MONDAY 9TH MARCH
PRESENTER ANNE CASSIN
NATIONAL TREE WEEK – PROGRAMME 1
National Tree Week, which runs from March 8th to 15th, celebrates the vital role trees play in creating a sustainable future. This year’s theme, “Planting Trees, Growing Together,” highlights the power of communities working together to protect and enrich our natural environment.
In this episode of Nationwide presenter Anne Cassin visits Powerscourt Gardens in County Wicklow, home to a wide variety of beautiful and distinctive trees, planted by generations of gardeners over the past two centuries. The team also travels to Dublin’s Liberties to hear the story of a remarkable centuries‑old pear tree that continues to thrive in the heart of the city.
The historic Powerscourt Estate covers 1,000 acres of both natural and landscaped gardens. Situated at two visitor locations – it includes the iconic Powerscourt waterfall, with its River Walks and Woodland Trails. Presenter Anne Cassin explores how Powerscourt’s diverse tree collection is actively boosting biodiversity and advancing long-term sustainability. She meets one of the estate’s current custodians to discover more.
Reporter Niall Martin is in the Liberties finding out more about one of Ireland’s oldest known fruit‑bearing pear trees, dating back to the 1840s and located beside St Patrick’s Tower in Dublin, it has become a living landmark connecting history, nature, and community. Students at the National College of Art and Design engage with the tree through hands-on projects like harvesting its fruit and making jam, blending creativity, ecology, and urban learning.
WEDNESDAY 11TH MARCH
PRESENTER ANNE CASSIN
NATIONAL TREE WEEK – PROGRAMME 2
This evening’s Nationwide marks National Tree Week, running from March 8th to 15th. The team highlights projects aimed at increasing tree cover in parks and public spaces across the country, including the work of Stepping Stone Forests.
The programme begins with a fascinating arts project which celebrates the precious and fragile environment of the forests overlooking Dublin city and what they mean to the many people who explore them every day. Anne Cassin heads to the Dublin mountains to find out all about it.
The Stepping Stone Forests project is a grassroots movement responsible for planting native woodlands across Dublin to support the environment and local wildlife. Reporter Zainab Boladale recently joined members of the group for one of their tree planting ceremonies in Jobstown.
FRIDAY 13TH MARCH
PRESENTER RICHARD DOWNES
PROGRAMME FROM HOWTH IN COUNTY DUBLIN
This evening’s Nationwide takes a look at life in the coastal village of Howth in north County Dublin. Howth is a suburb of the city, a busy place with schools, shops and restaurants but there’s a lot more to Howth than that. Beyond its busy streets lies true wilderness, and presenter Richard Downes meets the people who keep the walking paths clear for locals and visitors as they discover this gem so close to the capital.
Richard also hears how fishermen from the west and south of Ireland converged on Howth from the 1950s and married into the neighbourhood.
The programme also takes a look at the mystery of the bells of St. Mary’s Abbey, believed to be among the oldest in Ireland. These ancient bells disappeared in the 1700s, only to reappear in recent years. They’ve now been refurbished and are available for everyone to see after they were donated by the St. Lawrence family to the nation.
