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Nationwide – Week 24

Mary Kennedy and Anne Cassin RTÉ Nationwide (3) Image Name: Mary Kennedy and Anne Cassin RTÉ Nationwide (3) Description: RTÉ Nationwide Presenters Mary Kennedy and Anne Cassin

Monday 10th June, 7.00pm, RTÉ One

Tonight Nationwide meets nine-time champion flat jockey Pat Smullen who announced his retirement from race riding recently after dealing with cancer; and the team speak to two patients who are participating in trials for new drugs to fight cancer.

Nationwide travels to Co. Offaly to meet with one of the greatest sportsmen that Ireland has ever produced. Nine-time champion flat jockey Pat Smullen announced his retirement from race riding earlier this year after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He’s in good health again and looking to the future. Reporter Mary Fanning pays him a visit to his farm in the Midlands.

You might have heard ads on the radio over the last couple of weeks for Cancer Trials Ireland.  Doctors at the major cancer hospitals across the country are organising trials of new drugs that give hope to patients dealing with cancer.  Nationwide meets two patients who are participating in drug trials to see how they are enjoying a new lease of life.

Wednesday 12th June, 7.00pm, RTÉ One

On tonight’s programme we look back on the extraordinary story of the first non-stop transatlantic flight by Alcock and Brown that ended in a Connemara bog 100 years ago, the same bog where Marconi perfected what was to become the foundations of modern radio.  We’ll also hear about the epic first transatlantic flight from East to West, during which an Irishman and two Germans navigated by the sun and the stars to reach North America and created history in doing so.

Friday 14th June, 7.00pm, RTÉ One

Clonmel man Frank Patterson was a tenor who achieved great success in his lifetime.  Born in 1938, his career brought him on tours around the world where he attracted large audiences for renditions of Irish ballads performed with full orchestras and with the class of Patterson’s singing voice.  Acclaimed as Ireland’s Golden Tenor, he was a regular on RTÉ with many programmes of his own.  His great success came in America where he sold hundreds of thousands of albums and filled Carnegie Hall in New York.  Sadly he died from a brain tumour in 2000 at the age of 61.  This weekend at the National Concert Hall, a musical tribute will be staged celebrating his life story.   Presenter Anne Cassin has been to Clonmel to find out all about Frank’s early days and to meet family and friends who knew him well.