skip to main content

What to watch on RTÉ Player this week?

The RTÉ Player team share their top picks to watch on RTÉ Player this week.

 

What’s Trending?

RTÉ Investigates – Nightmare to Let

RTÉ Investigates spent six months examining standards in the private rental sector.  Undercover researchers found dangerously overcrowded accommodation and sub-standard buildings with multiple fire safety breaches. Three multiple occupancy buildings with more than 120 tenants have since been closed after inspection by Dublin Fire Brigade.  This week RTÉ Investigates revealed the full extent of the conditions uncovered in buildings located in Crumlin, Kilmainham and Rathmines. One building alone contained over 60 tenants while another had over 40 tenants.  One fire safety expert described the conditions as “the worst he had ever seen.”  Responsibility for inspecting these properties rests with local councils and the latest figures from those inspections, or the lack of them, paint a grim picture of standards countrywide.  Figures supplied to RTÉ Investigates under Freedom of Information reveal that only 4% of rental properties were inspected last year and of those that were inspected, more than two thirds were not compliant with the regulations.  There was a 100% failure rate in four districts – Kilkenny, Louth, Offaly, Limerick city and county.  The figures show that the overall non-compliance rate for the country stands at 69 per cent.  Watch the full programme that has the nation talking and the shocking conditions of accommodation and the testimonies of experts and tenants now on RTÉ Player.

 

What’s New?

Generation What?

Generation What? is a pan-European survey, in which millennials (18-34 year olds) were asked 149 questions about their beliefs and their lives, with a view to getting a clear picture of how this age group feel the world in which they live.  Almost 1,000,000 people have taken the survey across Europe so far and over 33,000 people have taken the survey in Ireland to date.  Hosted by Eoghan McDermott, Generation What? looks at the lives of Ireland’s millennials probing everything from their sex lives to their views on Europe. In this first episode, we look at sex, faith and equality.  Viewers will also find out how the millennials participants answered questions on everything from having sex in a public place, to whether or not it bothers them if they see a woman wearing a religious veil in the street.  Each episode includes a chance for the Generation What? millennials to talk to those in power.  Episode one features: Fine Gael T.D. for Dublin North West, Noel Rock; Fianna Fáil spokesperson on Defence and TD for Mayo, Lisa Chambers; Secretary General for the 9th World Meeting of Families and former assistant to Cardinal Daly, Fr. Tim Bartlett and Susan Daly, editor of thejournal.ie .  Watch Generation What? now on RTÉ Player.

 

What Not to Miss?

This Crowded House

This Crowded House
RTÉ2
Brendan Courtney with the Kennedy family in Palmerstown
Tuesday October 31st

This Crowded House is a new four part series for RTÉ2 that intervenes in the not-so-unusual phenomenon of adults in their 20s and 30s who are living at home with their parents. In July, latest figures from the Central Statistics Office revealed that almost 460,000 adults over 18 still live at home. It confirms the Eurostat 2016 survey that found that almost 23% – or 1 in 4 Irish adults – over 25 are living in the family home.  Presented by Brendan Courtney, This Crowded House follows the journey of eight different Irish families as their adult children try to figure out how to move out. Brendan helps these adult children explore their options in this current tricky housing market, as well as helping them get on the right financial path to independent futures, calling on the necessary expertise where needed.  In the first of four episodes, Brendan Courtney meets a pair of boomerang bunk bed brothers in their 20s, struggling being back under their parents’ roof and feeling the pressure to move out and get their independence once again.  Brendan also meets a young couple considering a rather alternative and, what many would consider, extreme approach to gaining some privacy in their crowded house – living in a cabin in their parents’ garden!  Watch now on RTÉ Player

 

Pick of the Week

Fab Vinny

Vincent Hanley (1979)

In 1984 MT USA burst onto Irish TV screens with pop videos from the likes of ZZ Top, Weird Al Yankovich, Talking Heads and Cyndi Lauper.  Almost incredibly, this was the first time in Ireland that the viewing public had access to music videos and not just what they could glimpse on “Top of the Pops”. Many bands broke the Irish market simply because their videos played on the show. The Sunday afternoon three hour MT USA show was as important a weekly “much watch” programme in 1980s Ireland as Glenroe – but maybe for a different demographic!  Vincent Hanley was the man in the middle of this music video revolution on RTÉ.  Behind the pop music and the glamour of 1980s New York City lies a story of ambition, talent and a life cut short.   Vincent died of AIDS in April 1987. His was one of the first high profile deaths in the country from the syndrome but this was not publicly acknowledged at the time.  30 years on from his death, Cláracha Gaeilge looks back at his cutting edge hit music video show MT USA that brightened up our grey Sundays in 1980s Ireland. ‘Fab Vinny’ is his story.  Watch now on RTÉ Player.