8 October 1998 Edition
Television: Remembering our holocaust
Scealta o Thaobh na mBocht (TnaG)
Kings in Grass Castles (RTE1)
Ard San Aer & Teach na Ceibhe (TnaG)
Prime Time (RTE1)
TnaG, despite negligible support from the vast majority of the printed media, continues to provide innovative and creative programming.
``Scealta o Thaobh na mBocht'' or ``Tales From the Poor Side'', was a haunting one act play based on Roisín's downward spiral to the poorhouse, using excellent language and pressing all the correct emotional buttons without being sentimental or soppy.
Following the latest ``starve-out'', Roisín takes the morally repugnant decision to ``lorg deirce'' (beg) in order to support her family.
Here she feels ``the whip'' from the ``comfortable folk'' who closed their doors on the suffering.
The disastrous situation most Irish found themselves in was compounded by convention and rules created by Victorian values, imposed on us by our rulers. Silly pride was rife and to seek assistance was a fate worse than death and some even pursued the latter course in order to avoid what the neighbours might say.
She details the agonising death of her pregnant sister, ``i slabhra an bhais'' and the wait for the screams of the new born infant - ``ag fanacht don scread nar thainig''.
She realises her sister's demise by the blood leaking through the rafters - ``an fuiolach fola ag teacht trid an lofta'' and her own mother's disposal of the new born in order to avoid a death from famine and also to avoid the scandal of a child outside wedlock - ``fuair me an leanbh faoi leac i mbosca ime lena mhuineal bruite'' (I found her in a butter box with bruising on her neck).
Her mother later perishes insane in a bog ``sa phortach scriophta lesi na sceacha'', fearing the Almighty for her sins, and her brother dies from typhoid, with Roisín being forced to feed an stocach by shovel and burning the house in the aftermath.
Bhí si ina dhileachta cosuil leis na milte san am sin agus s'e an taon seans a bhi aici na ealu go dti teach na mBocht'' (she finds herself alone as thousands of others did at the time, with the only option being the dreaded poorhouse).
The strength of the acting and portrayal of sheer brutality of the famine is in stark contrast to the ``shillelagh'' style RTE production ``Kings in Grass Castles'', despite the efforts of Fionnuala O'Flannagan.
The drama has a strong storyline but is far too full of the old cliches and vocabulary - ``I'll never leave the soil boy, this ground is blessed with our family dead, we're going to uncle Darby in Australia, thanks be to God''.
Based on a true story, the Durack family of Galway suffer a similar fate to Roisin, with the family survivor Patrick leading the journey to ``the other world''.
The experiences of the Irish in Australia is one that has been almost ignored, largely because of the circumstances where many were deported as ``criminals'' for a crime such as stealing an apple or saying the wrong thing to the wrong person, such as ``insulting the crown''.
The treatment meted out to the Irish was quite similar to that suffered by blacks deported to America as slaves - our failure to address this remains glaring.
The Duracks are sold into slavery ``indenture'' but get-up-and-go Patsy unearths a few nuggets in the gold mines and promptly buys the family freedom and a few acres.
Future episodes will touch on the emigrants' treatment of the Aborigine population; unfortunately our treatment at home by British rulers was often emulated by ourselves in our dealings with black America, Native American Indians and Aborigines - another no-go area for most TV historians. RTE have picked on a strong topic and one hopes the series will mature with time.
Is Clar nua seachtainiuil ``Ard San Aer'' do lucht an CLG ina bhfuil scoth de na gcluichi club agus condae.
TnaG's ``Ard San Aer'' is for all enthusiastic GAA heads with a regular supply of club matches, county finals etc. This week's episode featured the Kerry Football and Antrim Hurling Finals, where the Ballycastle goalie could've done with a bigger frying pan.
For you music vultures ``Teach na Ceibhe'', as the title suggests, is a weekly session from The Quays pub in Galway, which kicked off this week with Ulster's finest - Altan.
Ulster's not-so-finest Orange brethern of Portadown were busy spitting and hurling abuse at Free State cameramen on RTE's Prime Time.
Those without the lager cans were busy warning the residents of the Garvaghy Road that they might ``get a night's sleep'' if they got ``rid of that terrorist McCionnaith'' - which is somewhat ironic following the death of RUC man Frank O Reilly following a blast bomb attack by the same loyalists.
Southerners find it hard to grapple with the continued frayed nerves of the town's 20% nationalists, who are forced to ``run the gauntlet'' everytime they dare to venture to the town centre for essentials.
The same town centre, which republicans have often been castigated for trying to destroy, is now being brought to a standstill by the brethren.
Sure it's all about tradition - and we all know what tradition that might be.
By Sean O Donaile
Kings in Grass Castles (RTE1)
Ard San Aer & Teach na Ceibhe (TnaG)
Prime Time (RTE1)
TnaG, despite negligible support from the vast majority of the printed media, continues to provide innovative and creative programming.
``Scealta o Thaobh na mBocht'' or ``Tales From the Poor Side'', was a haunting one act play based on Roisín's downward spiral to the poorhouse, using excellent language and pressing all the correct emotional buttons without being sentimental or soppy.
Following the latest ``starve-out'', Roisín takes the morally repugnant decision to ``lorg deirce'' (beg) in order to support her family.
Here she feels ``the whip'' from the ``comfortable folk'' who closed their doors on the suffering.
The disastrous situation most Irish found themselves in was compounded by convention and rules created by Victorian values, imposed on us by our rulers. Silly pride was rife and to seek assistance was a fate worse than death and some even pursued the latter course in order to avoid what the neighbours might say.
She details the agonising death of her pregnant sister, ``i slabhra an bhais'' and the wait for the screams of the new born infant - ``ag fanacht don scread nar thainig''.
She realises her sister's demise by the blood leaking through the rafters - ``an fuiolach fola ag teacht trid an lofta'' and her own mother's disposal of the new born in order to avoid a death from famine and also to avoid the scandal of a child outside wedlock - ``fuair me an leanbh faoi leac i mbosca ime lena mhuineal bruite'' (I found her in a butter box with bruising on her neck).
Her mother later perishes insane in a bog ``sa phortach scriophta lesi na sceacha'', fearing the Almighty for her sins, and her brother dies from typhoid, with Roisín being forced to feed an stocach by shovel and burning the house in the aftermath.
Bhí si ina dhileachta cosuil leis na milte san am sin agus s'e an taon seans a bhi aici na ealu go dti teach na mBocht'' (she finds herself alone as thousands of others did at the time, with the only option being the dreaded poorhouse).
The strength of the acting and portrayal of sheer brutality of the famine is in stark contrast to the ``shillelagh'' style RTE production ``Kings in Grass Castles'', despite the efforts of Fionnuala O'Flannagan.
The drama has a strong storyline but is far too full of the old cliches and vocabulary - ``I'll never leave the soil boy, this ground is blessed with our family dead, we're going to uncle Darby in Australia, thanks be to God''.
Based on a true story, the Durack family of Galway suffer a similar fate to Roisin, with the family survivor Patrick leading the journey to ``the other world''.
The experiences of the Irish in Australia is one that has been almost ignored, largely because of the circumstances where many were deported as ``criminals'' for a crime such as stealing an apple or saying the wrong thing to the wrong person, such as ``insulting the crown''.
The treatment meted out to the Irish was quite similar to that suffered by blacks deported to America as slaves - our failure to address this remains glaring.
The Duracks are sold into slavery ``indenture'' but get-up-and-go Patsy unearths a few nuggets in the gold mines and promptly buys the family freedom and a few acres.
Future episodes will touch on the emigrants' treatment of the Aborigine population; unfortunately our treatment at home by British rulers was often emulated by ourselves in our dealings with black America, Native American Indians and Aborigines - another no-go area for most TV historians. RTE have picked on a strong topic and one hopes the series will mature with time.
Is Clar nua seachtainiuil ``Ard San Aer'' do lucht an CLG ina bhfuil scoth de na gcluichi club agus condae.
TnaG's ``Ard San Aer'' is for all enthusiastic GAA heads with a regular supply of club matches, county finals etc. This week's episode featured the Kerry Football and Antrim Hurling Finals, where the Ballycastle goalie could've done with a bigger frying pan.
For you music vultures ``Teach na Ceibhe'', as the title suggests, is a weekly session from The Quays pub in Galway, which kicked off this week with Ulster's finest - Altan.
Ulster's not-so-finest Orange brethern of Portadown were busy spitting and hurling abuse at Free State cameramen on RTE's Prime Time.
Those without the lager cans were busy warning the residents of the Garvaghy Road that they might ``get a night's sleep'' if they got ``rid of that terrorist McCionnaith'' - which is somewhat ironic following the death of RUC man Frank O Reilly following a blast bomb attack by the same loyalists.
Southerners find it hard to grapple with the continued frayed nerves of the town's 20% nationalists, who are forced to ``run the gauntlet'' everytime they dare to venture to the town centre for essentials.
The same town centre, which republicans have often been castigated for trying to destroy, is now being brought to a standstill by the brethren.
Sure it's all about tradition - and we all know what tradition that might be.
By Sean O Donaile