With the countdown to the centenary celebrations of the 1916 Rising continuing, RTÉ Player has launched a dedicated ‘1916 Hub’ for audiences to view a broad range of RTÉ 1916 related TV content worldwide for free.
Spanning a range of documentaries, news coverage, debate and analysis, the RTÉ Player 1916 Hub offers international audiences a curated collection of programming to commemorate and celebrate the 1916 centenary.
Some of the content includes Life Before the Rising which is presented by historian Catriona Crowe of the National Archives and explores what was happening in the lives of Irish people from the growing catholic middle classes to the tenement dwellers, in the months and years leading up to the Rising.
Inside the GPO, meanwhile, takes a behind the scenes look at Ireland’s busiest post office, best known as the headquarters of the 1916 Rising. Elsewhere, Ireland’s Rising is a new four part series which sees Anne Doyle, Ryan Tubridy, Jim McGuinness and Fiona Shaw return to their home or ancestral county to explore its connections with 1916 and discover how each county is planning to commemorate the centenary.
In A Terrible Beauty – Culture and Revolution in Ireland, Professor Declan Kiberd looks at the role that artists and cultural leaders had in reinventing Ireland in the late 19th Century, and asks whether the cultural revival really was the spark that ignited the flame of revolution.
Also beginning this week, RTÉ Player’s 1916 Hub will feature Nationwide’s special series of 1916 programmes including three one hour documentaries to mark the centenary. The first of the special documentaries sees guest presenter Bryan Dobson tell the story of “reluctant” Rising Leader Michael Mallin which features a moving interview with his son, Fr Joseph Mallin, who now aged 102 years, is the only surviving child of the 1916 leaders.
Other programme highlights will include; the documentary Seven Women which explores the stories of seven women who were at the heart of the Easter Rising, while Joe Duffy’s Children of the Revolution (available Easter Weekend) uncovers the untold stories of the 38 children killed in the Easter Rebellion.
The website also features a new online exhibition They Were There, which currently presents 50 witness accounts of 1916 events on an interactive map. The previously unseen and unheard audio and visual collection features men and women who were members of the Irish Volunteers, the Citizen Army, Cumann na mBan, the British army, the Dublin Metropolitan Police and citizens of Dublin.
Click here to visit the 1916 Hub on RTÉ Player: http://www.rte.ie/player/ie/tag/1916/
