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Roots, Reels, Rugby and Ros na Rún

TG4 brings it all back home this Autumn

TG4’s new programme schedule is well worth getting to know as launched by actor and TG4 veteran supporter Brendan Gleeson at the Dublin Convention Centre today.   An entertaining and distinctive  Autumn offering includes a major new series on Dublin’s most famous historical characters and locations,  the hidden history of some of our best-known houses, a look-back on how Ireland has been portrayed on film, award-winning documentaries on a wide range of topics from Donegal Westerns to teenage pregnancy, top class  traditional music from the islands and from the four corners of the mainland, profiles of the great players, exclusive GAA and International Rules Football coverage, an exclusive and wide-ranging menu of rugby (World Cup, Heineken Cup, Amlin Challenge Cup, RaboDirect Pro 12), top class home-produced drama as well as acquired international drama for the discerning audience and young peoples’ programmes with a difference combine in the new Autumn offering from TG4,  announced today. It offers a unique and distinctive viewing choice on Ireland’s most innovative tv channel, with attractive content that will engage all the emotions in a combination of new programmes from emerging talent and with all the favourites returning for new seasons too.

• Scéalta Átha Cliath  chronicles Dublin’s rich and diverse history in an eight-part profile and celebration of some of the capital city’s most famous personages or venues. From Molly Malone and Bang Bang to Matt Talbot and Orson Welles’ teenage stage début as well as the strange goings on at the Hellfire Club, this really is Dublin’s history uncovered.
• Ros na Rún   The tv drama series/soap that portrays the real Ireland.    As in life it combines humour and whimsy with the most serious personal issues, challenges and dilemmas. Life in rural Ireland has a quality of its own but is not sheltered from the problems that face us all.
• Anamnocht   profiles  some extraordinary Irish characters from the award-winning author whose father banned the use of English in their suburban Dublin home to the Irish tennis hero convicted of murder in Monte Carlo, to the Senator banned from the House  for wearing a báinín jacket and legendary actor Ray McAnally’s broadcaster son goes in search  of his father’s artistic legacy.
• Cogar   An eye-opening range of original Irish documentaries  on people and  who have been ignored, forgotten or neglected,  including the Armenian refugee whose sweetshop in Cork sold Turkish Delights to Harrods of London,  the reality of life for a pregnant teenager and life on location for the cast of Ireland’s last cowboy film.
• Cé a Chónaigh i mo Theachsa ?  uncovers the amazing secret histories of some of our most famous houses – including the Connemara castle that was home to a millionaire cricket-playing Indian prince, the house that was  part of the plot to save Marie Antoinette from the guillotine and bring her to Dingle  and the castle  on  the Shannon estuary where an old Irish chieftain family plays host to a leading UK actor son-in-law  who has his own Irish forbears.
• An Jig Gig    goes in search of the best traditional Irish dancers in the country, Glór Tíre gives the stage to emerging country and western talent and Steip is the live annual sean-nós dancing extravaganza live from Oireachtas na Gaeilge.   The  G Team challenges towns and villages to brush up their Irish and win a significant fund to promote tourism to their area.
• Farraigí na hÉireann, Ag Dul in Éag and Domhan an Dúlra bring  the best wild-life programming from home and abroad as we explore the natural life wonders of the Irish coast and further afield and  examine how well mankind has treated these resources.
• Rugbaí    Extensive and exclusive live and highlights coverage of all major competitions.  For the first time, all four  Irish provinces take part in the Heineken Cup and TG4 has exclusive free to air  (highlights)  rights for  the Heineken  Cup, Amlin and RaboDirect Pro 12 along with an attractive day-time slot for full deferred coverage or matches from from the 2011  Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.
• GAA Beo   a  wide variety of exclusive live tv coverage of  Gaelic games every weekend –   All-Ireland Finals in Under 21 hurling and in Ladies Football, County Finals and AIB Club Championship matches each Sunday and International Rules Football  Ireland v Australia, as our fearless amateurs travel the Southern Hemisphere. GAA 2011 continues with its Monday night-compilation of all the weekend’s top action.
• Ceist GAA   is Irish television’s only Gaelic games sports quiz with the quiet-spoken Hector Ó hEochagáin asking the questions of teams representing some of the country’s top clubs with Gaelic games tv presenters Micheál Ó Domhnaill and Evanne Ní Chuilinn acting as team captains.
• Geantraí   the best traditional music sessions hosted by well-known players at their local pub Ceol na nOileán showcases the musical legacy of our islands and Tigh an Cheoil   provides a showcase for the best of Scots and Irish musicans at a famous Glasgow venue.   Cérbh Í ?  celebrates the life and times of a star of a female traditional musician of yesteryear – one of whom was our Ambassador’s wife in the Vatican during World War II.
• Misinéirí Radacacha is a timely series that   illustrates how Irish missionaries working abroad have preached a radical gospel message that has resonated with the poor and deprived in foreign countries, at a period when  Catholic clergy in Ireland is under increasing pressure and apparently losing public support.  Each programme is followed by a well known movie on the same theme.
• Muide Éire  a major four-part documentary  that chronicles the history of Ireland on screen – from the horse drawn carriages the Lumière Brothers to the pyrotechnics of present day blockbusters.  The series examines how we represent ourselves and how others represent the Irish on screen.   Veteran film-maker Bob Quinn is also the subject of a major retrospective series.
• Cúla4   A customised daily service in Irish for kids and young people. Cúla4 na nÓg  the pre-school breakfast time segment includes Mr Men, Olivia, Dinosaur Train and Sesame favourites, Bert & Ernie and Abby’s Flying Fairy School.   Cúla4, the afternoon cartoon time includes Garfield, Ben 10, Spongebob Squarepants and Fanboy and Chum Chum.
• Ponc   TG4’s daily zone for young people and teenagers, presented by Máire Treasa Ní Dhubhghaill and Colmán Mac Séalaigh and featuring drama series Switched at Birth, reality television series Wipeout Australia, and Ireland’s weekly chart show POP4, presented by Eoghan Mac Diarmada.
• Nuacht TG4   A daily and distinctive non-metropolitan take on regional, national and international stories and 7 Lá, hard-hitting weekly analysis of the stories that matter.
• Comhrá  A series of gentle conversations with people, not all of them well known, whose extra-ordinary lives reveal a lot of drama away from the headlines.  
• A súil eile selection of  US drama series  exclusive to TG4, including the latest series of Curb Your Enthusiasm and teen drama series, Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries and One Tree Hill.
• An eclectic and discerning range of films - from classics to war to Westerns to contemporary international cinema.

Media Contact Details:
Linda Ní Ghríofa 091-505228 or 087-9172864

Information Pack and images available on www.tg4.ie/press