RTÉ Media Centre

RTÉ One, Monday 8:30pm (starting on April 27th)

SERIES OVERVIEW

Masters: Keepers of Tradition is a documentary series focusing on Irish practitioners of rare, traditional, and remarkable crafts and skills. It is inspired by the iconic series Hands, which first aired on RTÉ in the late 70’s and gave us a powerful insight into the lives and work of Irish craftspeople. The goal of this series is to bring contemporary artisans back into the public consciousness, while also shedding light on the current state of the craft community in Ireland.

This landmark series, made with the support of The Heritage Council and Coimisiún na Meán, aims to champion local master craftpeople, showcase their skills and trades, and show how they have endured and diversified since the series Hands finished. It aims to inspire the next generation of makers to take up the mantle and keep these trades alive in the 21st century.

Each episode will focus on one Irish craftsperson and their craft. But more than delivering a one-dimensional demo of the work they do, we’ll also delve into the person they are, their motivations, the family and neighbours who influenced them, and, of course, their physical environs. In each episode, we will follow the creative process as our artisan takes on a local commission and witness how it affects them and the commissioner when it’s finished. We want our viewers to see that artisanal excellence doesn’t just happen in the abstract; it happens here and now, in the real world, and that their dedication, expertise, and passion enrich our society.

Our six craftspeople are: a stonemason, a basket weaver, a handweaver, a clockmaker, a thatcher, and a blacksmith.

EPISODE 1: THE STONEMASON

Monday April 27 8:30pm RTÉ One

Julia Gebel arrived in Ireland from Germany to work on the restoration of Cormac’s Chapel at the Rock of Cashel, the ancient seat of the Kings of Munster. She spent four years on the project, the last seven months of it pregnant, still climbing the scaffolding. She never went home.

Now based in Tipperary with her two children, Etta and Dillon, Julia has built one of Ireland’s foremost stone and building conservation company with her business partner, Christian Helling.

In this episode, she takes on a commission unlike anything she has attempted since college – a bust of Irish revolutionary Dick Barrett, for the centenary of his reinterment from Mountjoy prison after he was unlawfully executed in 1922.

Working from a clay model and using the difficult lost-form process, she has only 22 days to carve his likeness into a block of Kilkenny blue limestone sourced from the historic Threecastles quarry in Kilkenny. As Dick’s face emerges from the stone, she tries to understand what it must be like to give one’s life for one’s country, her own identity, and how important it is that her children understand what happened in their nation’s history

Tiny Big Films Ltd.