MONDAY 26TH MAY
Nationwide features stories of people who have moved to Ireland and are now living and farming in rural parts of the country. The team meet an American family who are at home on their Goat farm in County Leitrim, as well as French born woman who runs an organic farm nestled in the scenic Comeragh Mountains of County Waterford.
The first story begins in New York and winds its way to a small hillside farm in Co. Leitrim. At an age when many are thinking of retiring, Lisa Gifford is building a life in the county of her ancestors. She returned to Ireland almost 10 years ago to start a goat’s cheese business. Now, with her daughter and daughter-in-law by her side, the dream has grown and so has the goat farm.
The team also meets Clotilde Kiely from Paris, who has made her home in Ireland. Now settled in the Comeragh Mountains, she runs a poultry farm, embracing rural life and raising her family close to nature. Clotilde talks to Nationwide about her love for farming and the outdoors.
WEDNESDAY 28TH MAY
In this programme the team visits the new Bia Food Innovator campus in Athenry, Co Galway. The Innovator assists small food businesses with advice on marketing, labelling and packaging their new food products. Reporter Niall Martin meets food businesses that are using the test kitchens and kitchen units as they get into production with their ideas.
Also on the show is the Michelin starred chef Enda McEvoy who is teaching a new generation of chefs not just about cuisine but also about avoiding food waste. Plus, the team take a food tour of Galway to see and taste the best of what the city has to offer.
FRIDAY 30TH MAY
This evening’s Nationwide is all about Opera music and opera fans in Limerick city. The treaty city has a strong Music culture generally but over recent years the locally organised Limerick Opera festival has grown to become an important event in the cities calendar.
Separately the team meets a local woman whose life’s work is the promotion of Opera here in Ireland and especially in her native County Limerick where she runs Opera Workshop.
The Limerick Opera Festival was founded in 2019 to bring operatic performances to places where opera has not been before. Over the last few years, it has hosted performances in pubs, community centres, city centre streets and schools, living up to its motto – Opera for All. Reporter Marian Malone has been sampling some of the musical delights of this year’s festival.
Limerick native Shirley Keane is the founder of Opera Workshop. Her company stages small-scale operatic productions in unique and historic venues across Limerick, from Georgian houses to old warehouses, transforming these spaces & showcasing professional singers, making opera more accessible for local audiences.
