RTÉ Documentaries

Delve into the powerful story of Storm Éowyn, a once-in-a-century weather event that tore through Ireland with unprecedented force.

Réiteoir! investigates the physical, mental, and emotional toll of refereeing in the GAA. Sports broadcaster Gráinne McElwain investigates the extent and impact of abuse faced by GAA referees. Football referees, David Gough, Siobhán Coyle and Eoghan Ó Muircheartaigh, give personal accounts of their lives as referees, their love for the role and the challenges it brings.

The story of St Patrick and his extraordinary mission from Roman Britain to Ireland to spread the Christian faith 1,500 years ago. In a challenge to the conventional narrative, this places British-born Patrick in his European context and shows how Ireland’s patron saint was part of a radical Christian movement that converted, not only the Irish at the edge of the earth, but also large swathes of Europe, to Christianity.

After surviving a violent assault by a serving soldier who was convicted but walked free with a suspended sentence, Natasha O’Brien refused to stay silent.

In 1960s Ireland, three newborn babies were abandoned in different parts of the country and left without any clue to their identity. Fifty years later, those three children discover they are connected and embark on an emotional journey to uncover their identities.

The astonishing story of the role played by Irish Americans during the conflict in Northern Ireland: fundraising, propagandising and gun-running. NORAID: Irish America and the IRA tells of a body of Irish Americans who acted as the Republican movement's voice in the United States of America throughout that period. Told through first-hand accounts and using exclusive archive sources, the series looks at how Irish-America went from collecting money in bars in the Bronx to pressing the Presidential Candidate, Bill Clinton, during the 1992 primaries - lobbying which led to a key turning point in the nascent Peace Process: a US Visa for the then President of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams.

Tthe remarkable story of a half-blind Englishman’s quest to build a spiritual haven on the cliffs of West Cork that would become the world-renowned Dzogchen Bear.

This gripping documentary chronicles the harrowing 222-day ordeal of Bernard Phelan, an Irish/French citizen wrongfully taken hostage in Mashhad, Iran, in October 2022.

Ireland needs 300,000 new homes by 2030, but who's actually building them? This programme goes behind the hoardings to meet the real people constructing the nation's future.

Documentary portrait of Irish dancer and choreographer Breandán de Gallaí, whose work sits at the intersection of tradition and transformation.

A new RTÉ One documentary uses seven decades of RTÉ Archive footage to look at the people, places, and events which shaped the political life of former President Michael D. Higgins. This retrospective examines – in his own words and the words of those who know and worked with him – Michael D.’s life and work over the years. Spanning his childhood to present day, the documentary shows the influence of the War of Independence and Civil War on his family, which shaped a passion for equality and human rights. It looks at his early career in Galway and election in 1981 as Labour Party TD for Galway West, the first Labour TD there since the 1920s. The documentary reflects on his passionate and lively exchanges on RTÉ Television and radio programmes, going behind the scenes of election counts, TV debates, and interviews from over the years.