Scannal

We begin in the US, with the notorious incident at Chappaquiddick in 1969, when a car driven by Ted Kennedy went off a bridge, resulting in the death of its passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne.

What really happened in Jack White's in 1996 when Tom Nevin was found dead in his Wicklow pub? His wife Catherine Nevin must know because she was convicted of the murder in a sensational court case that made the headlines.

Garry MacDonncha investigates the 1975 abduction of Dutch businessman Tiede Herrema, when the kidnappers demanded the release of several high-profile prisoners. Despite an extensive Gardai operation, it would be 18 days before they were located, and a further 18 were spent laying siege to the group's hideout in Co Kildare. Featuring interviews with the industrialist and his wife, as well as Government ministers, reporters and negotiators.

The infamous story of the Late Late Show chair. In 1997, the long-running chat show ran an antiques restoring competition, which was won by Co Donegal resident Siubhan Maloney. However, events took an unexpected turn when furniture restorer Joshua Duffy claimed her winning chair was his work. The resulting dispute turned into a lengthy legal battle which gripped the nation.

For more than twenty years Father Michael Cleary led a very public life and was known for being outspoken and often controversial. Throughout the eighties and early nineties he spoke out for the church on divisive issues such as abortion, divorce and most contentiously of all the X-case. But in death Michael Cleary became a far more controversial figure than he had ever been during his lifetime, and ironically will be remembered more for what he didn’t speak about than anything he ever said while he was alive. Because for twenty-six years he had a secret relationship with his housekeeper Phyllis Hamilton and the couple had two children; the first Michael Ivor was put up for adoption in 1970, the youngest, Ross, was born in 1976. This week’s Scannal features the first television interview with Ross, Michael Cleary’s son, since his mother died from cancer in 2001. In it he talks about his memories of his mother and father’s relationship, both in public and private, and his own relationship with his parents. He also talks about going public with the story and the pressures of not being believed for six long years until it was proven beyond doubt by DNA testing that Father Michael Cleary was his father. The programme also features an interview with psychiatrist Professor Ivor Browne who treated Phyllis from the age of twelve after she had had an abusive childhood and had spent time in various institutions. Browne remained a friend for the rest of her life and was aware of her secret relationship for twenty years, urging her to leave on a number or occasions. He also confronted Cleary about it and in the early seventies, he even went as far as setting up a meeting between the couple and Cleary’s mentor and friend Bishop Eamon Casey. Neither Browne nor Cleary were aware at the time, that Casey himself had secretly fathered a child. The programme also includes a clip from Peter Lennon’s documentary film “Rocky Road to Dublin” which was fil

This is the story of a famous Irish trainer, of an English stockbroker who fancied himself as a trainer, of a businessman from Cork with a suitcase full of money, and of their attempt to pull off the greatest betting coup of all time. It involved two horses, both chestnut; not identical, but similar enough. And it all happened at a racecourse that looks like a fairground. A year of painstaking preparation went in to two minutes of frantic effort at Cartmel racecourse, in England, on the August bank holiday weekend of 1974. A horse called Gay Future carried the hopes of a colourful cast of characters, known affectionately as the ‘Cork Mafia,’ who had placed bets in betting offices all over London. They chose the busiest race day of the year with 10 race meetings taking place throughout the U.K. They picked Cartmel, a small Cumbrian track with no ‘blower’ – no connection between the bookies on-course and their colleagues in betting offices throughout the nation. And they pulled it off. Almost.