MONDAY 23RD FEBRUARY
PRESENTER BLÁTHNAID NÍ CHOFAIGH
HOUSING STORIES
On Nationwide this evening, the focus is on the challenge of housing and the ongoing efforts to help people find a home. The programme visits a new housing development in Inchicore that supports older residents to live independently, in their own homes, well into later life. Also explored on the programme is the home‑share initiative which gives opportunities to homeowners, living alone, to provide a room for those in search of accommodation.
Most older people here in Ireland want to remain at home, living as independently as possible for as long as possible. Home-sharing is one of the most affordable and safest ways to facilitate this and also a way to offer a lifeline to struggling renters. Nationwide went to meet some home sharers to see how the collaboration works.
The next story is about a unique housing model for older people where they are supported to age at home and to live life on their own terms. Reporter Valerie Waters visits a new housing development in Inchicore where she met the tenants and some of the people behind this innovative project, which is all about care, comfort and connection.
WEDNESDAY 25TH FEBRUARY
PRESENTER ANNE CASSIN
ENVIRONMENT STORIES
On Nationwide this evening, the team explores alternative ways to control invasive plant species as they meet a man who rents out his herd of goats to keep overgrown areas in our towns and villages under control. Also on the programme is the story of bog restoration in Antrim where the now almost extinct Curlew is making a return.
Cork man William Walsh has spent most of his career in the food and pharmaceutical industries, despite having grown up on a small farm. He was made redundant in 2018, and while helping to clean up a local woodland soon after, he came up with the idea of using goats in conservation projects in sensitive ecological areas. Nationwide spent the day with William and his herd along the banks of the Bandon River in Ballineen and Enniskeane to see how goats naturally clear invasive species like Himalayan Balsam and Giant Hogweed without the need for harmful chemicals.
Also featured on the programme is the Garron Plateau in County Antrim, the largest area of intact blanket bog in Northern Ireland. This unique landscape supports a remarkable variety of plant and animal species, including a diverse population of breeding birds. The Royal Society of Protection of Birds has worked with local farmers in Antrim to restore and protect the plateau, resulting in the return of the Curlew.
FRIDAY 27TH FEBRUARY
PRESENTER ANNE CASSIN
CREATIVE PEOPLE
On this evening’s Nationwide programme there are stories of creative people, one in County Wicklow whose books for children have been a success and which was born from a project undertaken in her garden during the Pandemic. Plus, in Midleton in County Cork, the team meets a man whose artwork has middle eastern and Irish influences having had an Iraqi father and an Irish mother.
During the COVID pandemic some people had time on their hands to indulge in a hobby or activity only to discover that they had a talent within them that they hadn’t known about before. Our first story is about a woman who through a sense of playfulness discovered that she had the ability to spark the imagination of very young children in her neighbourhood during the COVID years. Reporter Valerie Waters went to Bray Co. Wicklow to see how a simple entertaining idea has taken off to now appear in book form entitled the ‘Bears of Bray’.
Reporter Reem El-Hassany visits Midleton in County Cork to meet Basil Al-Rawi who lives and works on his art, which is influenced by his Irish-Iraqi identity.
