Documentary On One - Rté Documentaries

He was cheered on an open-topped bus through Dublin. Then he was homeless and jobless. He swept floors and slept on a campbed in the National Stadium. He stole his passport to flee Cuba - had a lucky meeting with a Shaolin monk, who saved him – met three Mayomen, who helped keep him safe - and now he teaches yoga to prisoners. Some life. (2020)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Felix Gretarsson lost both his arms in a work accident in Iceland in 1998. In the years that followed, his life spiralled into an abyss as he lost his health, status, relationship and sense of identity. After turning his life around, Felix now lives in France, where he’s waiting to receive the world’s first full double arm transplant. (2020)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Conor Walsh was a minimalist piano composer from Co. Mayo, whose musical career was just beginning when he died suddenly of a heart attack in 2016 aged 36. Within days of his burial, Conor's sister found 37 unpublished tracks on his laptop, and so began his family’s journey to release his posthumous debut album, The Lucid. (2020)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The unravelling of a story of an orphaned Irish boy lost in South Africa in the 1880s, who it's told was cared for by a local tribe, until he was found by a man who then traced his family back to Ireland. Could this be true and how could it happen? Narrated and produced by Sarah Blake. Research by Rosemarie Gilchrist. Sound Supervision by Mark McGrath. Additional recordings by Jason Murphy and Liam O’BrienReadings by Sheelagh Dempsey, Warren Gatchel, Sarah Binchy and Ian McGlynn. (2016)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In December 2016, Eileen Kenny lost a long battle with cancer. It was not the only battle that Eileen fought in the previous years. Dissatisfied with her treatment, and seeking answers, she had been through a struggle with both her treating doctor and the Irish Medical Council. A struggle that has left her family without closure. (2019)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1996, Gardaí deployed on UN peacekeeping duties in Cyprus saw two men killed. Unarmed, and caught up in the violence within the UN buffer zone, Garda Frank Flood witnessed both killings at close hand. Now, for the first time in almost a quarter-of-a-century, Frank is returning to Cyprus to revisit those events and find out more (2019)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thousands of Irish people live with HIV today. You can’t see it in their face. Many of them are living in the shadows, fearful of judgement. The numbers of people being diagnosed with HIV are higher than they have ever been. We meet four people affected by HIV and find out what it is really like to be HIV positive in Ireland today. (2019)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When an 81 year old woman, in good health, pitched an idea into us about death and dying, we had to find out more. So in early 2019, we began following Gray Cahill as she put a plan in place for when she dies. In planning ahead, she's also looking back over her life. As Gray says, “Dying is part of living, and living is part of dying.” (2019)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Brendan Behan is one of Ireland's greatest writers. Some of his most important work was influenced by time he spent in Paris just after World War II where he mixed with some of the most important writers of the 20th century. In an interview never previously broadcast, Behan reveals the influence Paris had on him as a writer. (2019)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Set in South Galway against the backdrop of one of the bloodiest months of the Irish War of Independence, th dramatic story the short life and tragic death of 24-year-old Eileen Quinn who was shot by uniformed men outside her home in 1920. Almost 100 years later Eileen’s grand-niece pieces together events from that fateful day (2019)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The story of how a little bull from the west of Ireland made national & international headlines which soon became an online viral sensation. In 2014 Joe Kelly, a farmer in county Mayo bought Benjy the bull to breed with his herd of cows but Benjy had no interest with the cows and soon found himself in danger of life at the slaughterhouse. (2019)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Amy Herron’s grandad was one of the most famous people in Ireland. He was Elephant-keeper at Dublin Zoo and entertained crowds with Sarah the elephant. Amy Herron finds out about the fun side of her grandad’s work but also learns about the treatment of elephants then that would not be tolerated now. (2019)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tess Murray never forgot her first love. She was a young teacher, engaged to Thomas McEver, a chemist who had moved to Dunmore Co. Galway as the Irish War of Independence was drawing to a close in the spring of 1921. But fate took a tragic turn one night when Thomas was abducted, brutally murdered and accused of being a spy. (2019)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In August 1979, a massive Atlantic storm turned the Fastnet Yacht Race into the greatest yacht-racing disaster ever witnessed. In spite of the biggest peacetime rescue effort at sea, 21 people died, boats were dismasted, abandoned or sunk as the race became a fight to stay alive. On one of those boats was teenager John O'Donnell. (2019)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Nan Delaney, from Co. Laois, died, her six children came across a small wooden box that she had kept private all her life. When they opened it, they discovered evidence of a time, in their family, when things were extremely stressful and frightening. In this documentary, the children recall that period with tears and laughter. (2019)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is the near-unbelievable story of a man who, in the 1950s, tried to purchase the six counties of Northern Ireland and gift them to the Republic of Ireland. In 1914, West Limerick man John J Hanley left for New York to gentrify his persona into the 'Baron of Broadway'. He became hugely rich and focused on Irish reunification (2019)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Irish soccer team’s 1982 tour of South America during the Falklands War was a farcical episode in Irish sport. 4 games, 3 defeats, 2 cancellations. But how did half the squad end up being detained by armed police? And how did a carpet salesman from Limerick end up sitting in the cigarette smoke and samba of Brazil’s 1982 World Cup Squad? (2019)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1976 the Cork to Dublin mail train was robbed of £200,000. Cormac Breatnach’s brother Osgur was arrested for it, confessed and was jailed for 12 years. But there was a catch. He didn’t do it. The devastation of the injustice was enormous as Osgur’s family tried to come to terms with what had happened. Cormac turned to music. (2019)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ed Randolph came to Ireland to play Basketball in the 1980s. While most of his fellow American players went back home, Ed met Ann, settled down and had a family in Bray. He made a sporting life coaching and playing the game he loves well into middle age. (2019)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Author Carlo Gébler, son of award-winning Irish writer Edna O’Brien, spent three decades teaching creative writing within the Northern Ireland prison system. Carlo was told that his job was not to teach, but to be a human being. Returning to Magilligan Prison, Carlo asks if he made any real difference to the prisoners he taught (2019)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.