Monday 13th May, 7.00pm, RTÉ One
Tonight Nationwide looks at a variety of stories from around the country.
Young Social Innovators is a competition which encourages young people to learn to work together to advance their abilities. The YSI has been running now for many years and in the run up to this Wednesday’s awards, presenter Anne Cassin has been looking at some of this year’s entries.
Reporter Niall Martin travels to St Brigid’s Girls National School in Cabinteely, Co. Dublin where children are baking bread from scratch. We see the process from beginning to end as the pupils sow wheat, harvest it, thresh it, winnow it, mill it into flour and finally make a loaf of brown bread.
Finally, Nationwide looks at how people are making the theatre more accessible. Inspired by a Shakespeare classic, “Do We Not Laugh?” is a play performed by cast members with intellectual disabilities and it’s intentionally crafted to entertain an audience of all abilities. Reporter Zainab Boladale visits one of the actors in their home to find out how being involved in a theatre group like this is life-changing.
Wednesday 15th May, 7.00pm, RTÉ One
This evening, Nationwide is in the village of Dunhill on County Waterford’s stunning Copper Coast. Dunhill is a village of about 250 people but for such a small place there’s a lot going on. Together with the neighboring villages of Fenor, Boatstrand and Annestown, their aim is to develop their community socially, economically and culturally by harnessing the talents of people in the area. Nationwide visits the Dunhill Ecopark to see what can be achieved by a community working together and finds out how it all got started. The team also pop into the Copper Coast Geopark visitor centre where the community have put this area on the world stage and Mary Kennedy takes a walk on the Anne Valley Walk Way, a wonderful amenity in the area which is now being expanded.
Friday 17th May, 7.00pm, RTÉ One
The shortage of nurses and carers in our hospitals and nursing homes is a major national problem and something that recently prompted authorities in training and education to look again at how to recruit people for these important jobs. Some might think that the Army is one of the most unlikely sources for would-be carers to emerge from but that’s exactly what has happened after a very successful campaign carried out in the Midlands. RTÉ’s Midlands correspondent Ciaran Mullooly goes along to find out more.
Also on the programme, Nationwide meets people who have turned to education to help rebuild their lives with the help of the Waterford Wexford Education and Training Boards. The ETBS, funded by Solas and the Department of Education, which was established in 2013 brought together VEC’s and FAS and encouraged people to look at the doors that can open through Community Education.