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A WILD IRISH YEAR ***FINAL***

A Wild Irish Year Tara Shine Image Name: A Wild Irish Year Tara Shine
A Wild Irish Year Rob Gandola Image Name: A Wild Irish Year Rob Gandola
A Wild Irish Year Eoin Warner Image Name: A Wild Irish Year Eoin Warner
A Wild Irish Year Woodpecker Image Name: A Wild Irish Year Woodpecker
A Wild Irish Year Winter tree Image Name: A Wild Irish Year Winter tree
A Wild Irish Year Whooper Swan Image Name: A Wild Irish Year Whooper Swan
A Wild Irish Year Red Fox Image Name: A Wild Irish Year Red Fox
A Wild Irish Year Pygmy Shrew Image Name: A Wild Irish Year Pygmy Shrew

A Wild Irish Year is a captivating new four-part series bringing us all across the country from our wild coasts, mountains and woodlands to farms, towns and cities.

Across each episode the presenting team, Tara Shine, Rob Gandola and Eoin Warner, guide us through a single season showcasing some of our most spectacular natural events and meeting along the way a diverse range of people whose lives are still deeply connected to the changing seasons.

Filmed over the course of a year, cutting edge camera technologies allowed the team to capture Ireland’s changing seasons in new and exciting ways. High-speed cameras slow down the frantic movements of Sandmartins and Swallows, tiny migrants that come all the way from Africa, incredible low-light technology reveals the Autumnal activity of a Badger sett, aerial footage offers a bird’s-eye-view of the shifting countryside below and timelapse photography accelerates the gradual changes in the weather and landscape to allow viewers the opportunity to watch as our island transforms through the year.

Episode Four: Winter 

As we retreat indoors and turn up the heat, our resident wildlife must remain outdoors, braving the harsh weather ahead. Those who can prepare, do, before retreating to the relative comfort of their Winter refuge. Others must struggle on and adapt to the harsh conditions ahead, when food is scarce and the weather develops a mean streak/bares its teeth.  In this final episode we will take a look at Ireland’s smallest mammal, the Pygmy Shrew. These little warriors must struggle on throughout the winter, feeding around the clock. We follow a fisherman as he departs the unpredictable Donegal coast for a 12-hour shift and meet a farmer who spends his winter preparing his farm for the year ahead. And as Spring beckons, a sound echoes through the woods of Wicklow, not heard in Ireland for several hundred years, the drumming of Woodpeckers is a welcome indication that Winter is finally drawing to a close, with the promise of Spring stretching out ahead.

A Wild Irish Year concludes Sunday, 3rd June at 6.30pm on RTÉ One.