New TV series puts city cemeteries under the spotlight

A new six part series for TG4 is set to prove dead interesting – it takes an entertaining look at Ireland’s history of war, revolution, art, music, industry and culture from the unusual perspective of our nation’s graveyards.

And among the cemeteries to be visited by Ar Shlí na Fírinne will be the city’s most historic, yet least known, burial place – Forthill Cemetery on Lough Atalia Road.

Presenter Séamas Mac Annaidh visits a new place each week in the series which begins this Sunday at 8pm and speaks to locals and experts on interesting elements of the graveyard and the people buried there.

In the Galway episode (to be broadcast on Jan 24 at 8pm), Séamas visits Forthill, where Tony McDonagh showed him some of the interesting artefacts, as well as the New Cemetery, Bohermore where he speaks to Tom Kenny, Marianne Ní Chinnéide, Diarmuid de Faoite, Cormac Ó Comhraí and Jackie Uí Chionna about various Galwegians buried there.

Over the course of the series, presenter Mac Annaidh takes viewers across the length and breadth of Ireland, from Belfast to Donegal, Galway to Cork, Dublin to Armagh – exploring the surprising connections graveyards in these areas have with pivotal moments in history, as well as the unexpected stories and local traditions.

With a wry eye and expert knowledge, Séamas looks beyond the stone and earth to discover the very human histories underneath our feet.

Séamas Mac Annaidh said: “From a historian’s perspective, graveyards are the ultimate public records office.  Great and good, princes and paupers, everyone’s stories come to rest here.

“But graveyards also retain all sorts of emotions and memories – they are connected with history but also with feelings and stories that feel very real and present, and the joy of our series is getting to share this connection with an audience.”

In the Galway episode, Séamas discovers how Galway’s maritime past can be traced through every inch of the city’s graveyards.  He separates fact from fiction in the city’s links to the Spanish Armada, and sees the tombs of notorious smugglers and pirates.

The final resting place of Lady Gregory can’t be passed without a trip to Taibhdhearc na Gaillimhe and Séamas finds out about the lasting legacy of writers such as Walter Macken and Pádraic Ó Conaire.

The episode will be repeated on Monday, January 25 at 12.30pm.

Ar Shlí na Fírinne is an Imagine Media production for TG4, with support from Northern Ireland Screen’s Irish Language Broadcast Fund.