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Ella McSweeney and Dr Gavin Hughes challenge the myth and mystery behind Ireland’s most iconic national treasures. With full access to the collection at the National Museum, they get their hands on our most valuable artefacts, and reveal how even our most ancient treasures still have something to tell us about modern Ireland. They reveal the royal links of a national icon – the Tara Brooch. They discover how Unionists and Nationalists united to keep London’s hands off one Irish treasure, and they learn how burglars led Gardai to a remarkable hoard of ancient gold that rewrites our ancient history.
Press Release:
Ireland’s Treasures
The extraordinary untold tales behind the nation’s greatest treasures…
1x60mins
Presented by Ella McSweeney and Dr Gavin Hughes
RTE One, 6.30pm, Sunday May 1st 2016.
The National Museum of Ireland throws open its priceless collection to RTE’s Ella McSweeney and historian Dr Gavin Hughes in a May bank holiday special, Ireland’s Treasures.
Together, Ella and Gavin discover remarkable stories from our ancient past. These tales reveal Ireland’s most precious objects, though centuries old, still have plenty to say about our modern national story.
Ella gets to handle one of the great icons of our people, the Celtic Tara Brooch. This world famous treasure, now synonymous with Ireland, was used by rebels during the Rising to assert the uniquely Celtic origins of their would-be nation.
But as Ella discovers, the Tara brooch is laden in myth. In fact, it has little to do with Tara and was originally known as the Royal Brooch in honour of Queen Victoria, who took a personal shine to it. Moreover, it may not even by Celtic.
Gavin uncovers more ironies around the Broighter Hoard – the mysterious gold boat found near Derry. Its image has graced stamps and book-covers for decades. Dr Gavin Hughes reveals it was actually saved from the clutches of the British museum by staunch Unionist Edward Carson. The man who was determined that Ireland should remain British was also determined Ireland’s treasures should remain in Ireland. Carson won what was a landmark legal battle, and the Broighter Hoard was kept in Dublin. But within a decade, Ireland was partitioned and Carson separated from the priceless artifact forever.
One less well known treasure has only recently been re-discovered. The Coggalbeg Hoard is a priceless collection of golden Bronze Age jewellery. Ella learns how it was found in a bog in the 1940s, but lay forgotten in a chemist’s safe in the midlands until 2009, when it was stolen by robbers. The thieves later unwittingly dumped it in a skip. It took a massive Garda search to locate the skip in question before it was sent to landfill, and the treasure lost again. Fortunately, the boys in blue prevailed.
When experts at the National Museum at last studied the precious treasure, they discovered that this remarkable find could, in fact, rewrite Bronze Age history in Ireland.
These and other stories make Ireland’s Treasures a perfect treat during the May Bank Holiday weekend. They are surprising tales that will make us want to take a closer look at the incredible treasures in the glass cases in museums across our country.
As Ella and Gavin discover, these ancient artifacts still have something to tell us about where modern Ireland has come from – and how we got here.
Ireland’s greatest treasures do more than sparkle. They have helped create an Ireland worth commemorating, not just for the last century, but for thousands of years to come.
NOTES TO EDITORS
360 Production has worked closely with the National Museum of Ireland in producing this programme. NMI’s current Keeper of Antiquities, Mary Cahill is available for interview, as is the previous Keeper of Antiquities, Ned Kelly.
Authored copy from Ella McSweeney and Dr Gavin Hughes is available. Please enquire with: sarah.neville@rte.ie
Rights cleared digital imagery, video and audio clips also available.