RTÉ Media Centre

Episode 6: The Thatcher

When Marika Leen ran away from the Netherlands to Ireland as a teenager, she had no intention of staying. Then she met three bachelor brothers in rural Galway, moved in with them, and soon found herself clambering onto a leaking roof while the men below shouted instructions. She had always loved heights. It turned out to be the perfect job.

In this episode, Marika returns to Inis Oírr to re-thatch the last thatched cottage on the island – a job she undertakes with three apprentices for “the donkey work” (Eamonn McDonagh, Joanne O’Connell, and Eoghan Hyland), along with her favourite farmer, Trevor Carter from Athy, who grows her straw and delivers it to the pier for the ferry crossing.

But on the island, the Atlantic has other ideas. Wind and rain turn every day into a battle, and the cottage owner, Maidhci Ó Conghaile – an old acquaintance – proves more accommodating than the weather. Straw is Marika’s material of choice: warmer and more beautiful than reed, though far less forgiving. And she works, as she always has, essentially alone.

The finished roof is more than a restoration. It is a homage to the three bachelor brothers – long dead and without family – who opened their door to a Dutch teenager forty-five years ago and helped make her who she is today.