RTÉ Documentaries

A profile of feminist and activist Maírín de Burca, following her from childhood in Chicago and her involvement in Sinn Féin at age 16, to her time in the Irish Women's Liberation Movement and the Dublin Housing Action Committee.

Fr Patrick Peyton was a Mayo-born priest, who became an improbable media mogul and friend of the stars and an even more unlikely CIA secret agent during the Cold War. Now he's the subject of a remarkable new RTÉ documentary, Guns & Rosaries. Producer Peter Kelly reveals how, in order to bring that great, untold story to RTÉ One, he, too, had to recruit Hollywood A-listers and to mine a rich seam of archive. It’s not often that we set out to make a religious biographical film and find ourselves dealing with issues of Hollywood glamour, Irish American social mobility, geopolitics and the actions of the CIA during the Cold War. Yet this is the background story to the life and times of Fr Patrick Peyton.

RTÉ lyric fm marks its 20th birthday in style with a powerhouse array of Irish talent in a glittering gala concert hosted by Aedín Gormley and Paul Herriott, celebrating what could well be the station's motto: the joy of music. RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra / RTÉ Philharmonic Choir conductor Gavin Maloney Anne-Marie O’Farrell, Irish harp / Gavan Ring, baritone & Emma Nash, soprano Conductor Gavin Maloney Join with us as we celebrate our 20th birthday with a gala concert featuring the music of Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saens, Rossini, John Williams, André Previn, Strauss and Archibald Potter. The tone of the concert – celebrating the joy of music – will be set by premiere of three new works by Irish composers who were awarded the prize in an open competition to write new music marking the 20th birthday of RTÉ lyric fm. Tyrone-born and Maynooth-based composer Ryan Molloy has written Gealán, a concerto for Irish harp and orchestra. Gealán's radiant and rich sound-world explores both the lyrical nature of the harp and its nimble energy, borrowing from syncopated reel rhythms to create a virtuosic work for harp that allows its soloist Anne-Marie O’Farrell to showcase her talents. Kate Neville’s setting of the Carrick-on-Suir poet Michael Coady’s poem Though there are torturers (...there is music) will be performed by the massed singers of the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir while Elliot Murphy’s new composition for the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra Cello Octet borrows from the Irish slow air tradition to create a captivating new work. MUSIC 1. Rossini: William Tell Overture 2. Katie Neville Though There Are Torturers 3. Tchaikovsky Kuda, kuda vï udalilis from Eugene Onegin (Gavan Ring, tenor) 4. Andre Previn I want magic from A Streetcar Named Desire (Emma Nash soprano) 5. Verdi Parigi O Cara from La Traviata 6. Ryan Molloy Concerto for Irish Harp and Orchestra (soloist Anne-Marie O’Farrell) 7. Elliot Murphy Cello Octet 8. Strauss: By the Beautiful Blue Da

Aine Lawlor and Marty Morrissey present the best of this year's festival and reveal the viewers' choice award winner for Super Garden 2019.

Aine Lawlor and Marty Morrissey present more amazing garden creations live from Bloom, and highlights from all the show stopping gardens featured at the festival.

A young Irish woman in Co Mayo played a critical role in the timing of the D-Day landings in World War II. Maureen Sweeney was 21 years old when she took weather readings at the remote Blacksod weather station in June 1944. Her data threw General Dwight D Eisenhower’s meticulously planned invasion strategy into chaos. It forced him to mediate between opposing US and UK weather advisors and Generals, and ultimately left him alone to make one of the most difficult decisions in the entire war. Completely unaware of the significance of her work, Maureen’s readings were the first to point out an impending storm which led to the postponement of the invasion. Her readings were subsequently first to pinpoint a short window of opportunity that Eisenhower needed to launch, thereby changing the path of the war. Now aged 96, Maureen tells her story

The life and work of psychiatrist Ivor Browne, who has been a central figure in Irish mental health for decades. With contributions by Tommy Tiernan, Tom Murphy and Mary Coughlan

RTÉ Investigates: Greyhounds Running for Their Lives, goes behind the glitz and glamour of the public facade of greyhound racing to reveal serious animal welfare issues in an industry that costs the Irish taxpayer millions of euro every year.

Keepers of the Flame, the feature-length documentary from Emmy Award winner Nuala O’Connor, delves into the archives of the Irish Military Service Pensions. What emerges is a personal retelling of a brutal and divisive period in the birth of a nation and the devastating legacy it left in its wake, for the individuals who took part and their families who suffered long after the fighting ended.

Renowned broadcaster Olivia O’Leary journeys from Kerry to Glasnevin to Rome to chronicle the trailblazing life and the contemporary legacy of Daniel O’Connell – the man that King George IV of England grudgingly called ‘the uncrowned king of Ireland.’