skip to main content

NATIONWIDE

Nationwide Mary Kennedy Anne Cassin Image Name: Nationwide Mary Kennedy Anne Cassin Description: Nationwide presenters Mary Kennedy and Anne Cassin

Nationwide – Monday 30th November, 7.00pm, RTÉ One.

Tonight’s Nationwide is a special programme on refugees living in Ireland. In the next few months Ireland will be accepting four thousand refugees who are fleeing conflict in Syria.  Tonight the programme meets some people who came to this country as refugees many years ago and who have now settled here and call Ireland home.

Ireland’s first involvement with the United Nations refugee programme was back in 1956 when the country responded to the refugee crisis after the Hungarian uprising against Communist rule.  Of the 350 refugees that came to Ireland that year, very few remain and reporter Tomás O’Mainnín meets one of them in Limerick.

In 1979 Ireland agreed to take in over 200 so-called Vietnamese “boat people” who were fleeing the Communist regime in Vietnam.  Called ‘Programme Refugees’ because they were invited into Ireland by the Government, the refugees were eventually housed throughout the country.  Reporter Helen McInerney speaks to one young Vietnamese woman who arrived with her family into Ireland in 1979 when she was two years old.

 

Nationwide – Wednesday 2nd December, 7.00pm, RTÉ One.

As the National Crafts fair gets underway at the RDS, Nationwide visits Cork to see the crafts on display at the Craft fair in Cork’s City Hall and meets the Mayo boy who is embarking on a musical journey just right for the Christmas period.

The story of an Irish boy with a very special dream at Christmas 1916 will make its world premiere this December, and will make the dreams of a young Irish dancer come true at the same time.  As well as introducing the world to young Stephen Gallagher from Co. Mayo, “Asa,  A Christmas Story” features music by Golden Globe-nominated composer Brian Byrne, and choreography by world-famous Irish dancer, Breandán de Gallaí.  Reporter Nick Sheridan catches up with them at rehearsals in Dublin’s Liffey Trust Dance Studios.

And with Christmas only three weeks away, Nationwide goes in search of some Irish produced gifts at the Cork Craft Fair at City Hall, Cork.   The programme meets some of Munster’s craft produces to see their work and finds out how business is going for the men and women in Ireland’s craft businesses.

 

Nationwide – Friday 4th December,  7.00pm, RTÉ One.

Limerick takes centre stage as Nationwide visits some of the thriving industries and businesses of the city which are all members of the 200 year old Chamber.  The team meet a world champion of boxing in his home place of Castleconnell and they find out how the locals feel about Andy Lee.

Limerick is a city and county with many sporting heroes and one of those is a young 31 year old boxer from Castleconnell.  This time last year Andy Lee became WBO Middleweight World Champion and received a great Limerick welcome on his return home.  In two weeks’ time he will defend his title and Nationwide took the opportunity to meet the man in his home village where he is a local hero.

2015 has been a year of reflection for Limerick Chamber, as it looks back on and celebrates two centuries in existence.  The organisation may have evolved in terms of its membership and values from that founded by Limerick’s Merchant Princes in the early years of the 19th century but it retains its determination to be part of Limerick’s story.  Nationwide finds out more.