Mayo’s Achill island is first stop on a tour of Ireland’s holy wells for a new documentary series on TG4.

“As islanders we have a special draw to the sea, the sea attracts people and has kept us alive,” the makers of the new documentary series, presented by Manchán Magan, state..

“ Even today more than two million people live within five km of the coast,” they state, and the first episode profiles the wells on the Irish coastline.

“Ag Triall ar an Tobar” “dives into the myths and legends associated with Ireland’s holy wells and asks what is it about these therapeutic landscapes that retain a presence in today’s world”.

In the first episode filmed on Achill island, Magan meets John Twin MacConmara and Mary Jo Uí Chaoimh.

Michéal Ó Maoileáin recounts the importance of holy wells to Connemara’s history and Liam Suipéil speaks about St. Declan and his reign in Ardmore, Waterford.

Holy wells in Ireland hold a unique role as symbols of Irish culture and a connection with the natural environment. These sacred wells pre-date the Christian era, usually dedicated to Saint names that still echo like Bríd, Pádraig and Colmcille, and there is clear evidence that they were originally pagan sites.

"Ag Triall ar an Tobar" is produced by Ann Ní Chíobháin, and directed by Medb Johnson of Midas Productions.

The first episode will be broadcast this Thursday, March 14th, on TG4 at 8pm.

The cost and impact of flooding influenced by climate change and environmental degradation is the focus of a new documentary due to be broadcast on TG4 this month.

“Tuilte”, an hour-long documentary by Dearcán Media, examines just how vulnerable coastal and low-lying regions are to sea level rise, together with increased rainfall and storm events.

It points out that at least 40% of the population lives within 5 km of the coast, and it is estimated 70,000 Irish addresses are at risk of coastal flooding by 2050.

The documentary looks at the impact that flooding has already had on various communities throughout the country, meeting residents in Donegal who suffered serious damage in the storms of August 2017.

It also profiles communities trying to implement sustainable practices to mitigate the effects of flooding and to improve water management.

Among those interviewed are Trish Murphy and the Inishowen Trust, who discuss “innovative nature-based solutions to ‘Slow the Flow’”.

It also interviews Belfast environmentalist Aaron Kelly, who is on a mission to rewild the Black Mountain, providing a tree canopy for wildlife which will also soak up rain during heavy rainfall.

Galway Labour councillor and businessman Niall McNelis

The documentary focuses on the experience of Galway Labour councillor and businessman Niall McNelis.

His jewellery shop sits just beside the Spanish Arch, and it has been badly flooded six times over 21 years of business, damaging the property and stock each time.

McNelis speaks of the toll it has taken on his mental health in recent years.

It interviews Connemara-based artist Ríonach Ní Néill who reveals her fears for the future, and Micheál Ó Cinnéide a co-founder of Corrib Beo partnership, a voluntary group which promotes the sustainable development of the Corrib catchment.

Tuilte will be broadcast on Wednesday, February 21st at 9.30pm on TG4

Sailing in Donegal, sea-stack climbing on the Atlantic coast, and snorkelling with grey seals in Galway are among activities pursued by presenter Barra Ó hÉineacháin in a new maritime TV series for TG4.

Entitled “Barragram”, the six-part series promises “a wild ride through Ireland’s most breath-taking locations” where Ó hÉineacháin “plunges into each activity with gusto”.

“Always engaging the audience with his sense of fun, Barra also involves the filming crew whenever possible,”TG4 says.

“In Cork, Barra convinces cameraman Aaron to dive off a bridge as part of a thrilling speedboat ride around Cobh. We see soundman Adrian skiing down the mountain with his boom in Dublin, while in Donegal, Máire joins Barra on a stunning sunrise kayak island trip,”it says.

Director Moya Rogers says she “wanted to capture the essence of the fun a crew can have while filming”.

“We were so lucky with our amazing team with Adrian, Aaron, Brian and particularly Máire being so happy to be on screen. We managed to get our content quite quickly due to the authentic way in which we filmed with contributors also,”Rogers says.

“I’m delighted our series also captured the beauty of the places we visited. We promise to immerse viewers in a whirlwind of adventure, culture and exhilaration in a way that resonates with a young audience, and plunges them right into the action ,” she says.

Ó hÉineacháin says he “loved every second of it from all the whopper accommodation and delicious food to the adrenaline pumping moments of jumping off mountains in Kerry and climbing sea stacks in Donegal”.

“The show is full of high-energy banter in every scene and you can really see the fun we all had making it. I’m so grateful for all the people that helped make it along the way and there is just pure love and happiness shining through every scene,” he says.

“With its quick cuts, vibrant visuals and driving soundtrack, Barragram ensures that no moment is wasted, offering a feast of excitement and discovery,”TG4 says

The 25-year-old television presenter from Clontarf, County Dublin first gained recognition as the host of the online series "Bí an Réabhlóid", where he “fearlessly explored and celebrated contemporary culture, innovative ideas, and societal trends”, TG4 says.

“His engaging style and genuine enthusiasm for each topic made him a favourite among viewers of his age group,” it says.

Barragram, the new six-part half-hour travel series, is available to watch on TG4 player here

The work of the Irish Coast Guard, mountain rescue and community rescue boat teams is profiled in a new series filmed last autumn for TG4.

Tarrthálaithe na hÉireann, an eight-part series, was made by Big Mountain Productions and starts on October 5th on TG4.

It follows the Irish Coast Guard, mountain rescue teams and community rescue boats on call-outs, training and fundraising events.

User-generated content (UGC) was created through wearable tech and drones, the film company says, and it worked with the Valentia Coast Guard station and Rescue 118 crews based at the Irish Coast Guard Sligo helicopter base.

The Costelloe Bay Coast Guard Team appear in episode one of TG4's Tarrthálaithe na hÉireann

Coast Guard units from Mulroy and An Bun Beag in Donegal, Ros an Mhíl in Conamara and Wexford’s Cahore point were involved, along with the Sligo/Leitrim, Kerry, Dublin/Wicklow and the South East Mountain Rescue teams.

Volunteers from the specialist dog rescue unit SARDA, and community inshore rescue teams based at Banna Beach Kerry and Bantry Bay, West Cork are also featured.

Jarlath Folan from the specialist dog rescue unit SARDA 4 appear in episode one of TG4's Tarrthálaithe na hÉireann

The series was made with the full cooperation of the Irish Coast Guard and the Department of Transport.

An Bun Beag Coast Guard appear in in episode five of TG4's Tarrthálaithe na hÉireann

Tarrthálaithe na hÉireann is on Thursdays from October 5th at 8 pm on TG4 and is available on the TG4 player.

The Great Western lakes village of Tourmakeady is the focus of a TV programme on TG4 this week.

The programme presented by Síle Nic Chonaonaigh is part of a series entitled Bailte which explores the resilience within townlands and rural communities.

Tourmakeady or Tuar Mhic Éadaigh, the village nestled between the shores of Lough Mask and the Partry Mountains in south Mayo, is one of over 60,000 such communities on the island.

“A picture postcard scenic area of gently rolling hills and lake views disguise a turbulent history of local persecution and our nation's fight for independence,” TG4 says.

“The world-renowned Lough Mask has for generations sustained the local community and Síle learns of the immense local pride connected with the lake,”it says.

She also “explores the generational effects of emigration but also meets with a younger generation who intend to once again return to their native village”.

The series is billed as a “celebration of hard-working and vibrant communities working to ensure their community is more than just a mere layby and a pretty spot on the Wild Atlantic Way”.

As well as the many advantages of living in rural townlands, the series also “shares the difficulties living in remote area, rural depopulation, lack of basic services, unemployment and the uncertain futures of both the farming and the fishing industries”, TG4 says.

Bailte’s profile of Tourmakeady/ Tuar Mhic Éadaigh is presented by Síle Nic Chonaonaigh this Thursday, March 30th, at 8 pm on TG4.

The chequered history of a Viking prison island, a sinister story about a hidden beach known as the “Back of Beyond”, and how seaweed restored the fortunes of a seaside town are themes in a new aerial documentary about Ireland due to be broadcast on TG4.

The two-part documentary explores Ireland’s south and east coasts, focusing on the landscape, architecture, history and human experience.

Entitled Rúin ón Spéir, it was filmed from the air during the autumn at various locations, including Bull Rock island, Charles Fort, Newgrange, Merrion Square and Boland’s Mills in Dublin, Birr Castle, Powerscourt waterfall and Glendalough.

Limerick’s “Living Bridge”, Lough Hyne in west Cork, Dursey Island, the Burren, Cahergal Stone Fort, Sneem, Dunguaire Castle, the Cliffs of Croaghaun, Derryclare lough and Achill island are also covered, along with Ben Bulben, Glenveagh National Park and Fanad Head lighthouse in Donegal.

The series is narrated by Doireann Ní Bhriain, with contributions from Anthony Murphy, author and historian; Siún Ní Raghallaigh, former chief executive of Ardmore Studios; Edel Tobin, founder of Waterford Walls art project; Martin Shehan, farmer on Dursey Island; Jenny Beale, founder of Brigit’s Garden in Co Galway; Sean Corcoran, sand artist; and Helena Byrne, storyteller.

The Irish Sky Garden at Liss Ard Estate in West Cork

It has been produced and directed by international filmmaker Stephen Rooke, whose past work includes Sacred Sites - Seasons 1&2, Aerial Britain, Saving the Titanic and Waterways.

Rúin ón Spéir is produced by Tile Films Ltd. for TG4 and the international television market, and will be broadcast on TG4 from Wednesday, October 19th at 9:30 pm or anytime on the TG4 Player.

The "culture, challenges and benefits" of living on the Atlantic seaboard are explored in a new TG4 Maritime TV series broadcast from this week.

Áine Ní Bhreisleáin, presenter of Bladhaire on Raidió na Gaeltachta and co-presenter of Beo ar Éigean on RTÉ Radio 1, travels down the west coast, from Donegal to Kerry, for 'An Cósta Thiar' (The West Coast).

Communities and people who have a strong affinity with the coast and the sea, through "new businesses, traditional livelihoods, recreational activities, ecology, birdwatching, eco-tours, swimming, boats and vessels of all kinds and more are explored in the series.

She begins her journey at home in Gaoth Dobhair in Donegal, heading to na Rosa to learn about the historical importance of the sea from local historian Donnchadh Ó Baoill.

Áine Ní Bhreisleáin

"While fishing with local fisherman Éamonn Mac Ruairí agus the renowned musician Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Áine investigates the constant battle between sustaining communities and conserving our seas, and finally discovers a gem, Owey Island with Aiden Ó Fearraigh, a young man who lives for the sea and water sports,"TG4 says.

She is on the island of Árainn Mhóir on the second leg of journey, where she meets with the local RNLI lifeboat crew crew of the local RNLI, and she learns about a local tragedy and a history of emigration with a local historian, Hugh Mac Ruairí.

She also meets a young musical family, Fiona Nic Ghloinn and Jesse Smith, who have moved to the island and tries her hand at sailing.

In south Donegal for the third programme, she joins Iain Miller and Aodán Mac Fhionnlaioch to ascend on the majestic Sturall, and explores the local fishing industry . She goes horse riding with mother and daughter duo Sinéad and Ríona Ní Eochaidh to "explore how the sea brings energy and peace to people and animals".

On the fourth week, she is on Achill island, Co Mayo, with outdoor instructor Tomás Mac Lochlainn, and she is in Carna in Conamara for the fifth episode where she learns about the aquaculture industry in Ireland with local marine biologist Macdara Ó Cuaig.

The Galway coast is focus for the sixth episode, this time in Cois Fharraige, where Ní Bhreisleáin gathers seaweed with a local businessman Noel Lee. She interviews local historian Seán Ó Coidealbha, visits the Claddagh with local TD Catherine Connolly, learns how to steer a Galway hooker with Bádóirí an Chladaigh and goes kayaking with Olympian canoeist Éadaoin Ní Challaráin.

Cósta Clár 1 ÁIne ag dul amach go Oileán Uaigh

Inis Oírr is location for episode seven, while she is in west Kerry for episode eight where she goes rowing with local musician, Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich, boatbuilder Eddie Hutch and All-Ireland champions in Cumann Rámhaíochta an Daingin.

She also investigates the attraction of sea swimming for local women with local group ‘Snámh for the Soul’ . In the penultimate programme, Ní Bhreisleáin continues on her journey around the Corca Dhuibhne coast, exploring the history of trade in An Daingean with Brenda Uí Shúilleabháin and how the coast inspires artists with the talented Tomáisín Ó Cíobháin.

Her journey concludes in Uíbh Ráthach in South Kerry, where she visits the Skelligs, goes snorkelling with Gráinne Ní Ailín from Sea Synergy and surfing with Cian O’Connor, and explores the long history of this coastal community from the time of the Milesians with poet and historian, Paddy Bushe,

An Cósta Thiar is broadcast from Wednesday, January 12th, on TG4 at 8.30pm.

The courtship rituals of bottle-nosed dolphins, basking sharks congregating off the Irish coast and the sex-shifting cuckoo wrasse are documented in a new wildlife series on the Celtic coasts.

“Iontas na bhFarraigí Ceilteachta” is a three-part series presented by Eoin Warner which will be broadcast on TG4 from January 12th.

The series filmed over two years in ultra high definition by some of the filmmakers behind natural history series Blue Planet, according to TG4.

The team took “a corner of these islands which has never previously been explored in such sumptuous detail – Ireland’s sunny southeast and the Welsh coast”, it says.

Footage of blue sharks, basking sharks and fin whales is included, along with guillemots – the seabirds that can “fly” underwater - and the blenny fish which can breathe on land.

“Getting close to nature – especially given recent lockdown events- provides such a great escape for the soul,” director Paddy Hayes said.

Eoin Warner goes kayaking in Iontas na bhFarraigí Ceilteachta

“ The Iontais na bhFarraigí Ceilteacha team captured some really breath-taking footage of our undiscovered coasts and some eye-opening behaviour of our best-known marine animals’ – and it is such a joy to know that all this occurs just off our shores,” he said.

The three episodes of Iontais na bhFarraigí Ceilteacha are divided into three habitats - the shores, the shallows and the deep.

Warner explores the marine animals that inhabit the coastlines of Ireland and Wales who need to adapt to this rapidly changing environment in the first part, on the shores, and he goes kayaking off Waterford’s copper coast.

In part two, Warner goes skindiving in the shallow seas where he explores “the seabed bursting with life”, including filming a female catshark as she lays an egg or “mermaid's purse’” deep in the kelp forest floor.

Lady's Island Lake in County Wexford, where Arctic terns have arrived to breed, is also captured in this episode. Arctic terns spend the summer fishing in these shallow waters to feed their young, and then embark on the longest migration of any living thing on Earth.

The final episode, on the deep, explores animals from the giant fin whale to the tiny microplankton that is responsible for 50% of the air that we humans breathe.

“In this episode, we encounter a bait ball – many different species co-operating in a deep-water feeding frenzy,” the team says.

“ We first encounter a group of fin whales - at twenty-five meters long, these majestic submarine-shaped creatures are the planet’s second-largest animals. Joining them to hunt sardines are two-meter-long blue-finned tuna,” they explain, and common dolphins enter the “feeding fray”.

“ Fast-moving, super-intelligent marine mammals, they drive the hapless fish together and push them towards the surface, where they are easily picked off by diving gannets. Spectacular footage shot from above and below the water captures the freneticism of this extraordinary wildlife phenomenon,” they state.

Iontais Na bhFarraigí Ceilteacha is an Irish/Welsh BBC/TG4 co-production by Tua Films & One Tribe TV.

When Hilda Hunter eloped with Hori Morse on the SS Barrabool to Australia, little did she know that she would become the last victim of the Auxiliaries.

She was on board another vessel, SS Medic, and trying to escape from her former lover, when she was shot dead with the Smith and Wesson revolver that Morse had used against the IRA in Ireland.

The two ships were central to a forgotten murder which is the subject of a drama-documentary on TG4 this week.

Galway film producer Des Kilbane worked with award-winning directors Lydia Monin and Andrew Gallimore on Pairteach I nDúnmharú - An Auxiliary To Murder, which records how Morse and Hunter’s relationship linked in with a seminal chapter in Ireland’s War of Independence.

SS Barrabool

Morse, originally from New Zealand, was a member of the infamous “H Division” of the Auxiliaries which besieged Tralee, Co Kerry, from November 1st to 9th, 1920. The Auxiliaries were known as a “gentleman’s Black and Tans”, wreaking havoc and fear during their short but murderous spell in Ireland.

Morse began his relationship with Hunter, who lived in Coleraine with her husband and three children, while he was on leave in Wales.

Hilda Hunter

After he resigned from the Royal Irish Constabulary, the couple eloped to Australia to work on the sheep-shearing circuit. However, Hunter decided to leave him, and was on board the SS Medic when she was persuaded to disembark in Adelaide.

As Kilbane says, that decision “sealed her fate”. Morse shot her dead with one bullet through her heart on February 24th, 1924, and then turned the gun on himself but survived.

Morse stood trial for murder in Adelaide, and a petition signed by 22,000 people saved him from hanging. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was released after ten years, having reportedly been a “model prisoner”.

He returned to New Zealand, married and had two children and passed away in the 1970s.

Hori Morse fires the fatal shot in the TG4 docu drama

As Kilbane explains, there were no court martials, no war crimes tribunals, no truth and reconciliation commissions dealing with the havoc which the Auxiliaries had caused.

Morse’s trial in Adelaide, therefore, became the “only legal forum to investigate the character of a man who became part of the most feared killing machine of Ireland’s revolutionary period”, he says.

Relatives of Hunter were interviewed for the drama-documentary, which draws on newsreel archive footage of the War of Independence, along with contemporary film, photographs and newspaper reports.

The documentary is narrated by Sile Nic Chonaonaigh, and was funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. It is due to be broadcast on TG4 this Wednesday, December 15th, at 9.30 pm.

On the western edge of Europe lies a unique culture that depended and fought with the Atlantic Ocean for thousands of years.

It is the native sailboat, the Galway Hooker, that sustained this poorest of communities, and the new generation of these same families of sailors still sail the coast of Connemara, now racing to be champions.

TG4’s documentary Bádóiri, now in its second series, follows the historic boats as they awaken from the long Connemara winter, only to find new contenders aboard for this season’s Galway Hooker Racing League regattas.

The preparations have started in earnest, and the show will keep up with the sailors as they race each other in the first of the summer’s races.

In series one we saw the family owned boats battle one another for the coveted prize of All-Ireland champions. In this new series, we introduce a new boat and a new family to the fleet.

Young and eager to impress, this new crew from The Truelight become a racing force to be reckoned as all the crews push themselves and their boats to their limit.

This second series also delves deeper into sailing families lives and histories.

An illness to one of the skippers bring the boatmen together where they share their personal stories as well as their hopes and fears from their sailing culture. Towards the end of the series, the racing and rivalry becomes more intense and the waters become treacherous.

Producer and director Donncha Mac Con Iomaire says: “There are few societies in the world where a 200-year-old boat is the epicentre of the same family for two centuries.

“The maritime community of Connemara never underestimates the Atlantic, and the unity of their families cannot afford to succumb to failure at sea. This ancient world that works hard and plays hard is what is still most genuine culture of Ireland.”

Bádóiri returns tonight, Thursday 5 March, at 8pm on TG4.