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IT’S A PARK’S LIFE

IT’S A PARK’S LIFE Park Rangers James Dalton and Kieron Bromwich Option 3 Image Name: IT’S A PARK’S LIFE Park Rangers James Dalton and Kieron Bromwich Option 3
IT’S A PARK’S LIFE Park Rangers James Dalton and Kieron Bromwich Option 2 Image Name: IT’S A PARK’S LIFE Park Rangers James Dalton and Kieron Bromwich Option 2
IT’S A PARK’S LIFE Park Rangers BIKES James Dalton and Kieron Bromwich Option 1 Image Name: IT’S A PARK’S LIFE Park Rangers BIKES James Dalton and Kieron Bromwich Option 1
IT’S A PARK’S LIFE Kevin O'Malley, American Ambassador to Ireland Image Name: IT’S A PARK’S LIFE Kevin O'Malley, American Ambassador to Ireland
IT’S A PARK’S LIFE Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Kevin O' Malley Image Name: IT’S A PARK’S LIFE Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Kevin O' Malley
It's a Park's Life Image Name: It's a Park's Life

Episode Three:

This week we go behind the scenes at the Deerfield Residence, home to former US Ambassador to Ireland Kevin O’Malley. Deerfield has hosted many distinguished guests over the years, including John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, and tonight is no different: multi-award winning songwriter and musician Jimmy Webb is in town, and we hear an intimate rendition of his fitting classic ‘By the Time I Get to Phoenix’.

We check back in with rangers James and Ciarán who have ditched the jeep and are patrolling on two wheels today. While they often have to be stern and serious as they uphold the Phoenix Park’s many bylaws, James and Ciarán have a gentler side too. They have been known to provide a shoulder to cry on for some park users, and are always looking out for the regulars they’ve got to know over the years.

Back at the Papal Cross, former Dublin hurler Joey Towell spends his days introducing busloads of tourists to our native game of hurling. Having grown up in neighbouring O’Devaney Gardens, Joey spent 35 years playing through the age grades for the Dublin hurling team, so there’s few better ambassadors of the small ball game. We also meet the Leinster Model Flying Club, who meet at the ‘Fifteen Acres’ every Wednesday and cherish the club as their own “outdoor men’s shed.”

Series Overview:

For the first time in Irish broadcasting history, Moondance Productions has been given complete access to one of Ireland’s most loved and visited public spaces – Phoenix Park. In this monumental new six-part documentary series, viewers go behind-the-scenes like never before in one of Europe’s largest city parks.

Narrated by Emmy winner Baz Ashmawy and airing at 8.30pm on RTÉ One on Wednesdays from September 6th, It’s a Park’s Life is the perfect show for the whole family to sit down and enjoy together.

Phoenix Park is like a city within a city. Three hundred and fifty years old and spanning over 1,750 acres in the centre of Dublin, it is a diverse microcosm lived in and enjoyed by dignitaries and Dubliners alike.

 

Later in the series, we go behind the scenes at the residence of US Ambassador to Ireland, Kevin O’Malley. With unprecedented access for Irish television, viewers are taken on a tour of the splendid Deerfield Residence and journey into the luxurious guest bedroom where John F. Kennedy stayed during his historic visit to Ireland in 1963. There’s also an intimate concert from Grammy winner Jimmy Webb as part of the Creative Minds series and the annual 4th of July summer party, where the three and half thousand guests consume about 10,000 hotdogs. It’sbold, brash, and very American!

We meet Phoenix Park’s head deer keeper, Terry, who has been casting a watchful eye over the park’s 500-strong herd for seven years and counting. Born and raised in Ballymun in Dublin, Terry worked in the airport for years before landing his dream job. While Terry loves what he does, it does not come without its tough moments, something made painfully clear to viewers in a harrowing moment in the second episode of the series.

Throughout this landmark series, viewers will also get a chance to meet some of the people who give the Phoenix Park its unique charm. There’s Barbara and her “children”, six Maltese dogs, former Dublin hurler Joey Towell, who teaches hurling to busloads of tourists every single day for free, and Gráinne, the park’s beloved ice-cream lady-cum-matchmaker.

There’s also Ireland’s oldest cricket club, the Phoenix Cricket Club, the Irish Army Equitation School, a lifetime park resident, the Leinster Model Flying Club, a Mommy Bootcamp, an Irish Paralympian and lots, lots more.

It’s a Park’s Life is produced and directed by Shane Brennan of Moondance Productions, creator of the long-running and much-loved series The Zoo.