RTÉ Media Centre

Listen to the Land Speak

Series Overview

Listen to the Land Speak sees Manchán Magan reveal the profound knowledge and wisdom contained in our landscape and myths and explore how they have shaped the way we look at the world.

Filmed over four seasons, the film unfolds from Winter Solstice to Bealtaine through Reek Sunday to Samhain – exploring how the stories and myths associated with the rivers, mountains and lands around us are crucial to unlocking aspects of how we need to rebuild our relationship with nature today. Along his journey, he meets respected archaeologists, mythologists, writers and shamans that offer different perspectives on how our ancestors related to the land and landscape around them. 

But it also becomes an unexpectedly personal story – because as he seeks to help heal society’s relationship with nature, Manchán also realises that there is a serious illness within himself that makes him see these ancient sites and beliefs in a whole new light.

Episode Two – Thursday July 24

In episode 2, Manchán continues on his travels across Ireland to connect with the ancient wisdom embedded in the landscape. He meets the first rays of Summer Solstice at Lough Gur and contemplates the sacred oaks, wells and bogs of our landscape but also his own cancer journey and how it is making him see these places in a new light. He meets Robert Hensey, an archaeologist at Carrowmore and a shaman John Paul Fischbach at Dowth. As the sun sets on the series, he celebrates Samhain in Clonakilty and ponders the darkness of winter but also the future and the light that always follows it.

Produced by Crossing the Line Production for RTÉ

Funded by Coimisiún na Meán with the Television Licence Fee

Produced with the support of incentives for the Irish Film Industry provided by the Government of Ireland