Luther: Cath d’Anamacha Gaelacha (Luther 500: The Battle for Gaelic Souls)Thursday, 2nd November, 2215-2315RTÉ OneTo mark the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, Gaelic scholar Dr Art Hughes examines the impact of Martin Luther and his ideas on the Gaelic-speaking peoples.Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther sparked a revolution. As a protest against the extravagance of the Catholic Church, the little known German friar is said to have pinned a controversial document, 95 Theses, on a church door in Wittenberg in central Europe. The event was to lead to centuries of religious and political upheaval across Europe as Protestantism was born.In a journey that takes him from Rome, Germany and Geneva to the Outer Hebrides and the Island of Ireland, Art tracks the spread of the Protestant faith to the Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland, via Luther’s disciples John Calvin and John Knox. He investigates why the new religion hit a brick wall in Ireland, despite the best efforts of a succession of English monarchs. And he finds out why Scotland largely converted to Protestantism while most of Ireland remained Catholic.
LUTHER 500 on RTÉ
500 YEARS AGO, ON 31st OCTOBER, 1517, AN OBSCURE AUGUSTINIAN MONK IN WITTENBERG CALLED MARTIN LUTHER PUBLISHED HIS 95 OBJECTIONS TO WHAT HE SAW AS CORRUPT PRACTICES BY THE LEADERS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH TO WHICH HE BELONGED. HE WAS EX-COMMUNICATED, KICK-STARTING A REVOLUTION IN CHRISTIANITY WHOSE LEGACY IS VISIBLE TO THIS DAY. LUTHER 500 ON RTÉ EXPLORES AND CELEBRATES THAT LEGACY ACROSS ALL PLATFORMS OF RTE OVER A SINGLE WEEK.
What did Luther ever do for us? – a Leap of Faith Special (Friday 27th Oct, 2200-2230, RTÉ Radio 1)
500 years since Luther’s “95 theses” sparked the Reformation, Michael Comyn examines his current and future legacy on this island, including sectarian conflict, Protestant and Catholic Reformation movements and the particular nature of Christian faith and practice in Ireland, North and South. Contributors include the Rev. Dr Martyn Cowan of Union Theological College, Belfast, Dr Alison Forrestal*, a lecturer at NUI Galway and Professor Daire Keogh, Professor of History and Deputy President of Dublin City University. Their challenge: to assess the impact of someone referred to as “the last medieval man and the first modern one.”
An Ecumenical Service to Commemorate the 500th Anniversary of the Beginning of the Reformation, from Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork (Sunday 29th Oct., 11.00am on RTÉ One TV; 11.45am on RTÉ Radio 1 Extra/LW252)
The Church of Ireland Dean of Cork, the Very Rev. Nigel Dunne, and the Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, the Rt Rev. Dr Paul Colton lead a multi-denominational Service, with music by the Cathedral Choir, directed by Peter Stobart, accompanied on the historic Cathedral Organ by Phoebe Chow, Assistant Director of Music. The Service includes J. S. Bach’s Cantata, Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild (BWV79) with choir, organ and orchestral ensemble.
Luther 500: Cath d’Anamacha Gaelacha (The Battle for Gaelic Souls) (Thursday 2nd Nov., 2235-2335, RTÉ One)
To mark the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, University of Ulster Gaelic scholar Dr Art Hughes examines the impact of Martin Luther and his ideas on the Gaelic-speaking peoples. An event which began as a protest by an obscure Middle European monk against the extravagance and venality of Rome became a movement that brought centuries of division, revolution and conflict to Europe and beyond. In the “Gaelic” lands, the Reformation had its own very particular impact.
In a journey that takes him from Rome, Germany and Geneva to the Outer Hebrides and the Island of Ireland, Art Hughes tracks the spread of the Protestant faith to the Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland, via Luther’s disciples John Calvin and John Knox. He investigates how Luther embraced new technology – the newly invented printing press – to spread his message. Hughes also reveals why the “reformed” faith took root in Scotland as a popular movement of protest and free self-expression, only to hit a brick wall in Ireland, despite, or perhaps because of, the best efforts of a succession of English monarchs to propagate it. (A co-production with BBC Gaeige and BBC Alba, made with assistance from N.I.Screen’s Irish Language Broadcasting Fund.)
rte.ie has commissioned two special “Brainbox” pieces to mark the quincentenary:
Dr Alison Forrestal*, a lecturer at NUI Galway, who appears in the Leap of Faith Special, has also authored an article:
…and Dr Bronagh Ann McShane a post-doctoral researcher at RECIRC, in the Moore Institute, NUI Galway, reveals a little known side-effect of the Reformation in Ireland, the forced migration of nuns after Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries: https://www.rte.ie/eile/brainstorm/2017/1018/913242-how-luthers-reformation-led-irish-nuns-to-lisbon/