Documentary on Newstalk

Documentary On Newstalk presents a new documentary by producer Pavel Barter.  Telling the forgotten story of how Irish immigrants built a Wild West mining town two miles high in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado in Cloud City.  This portrait of Irish diaspora, in one of America’s most ruthless settlements, explores the lives of two characters whose names live on in Leadville lore: Mart Duggan from Limerick, one of the most fearsome yet respected lawmakers in the American West; and Michael Mooney, a union leader from Dublin who fought for worker rights.  This month (September, 2023) sees the opening of a memorial to the Leadville Irish, who until now had been forgotten in unmarked graves at the town’s Evergreen Cemetery.  Credits:Pavel Barter: presenter and producer.  Michael Mellamphy (Red Dead Redemption 2) plays Mart Duggan and Michael Mooney.  With thanks to David Wright (research) and Wil Masisak (VO recording).  Funded by Coimisiún na Meán with the Television License Fee. 

In “The First Hundred Years: Albert Dryer and the Irish National Association” producer J.J. O'Shea explores the aims and achievements of an important Irish Cultural organisation founded in 1915 in Sydney, Australia, and the life of the man who was the driving force behind the association. The story of the Irish in Australia remains a relatively unexamined aspect of the Irish emigration story and this programme shines a light on some surprising aspects of that story. "The First Hundred Years" was Produced by J.J. O'Shea. Excerpts from the INA Centenary Oral History Project were used with the kind permission of the National Library of Australia. This programme was supported by a grant from Coimisiún na Meán as part of the Sound and Vision Scheme.

Producer Michael Cullen introduces us to some of Ireland's most successful quizzers. "Know It All" looks at the quizzing scene in Ireland, and talks to some of its most successful participants, including two winners of Mastermind, and a winner of the million on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

Producer Patricia Baker of Curious Broadcast takes a walk past the many famous and infamous statues and monuments in Dublin, in the radio documentary Dead White Men, and considers who and how we commemorate. By talking with academics and arts practitioners she asks questions about the monuments that we have chosen to destroy, those we have kept and those perhaps we should not. This is a walk through the monuments controversy past and present. Dead White Men is a Curious Broadcast Production, Funded by Coimisiún na Meán with the Television Licence Fee.

Unbeatable Together presented by Henry McKean is a documentary which celebrates the Special Olympics in Berlin, with all the success and tears of emotion as Special Olympics Ireland brought home 75 medals.