Wednesday 7 November 2012

The Gathering - Homeward Bound, last 2 episodes

The sixth and last of the series The Gathering – Homeward Bound was broadcast yesterday evening and is now available on RTE's Player for viewing around the world.

It featured Irish actress Fionnula Flanagan returning home to Galway and learning about how emigration has taken its toll on the region. The programme also showed how the work of Ireland Reaching Out, a 'reverse genealogy' project, is helping the Irish diaspora to reconnect with their ancestral homeland.

Last week's episode can also be viewed on the Player. It follows Riverdance star Jean Butler returning to Mayo where she lived in her late teens. In addition to meeting up with old pal Matt Molloy of the Chieftains, she also meets 80-year-old Michael Foy who emigrated to Leeds in the UK when he was 17. She accompanies him to the simple cottage in Foxford where he was born and spent his childhood with his family, and, in an emotional scene, conveys his intense attachment to the place he has always thought of as home.

Watch the Fionnula Flanagan programme here.

Watch the Jean Butler programme here.