in the music world.”

That so? No impact in the music world?

“An estimated six million television viewers across Europe watched the latest contest, staged in Udine, northern Italy, and aired on Italian national television as well as channels in Norway, Spain and Sweden.”

So it made some impact then. In the real world of real life communities and peoples. Perhaps one of the DT’s commentators best sums up the paper’s attitude to the contest.

“The fascination with obscure minority tongues is highly divisive and socially destructive, largely for the reason that they are perceived as intrinsic features of ethnic identity, which results in hugely inflated egos of ethnic minorities, who believe their tongues are rare, unique and in need of preservation… Why don’t we focus on the common features rather than on dubious divisive markers? …with languages designed for communication, what is the point of broadcasting obscure messages in minority tongues across the widest European audience?”

Spoken like a true Anglophone. I wonder has he heard of Fine Gael?

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Nov 16 2011
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An Ghaeilge (Irish Language), Cúrsaí Reatha (Current Affairs), Polaitíocht (Politics), Scannáin (Movies), Teilifís (Television)

The Book Smugglers. Ireland, Lithuania, And The Freedom Of Language

One of the most interesting, and thought-provoking, Irish language documentaries of recent years will be screened at a film festival in Estonia, reports IFTN:

“Irish production companies Planet Korda Pictures and Vinegar Hill’s co-production with Lithuanian production company Era Films, ‘The Book Smugglers’, a documentary which was directed and written by Jeremiah Cullinane (Hitler’s Irish Movies, Dangerous Curves) co-founder of Planet Korda, will be screened at the 15th Estonian Black Nights Festival on the 26th November.

‘The Book Smugglers’ sees Irish poet Gearóid Mac Lochlainn and Lithuanian dramatist Albertas Vidžiūnas retrace the steps of the 19th century Lithuanian book smugglers who resisted Russification to save their language from extinction and asks why in Ireland, another small country at the edge of Europe with its own language and occupied by its larger neighbour, families were abandoning their mother tongue and teaching their children English?”

Originally shown on TG4, there is more information on this wonderful, challenging documentary at the Book Smugglers website.

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Nov 06 2011
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An Ghaeilge (Irish Language), Cúrsaí Reatha (Current Affairs), Ceol (Music), Filíocht (Poetry), Leabhair (Books), Scannáin (Movies), Teilifís (Television)

Oireachtas na Samhna

The Irish Times carries a very personal report celebrating the weekend’s Oireachtas na Samhna, the annual Irish language and culture festival, this year held in Cill Airne:

“IT IS the time of Samhain and I am heading south to Killarney. Every year at this time I find myself on the road to somewhere. The reason – Oireachtas na Samhna. It has been going on now for well over a century but, in reality, it has been going on for thousands of years since its original incarnation at Tara. I am part of a tribe, and the tribe is on the move.

Oireachtas na Samhna, or the Oireachtas, as we call it, is the annual gathering of the Gaels. A festival which will be attended by 10,000 people from all Gaeltachts and beyond, and which will host some of the most prestigious competitions of our traditional arts. Sean nós singing and dancing, storytelling and oration, lúibíní and many others. Champions will be crowned this weekend, immortality bestowed. Hundreds will gather in hushed halls to hail new heroes and the families and communities that produce these champions will claim title to nobility.

Samhain is there since the beginning. It was the annual feast of Tara, where hundreds of thousands gathered to celebrate the last harvest. The word literally means summer’s end, the threshold of the dark. It is the time when we are closest to the otherworld, when the barriers between us and our ancestors soften. Our immediacy fades. We briefly become aware of the eternal.

I will meet people I haven’t met since last year’s Oireachtas. No matter. The distance of time or space is made redundant by the story we share. We’ll pick up where we left off. Like a family which meets for a wedding or an anniversary, familiarity will bathe us, and our handshakes, hugs and greetings will be as joyous as they are authentic. We’ll all be conscious of the significance of our gathering and put our best side out.

Language is more than communication. It is expression too. It provides us with another way to see the world, another way to make sense of it. And it is universal. Irish speakers of all backgrounds and ethnicities – from America, Japan, Russia, Africa, Australia, Canada and other countries are heading for Killarney right now. The Oireachtas is our festival. It’s what we do. It is our Haj, our Ploughing Championships, our novena, our Oxegen.”

More can be seen here. Including…

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Oct 08 2011
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An Ghaeilge (Irish Language), Cúrsaí Reatha (Current Affairs), Polaitíocht (Politics), Teilifís (Television)

RTÉ Versus TG4

Ireland’s Anglophone media establishment has never been comfortable with the Irish language. Or indeed Irish speakers. The existence of both is too much of a challenge, too much of a threat to its assumed identity: not quiet Irish, not quite English, not quiet anything really. That is why so many Irish journalists and commentators ape aspects of Anglo-American culture and character. Lacking a self-confident identity of their own they must perforce steal from others to create a crude caricature of Irishness, a Frankenstein’s monster, lacking in the most essential element of that identity – the Irish language.

This is especially true when it comes to television where the Irish language simply serves as a red rag to a bull for the more fanatical elements of the Anglomedia clique. Enraged, outraged, puzzled and confused they inwardly contest with a learned hatred versus a more empathic pull that they try to rationalise by any means possible.

So to a review of Irish language documentary programmes from RTÉ and TG4 appearing in the Irish Independent (itself a bastion of Angliban intolerance in all its many forms). It begins with a dismissive tone, and the centuries old “apartheid” attitude of the Anglophone establishment (why isn’t the Irish language on TG4 where it belongs? Because RTÉ belongs to all of us – even Irish speakers!). Yet…

“Over the last couple of months, RTÉ One has been screening a succession of piddling programmes in Irish, a language not understood by the majority of its viewers, who are left wondering why such minor fare isn’t being broadcast on TG4 — which, after all, was created to cater for speakers of the native tongue.

For instance, currently running on RTÉ One is Réabhlóid, which translates as Revolutionary Tales and which is an Irish-language series of half-hour programmes telling the stories of marginal — indeed, largely unknown — participants in the Irish war for independence. Why isn’t that on TG4 where it belongs?

One answer might be that TG4 is too busy commissioning the kind of programmes — programmes of substance and general interest — that really should be on RTÉ One, but of course RTÉ’s schedules are so clogged up with slavish reproductions of foreign franchises that it’s hard to see where there’d be room for them.

This week alone I watched four TG4 programmes that were better than anything to be seen on either RTÉ One or (though probably needless to say) RTÉ Two. One of them, Misinéirí Radacacha, I’m afraid I came to very late, as it was the last instalment of a four-part series about the work of Irish missionaries in the repressive societies to which they were sent. However, struck by its impact, I went back to the previous three programmes and thought them just as fine.

Vastly different, though no less striking, is TG4′s six-part natural history series, Farraigí na hÉireann, which looks at the oceanic wild life around our shores. This week’s episode focused on our sea beds and it was to be seen and savoured rather than analysed — every shot of it was extraordinary in its strange, indeed surreal, beauty. The accompanying narrative in this Ken O’Sullivan production was beguiling, too, though words couldn’t do justice to the ecstatic visuals.

Maverick filmmaker Bob Quinn, who left RTÉ in 1969 and settled in Connamara in the early 1970s, is being celebrated in TG4′s Bob Quinn @ 75, with two of his early short films screened on Tuesday night.

Filmmaker Johnny Gogan decamped from Dublin to Leitrim in the late 1990s and Homeland (TG4) was an hour-long celebration of his adopted place, largely through the testimony of Leitrim friends and neighbours, many of them returned emigrants or blow-ins from abroad.”

A fan despite himself? Perhaps those who believe that Irish language television programming should be confined to TG4, and that RTÉ should be devoted entirely to the English language, would be now willing to divide up the TV Licence fee on that basis? The 2006 Census revealed that 42% of the population identified themselves as Irish speakers to one degree or another. So can we get 42% of the licence fee for TG4?

Hmm?

Perhaps the cartoon accompanying the article sums up the world-view of many in the Anglomedia, both to the Irish language and the Irish speaking population of Ireland. Or indeed, to the English speaking population. But what a sad world-view it is.

A few final words from the reviewer that make for strange reading.

“”Snakes with tits” is how British soldiers refer to Afghan women who help male insurgents in their subversive work. I learned this from Fighting on the Front Line (Channel 4), a riveting documentary, which accompanied some of these soldiers on the ground and in the Chinooks and Apache helicopters from which they observe enemy movements and despatch insurgents to explosive deaths.

Courtesy of the film, I watched some of these incendiary deaths — a distant figure spotted in a far-off field, the press of a button and then, whoosh, a puff of smoke and a body, or at least bits of it, sailing surreally through the night sky.

“What do you think goes through a Taliban’s head when he sees an Apache coming?” the interviewer asked one soldier. “Hopefully, a 30-mill bullet,” was the reply.”

I really cannot tell. Does the reviewer approve or disapprove of this? Or is neutrality of opinion only observed for subjects other than the Irish language?

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Sep 09 2011
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An Ghaeilge (Irish Language), Cúrsaí Reatha (Current Affairs), Polaitíocht (Politics), Teicneolaíocht (Technology), Teilifís (Television)

BBC Alba’s Audience Soars By 100,000 Viewers In Just Three Months

Since its launch in 2008 the Scottish language television channel, BBC Alba, has spent most of its time relegated to the backwaters of satellite broadcasting (and since May 2011 on one of the cable providers in Scotland). This left it somewhat difficult for the majority of viewers in Scotland to tune in or watch it the station and resulted in a renewed drive by activists for BBC Alba to receive equal treatment with the state-funded English-language channels.

This came to a head with the row over Freeview, Britain’s free-to-air digital television platform (similar to Ireland’s Saorview) which now carries the BBC channels, ITV, Ch4 and others, and from which it seemed BBC Alba might be excluded. However, a hard-fought campaign ensured that the station would join the line-up of digital television channels and what a success that has now proven to be with the transition to Freeview in June resulting in a phenomenal 40% jump in viewership for BBC Alba in just three months.

According to the Scotsman:

‘Gaelic-language TV service BBC Alba has seen its audience soar by at least 100,000 since the channel was made available to viewers in Scotland on Freeview in June, it was claimed yesterday.

The estimated 40 per cent rise in viewing figures came as the Gaelic channel unveiled its schedule of new programmes for the autumn. They include a documentary series on the maternity unit at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness and a series on Highland veterinary surgeons working at the Blair Drummond safari park near Stirling and the Highland Wildlife Park.

Margaret Mary Murray, the head of service for BBC Alba, said official viewing figures on the switch to Freeview would not be made public for three months.

She said: “We are not going to publish our viewing figures until six months have passed. But I can say that we are very encouraged by both the feedback to the channel and also the numbers that we are seeing through our audience research. They reflect a substantial increase.”

“It is very, very encouraging that people find programmes on the channel that are of interest to them and which complement the other channels available in Scotland.”

She went on: “A significant number of viewers are non-Gaelic speakers and what we find is that Gaelic speakers and non-Gaelic speakers view the channel in different ways. Gaelic speakers tune in to BBC Alba primarily for news, current affairs, entertainment and drama… The three subjects that pull non-Gaelic speakers in are documentaries, music programmes and sport.”’

This is all the more remarkable for a channel that survives on a miniscule budget of some 17 million euros a year, a figure dwarfed by the BBC’s total budget of nearly 4 billion euros a year drawn from the television licence fee and government subsidies. Even against other so-called ‘minority’ broadcast services the channel fares relatively poorly. The BBC’s Asian Network has an annual budget of nearly 14 million euros while the BBC World Service receives up to 300 million euros each year in government payouts (though in fairness both are currently under review).

The example of BBC Alba shows the need, and demand, for Celtic language media across the Celtic nations and the successes that can come from that.

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Jul 31 2011
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An Ghaeilge (Irish Language), Cúrsaí Reatha (Current Affairs), Teilifís (Television)

Féile Lúghnasa

 

Well its that time of the year again and the important Celtic Irish holiday of Lúghnasa, the Feast of Lúgh, is upon us. Beginning from sunset today until sunset tomorrow it is the ancient harvest celebration in the native Irish calendar, and this year RTÉ is miraculously (!) marking it with a series of TV programmes, headlined by Lúghnasa Live:

‘RTÉ invites you to celebrate the ancient festival of Lúghnasa on Sunday July 31st with a live entertainment special broadcast for the from Craggaunowen in County Clare. The show will be a combination of live chat, music and food where well known celebrities will celebrate the ancient festival of Lughnasa and reconnect the audience with one of the, until recently, most important dates in the Irish calendar.

The live show will be informative and entertaining and broadcast from a very evocative location – an Iron Age fort – with an audience of 200. Craggaunowen is an award winning Pre-Historic Park owned and operated by Shannon Heritage, situated on 50 acres of wooded grounds.

Presented by Grainne Seioge the programme will see guests John Creedon, Mary McEvoy, Sinead Kennedy, Colm Hayes and Paul Flynn on a mission to find out more on a different aspect of Lughnas folklore. In addition there will be food from that period with Paul Flynn cooking for the audience of 200 and live music Moya Brennan and Sharon Corr.’

The people of Clare are rightly proclaiming this wonderful new development, as our national broadcaster actually celebrates a part of our national culture:

‘The live show will be broadcast from a very evocative location, Craggaunowen, an Iron Age fort, in front of an audience of 200. The award-winning pre-historic park is owned and operated by Shannon Heritage and is situated on 50 acres of wooded grounds in Quin.

“RTÉ is excited to be bringing our audience this lively show full of chat and fun in celebration of Lúghnasa, which marks an important new chapter in the recognition of our magnificent heritage. The location of Craggaunowen has huge historical significance and RTÉ are looking forward to bringing its viewers a night to remember,” Colm Crowley, head of production for RTÉ Cork said.

Meanwhile, John Ruddle CEO of Shannon Heritage, the Shannon Development subsidiary said, “We are delighted that RTÉ has chosen to make Craggaunowen the focus of their Lúghnasa celebrations. The Lúghnasa theme is a perfect fit with our visitor attraction, which gives viewers a unique glimpse into living conditions in Ireland during the pre-historic and early Christian eras, showing them the type of farmsteads, hunting sites and other features of everyday life. One of the major features of a visit to Craggaunowen is the crannóg, a reconstructed lake-dwelling, on which people built houses, kept animals and lived in relative security. Craggaunowen also features a ring fort, part of an Iron Age road or Togher, which was originally laid in 148AD and the Brendan Boat used by Tim Severin to re-enact the voyage of St Brendan the Navigator, reputed to have discovered America centuries before Columbus.”

Lúghnasa marks the beginning of autumn and is among the four major Celtic feast days, the others being Imbolc on February 1, which marks spring; Bealtaine on May 1 marking the start of summer and Samhain on November 1 marking winter.

The name for the festival of Lúghnasa comes from the name of the god Lúgh and is also sometimes referred to as the feast of Lúgh.
The celebration marks the ripening of grain, specifically corn and also the weaning of calves and lambs and later in history, the festival included the maturing of potatoes.

It is celebrated on August 1 or else the first Sunday of August or the last Sunday of July. Lúghnasa was significant in pre-Christian times as it was a Celtic festival and part of the festivities included the lighting of fires and communal feasting.’

Amazing. Some more from Eddie Stack’s blog:

‘One time it was held at around 200 sites, nearly always remote, inaccessible places that were on heights, or near water. The festival was dedicated to Lúgh, the young and most brilliant god of the Tuatha de Danann. Lúgh was the god of light, god of arts and crafts, father of inventions and the likes.

Lúgh was a good time god. His festival was a young peoples gig and it was party central. In the Irish calendar it was the biggest celebration, the harvest was safe and the population could go and boogie. Held at remote locations, only the young, the fit and the agile made their way there.

As was its practice, the Catholic Church cast their net wherever there was a crowd. They took over Lúghnasa and put a religious stamp on it. One of the most glaring examples of this hi-jacking is Reek Sunday on Croagh Patrick, an ancient Lúghnasa site. The Irish Church said that St. Patrick spent 40 days and nights on the mountaintop, fasting and praying for the salvation of Ireland. If he did, he failed. But it’s more likely a pr job and the nearest Paddy got to the mountain was Campbell’s pub in Murrisk or maybe Matt Molloys in Westport. Anyway, year in and year out, thousands of the hoodwinked faithful climb the mountain on Féile Lúghnasa, saying prayers to Patrick, Mary and Jesus. Some climb barefooted, others climb blindfolded. Lúgh is probably shaking his head at the pain, wondering why they no longer believe in a good time god.’

I agree with much of the above. Deserts produce crazy people, all that lack of water, too much sunshine and heat, it sends people nuts, and they have certainly produced three of the world’s nuttiest religions. Christianity, Islam and Judaism are desert religions and they belong in the desert not in these more civilized climes. Rock-solid atheist that I am if we have to have any religion at all then let it be our own native ones that evolved here in Europe (in the wet!) away from all that dry-mouthed, rasp-tongued desert insanity.

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Jul 14 2011
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An Ghaeilge (Irish Language), Scannáin (Movies), Teilifís (Television)

TG4 Launches Scéal, The Short Film Scheme

News from the IFTN that TG4 has launched a new short film scheme:

‘Scéal is a development scheme that offers talented new Irish-speaking writers/directors an opportunity to adapt a well-known story from Irish language literature or folklore towards a half hour short film. The scheme is following from the success of previous schemes ‘Síol’ and ‘Údar’.

The chosen story can be adapted from and Irish language short story, poem, folklore or any work that represents the Irish tradition of storytelling. ‘Scéal’ aims to bring the six chosen films from a basic script stage to eventual production and broadcast stage. The scheme is open to Irish language writers/directors form all over the country, whether they have experience or not.

The successful applicants will develop their scripts over a series of workshops with guidance from a professional script editor.’

More here.

 


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Jul 02 2011
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Cúrsaí Reatha (Current Affairs), Teilifís (Television)

George Bernard Shaw, Glenn Beck And The Ignorance Of The American Right

Interesting piece in the Canadian Globe and Mail on our very own George Bernard Shaw, playwright and raconteur par excellance, and American demagogue and right wing media personality, Glenn Beck. Poor old GBS has been a long time target of GB and as the article reports:

‘Much more bizarre, though, is a recent spate of virulent online and media attacks on Shaw’s reputation as a progressive, if eccentric, humanitarian. His critics tar him as a totalitarian supporter of Hitler and Stalin who wanted to send society’s weakest members to the gulag or to develop a “humane gas” to kill them.

The instigator of the commotion is Glenn Beck, the popular Fox News and talk-radio host, whose TV series wrapped up this week. “I don’t care that he wrote witty little plays,” Mr. Beck has railed. “The man was a monster.”’

Okey-dokey, then…

Beck, who has had his early evening soapbox show pulled from Fox News, has become the champion of American counter-history, the kind espoused by Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann (and apparently Presidential wannabe Newt Gingrich) so these attacks on Shaw are of a pattern. Though of all the left wing (or right wing) ideologues in 20th century history to zero in on Shaw must be surely be the most bizarre of targets. But this is Glenn Beck after all.

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Jun 10 2011
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An Ghaeilge (Irish Language), Cúrsaí Reatha (Current Affairs), Teilifís (Television)

Howls Of Anglo Anguish As TG4 Wins Rugby Contract?

TG4 has announced an exclusive 3-year deal with the ERC to broadcast highlights of the Heineken and Amlin Challenge Cups. This is part of TG4′s increasing dominance of prestiege international sporting events broadcast in Ireland, as well as the domestic broadcasting of Gaelic Games.

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Jun 05 2011
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An Ghaeilge (Irish Language), Teicneolaíocht (Technology), Teilifís (Television)

TV3 And The Irish Language – Beyond The Pale?

Apparently the independent (British-owned) Irish television broadcaster TV3 is still humming and hawing about continuing the practice of broadcasting the All-Ireland Minor Hurling and Football Championships in the Irish language, after winning the GAA contract away from RTÉ earlier this year.

A previous attempt by RTÉ to include English language analysis to supplement their Irish language commentaries proved hugely unpopular but TV3 seems intent on bilingual coverage of the games at best – or a mere token use of the national language at worse.

Of course the TV3 Group, which controls TV3 and 3e (TV3′s squalid television stable-mate), is a purely commercial enterprise the primary aim of which is to make money out of Ireland’s TV viewers and whose broadcasting market is centred solely on Ireland’s English language community, and the east coast Anglophone community in particular. The channel, which regularly carries simultaneous broadcasts with TV networks in Britain, has become synonymous with British TV programming in Ireland, leading to the not unfair characterization of the network as the Irish ‘regional’ branch of the British television network ITV (which also controls the northern-based UTV) and the rather fetching acronym of TVWB (TVWestBrit). Without TV3 and 3e Ireland’s television viewers would have missed out on such quality gems as Banged Up Brits Abroad, Britain’s Got Talent, The British SOAP Awards, and other programmes prominently featuring the words Britain and British.

Of course all this is perfectly in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Broadcasting Act of 2009, under which the TV3 Group is licensed, a piece of legislation so singularly lacking in culture standards to be fulfilled by independent television or radio broadcasters that it could well qualify as a Rupert Murdoch wet dream. In contrast to other bilingual (and multilingual) nations across Europe, in Ireland there are no minimal language broadcast requirements placed upon independent broadcasters. No percentages, no between hours, nothing. Nor are there regulations ensuring that licensed broadcasters here reflect the broad cultural diversity of the nation.

It would seem that for TV3 the 42% of the population that identify themselves as Irish speakers truly do live beyond the Pale. And don’t expect that to change any time soon.

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