NEW GAELIGE SERIES ANNOUNCED FOR BBC NORTHERN IRELAND

A new series, Rúin na bPortach, visits bogs and peatlands across the island of Ireland and throughout the world, exploring their role in the global ecosystem and how their distinct and wild beauty has shaped our culture and identity.

Starting on Sunday 21 January on BBC iPlayer and BBC Two Northern Ireland, Rúin na bPortach was made for BBC Gaeilge and TG4 by Below The Radar TV with support from Northern Ireland Screen’s Irish Language Broadcast Fund.

Presenter Cormac Ó hÁdhmaill takes us on a journey from our beautiful native bogs at home to the boreal peatlands of Canada, discovering how changes in the peat industry are affecting people’s way of living.

Cormac says: “It’s arguable that a series of three one-hour programmes does not give enough time to reflect the huge importance of bogs in the archaeology, history, culture, and psyche of Ireland. In making this series, we did go some way towards that goal.

“I looked at bodies ritually buried in bogs, customs and practices associated with bogs, what science can reveal about how bogs grow and develop and the life found within them. And I also learned to appreciate in a deep visceral way how important bogs are in mitigating some of the excesses of modern life and the existential threats we face.”

In episode one, Professor Matthijs Schouten reveals how a visit to Ireland in the 1970s prompted him to start a campaign to save Irish bogs. We meet poet Annemarie Ní Churreáin who takes inspiration from the landscape in Donegal’s Poisoned Glen and Cormac travels to Finland where he meets people who believe peat should be treated as a renewable resource.

There are many layers of history preserved by peat and in the second episode Cormac speaks to Eamonn Ned Kelly at the National Museum of Ireland about the human remains found in our bogs and what they can tell us about a time before our history books began.

We meet Professor Helen Sheridan who, with her team, has studied the medicinal benefits of a variety of plants found on bogs and used as folk cures for generations.

In the final episode we meet leading experts in bogland science and restoration, including Irish researchers who are using 19th century maps to identify areas that could potentially be restored to active living bog.

In Canada, Dr Line Rochefort - world expert in bog restoration - explains her methods of replanting sphagnum and a Wildfire Research Scientist explains how healthy peatlands quell the spread of potentially devastating fires.

Rúin na bPortach is a Below the Radar TV, Mac TV, and Idéacom International UK-Canada co-production for BBC Northern Ireland, TG4, BBC Alba, Radio-Canada and RTBF. An English language version Secrets In The Peat will be broadcast on BBC Northern Ireland later this year.

The series received funding from Northern Ireland Screen's Irish Language Broadcast Fund, Screen Scotland, and the Canada Media Fund, and was also supported by Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Celtic International Fund.

The full series will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer from 10pm on Sunday 21 January.