0:00:02 > 0:00:05# Wake up to Wogan on Radio 2. #
0:00:05 > 0:00:07And this is it then.
0:00:07 > 0:00:09This is the day I've been dreading,
0:00:09 > 0:00:13the inevitable morning when you and I come to the parting of the ways.
0:00:13 > 0:00:18'After 40 years of talking to myself and to you, the loyal listener,
0:00:18 > 0:00:23'I gave up the day job and now I'm heading off to rediscover the country that made me.
0:00:23 > 0:00:28'The Ireland I left behind at the end of the 1960s was an isolated place.'
0:00:28 > 0:00:34Not much industry, agriculture was the mainstay and this meant a meagre existence for most.
0:00:34 > 0:00:38It wasn't until the mid-'90s that the country's fortunes changed.
0:00:38 > 0:00:40Now fully signed up to Europe, Ireland became
0:00:40 > 0:00:43one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46The boom was christened the Celtic Tiger and never having
0:00:46 > 0:00:51had a boom before, the Irish thought it would go on forever.
0:00:51 > 0:00:56When the global financial crisis hit in 2007, the bubble burst.
0:00:56 > 0:01:01By November last year, Ireland was forced to seek a bail-out.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04In return, the Irish people were asked to accept
0:01:04 > 0:01:07some tough austerity measures. That didn't go down well.
0:01:08 > 0:01:15You have to remember this island has a history that puts the present crisis firmly in context.
0:01:15 > 0:01:21This island has survived famine, 500 years of colonisation and religious discrimination.
0:01:21 > 0:01:26I have to say though, that on this journey I found plenty of laughter
0:01:26 > 0:01:29and music and a joy for living. They may be down,
0:01:29 > 0:01:33but don't ever count Ireland and the Irish out.
0:01:47 > 0:01:52'We'd like to draw your attention to the safety instruction card located close to your seat.'
0:01:52 > 0:01:56I've lived in Britain longer than I ever lived in Ireland.
0:01:56 > 0:02:00So this for me is...
0:02:00 > 0:02:01exciting.
0:02:01 > 0:02:04I'm going back to see what's changed about the four green fields.
0:02:04 > 0:02:07I'll be meeting up with old friends.
0:02:07 > 0:02:11- We all used to go in through this door, didn't we?- Yes.- And family.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14You go first, just in case they set the dog on him, you know.
0:02:14 > 0:02:18And of course, I want to show you the country at its best.
0:02:18 > 0:02:24This is Ireland, come on, nobody comes here for the weather.
0:02:26 > 0:02:29The first part of my journey is going to take me in a semicircle,
0:02:29 > 0:02:34down through Cork and Kerry, on to my old home town of Limerick.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41This of course is what the granny used to call dear old dirty Dublin.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44Ah, there it is, Anna Livia Plurabelle,
0:02:44 > 0:02:50the great Liffey River and the Ha'penny Bridge that spans it.
0:02:50 > 0:02:53And of course proud O'Connell Street, the great boulevard.
0:02:53 > 0:03:00And there's where I lived from '53 until '69, it's over 40 years since I fled the bailiffs and stole away.
0:03:00 > 0:03:05I'm going to be escorted around the ol' country by my driver, Dave Sullivan.
0:03:05 > 0:03:10Like most Dubliners, he thinks Dublin has terrible traffic.
0:03:10 > 0:03:17But then, they've obviously never been on the M6 near Birmingham or the M25 around London.
0:03:17 > 0:03:21Now, that's traffic, OK?
0:03:21 > 0:03:24This is not traffic. OK, Dave?
0:03:24 > 0:03:26Not traffic.
0:03:26 > 0:03:28This is a few ol' cars.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31Anyway, never mind what's supposed to be traffic.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35The old city is still as familiar to me as it ever was.
0:03:37 > 0:03:39Oh, it's lovely to come back to Dublin.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43It's lovely to come back to Ireland, I don't come back often enough.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46But when you come back,
0:03:46 > 0:03:48you realise what
0:03:48 > 0:03:51you don't realise that you've missed, if you see what I mean.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54For many Irish people who've lived in Britain for years
0:03:54 > 0:03:56and years, they still think of Ireland
0:03:56 > 0:03:59as home. They'll say, "Are you going home for the holidays?"
0:03:59 > 0:04:01They mean, are you going to Ireland?
0:04:02 > 0:04:06I don't know whether I could live in Ireland again
0:04:06 > 0:04:09because I think I've become anglicised.
0:04:09 > 0:04:14For me, Ireland is wonderful,
0:04:14 > 0:04:17a lovely place to come, but it's not home.
0:04:17 > 0:04:19Home is where your family is as far as I'm concerned.
0:04:22 > 0:04:27Saying that, Dublin was my home for nearly two decades.
0:04:27 > 0:04:32My da was the general manager of a chain of grocery stores called Leverett and Frye.
0:04:32 > 0:04:39I was sent to Belvedere College where I played my rugby and felt the stern hand of the Jesuit fathers.
0:04:41 > 0:04:46And this is where my working life, if you can call it that, began
0:04:46 > 0:04:48as a junior clerk of a long-forgotten branch
0:04:48 > 0:04:51of the Royal Bank of Ireland.
0:04:51 > 0:04:56'The building is long gone, but the bus stop's there, as is my old workmate, Leo Lacey.'
0:04:56 > 0:05:00You and I were used to standing outside this bus stop.
0:05:00 > 0:05:02We didn't care how long it took.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05'Every week, Leo and I used to carry a bag of used banknotes
0:05:05 > 0:05:08'from our branch out in the suburbs to head office.'
0:05:08 > 0:05:11- We'll take it anyway, come on. - The longer it took, the better.
0:05:11 > 0:05:16Right, down to Foster Place with the money. After you, Leo.
0:05:16 > 0:05:17No armoured security van for us.
0:05:17 > 0:05:24Not likely, the number 10 bus, yet between us, we were carrying a small fortune.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27What would be the value of that?
0:05:27 > 0:05:29Doing a rough rule of thumb
0:05:29 > 0:05:36of ten times the bank manager's salary, it was probably about £100,000.
0:05:36 > 0:05:43Back in the '50s, most of the bank's customers were cattle jobbers or farmers.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46Of course, these were old notes that we were bringing down.
0:05:46 > 0:05:50But they were wrecked after being through the bars or the markets up in Phibsborough.
0:05:50 > 0:05:52- Phibsborough, yeah. - The cattle market.
0:05:52 > 0:05:54I mean, the smell of them.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57And the drippy, wet beer.
0:05:57 > 0:06:03They were destroyed and then they gave us new notes which we brought back on another bus.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06That's right, yeah. Casual as you like.
0:06:06 > 0:06:07Racy days, eh?
0:06:11 > 0:06:13And here we're coming up to Foster Place.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19Foster Place was where the bank headquarters were, and we breathed
0:06:19 > 0:06:22a little sigh of relief when we got to this point.
0:06:22 > 0:06:26The question is, is the old place still there?
0:06:32 > 0:06:38It's been 50 years since I made my last delivery of rancid banknotes.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41- You don't feel that we should be carrying something?- Yes.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44The bags with the money.
0:06:44 > 0:06:48Look, and the counter is still the same here. We used to go round here
0:06:48 > 0:06:50and in there, which is now an open space,
0:06:50 > 0:06:56- was where we used to carry the notes because that was the note department.- And the major.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59And the major was there with his Smith & Wesson.
0:06:59 > 0:07:01Grumpy, crusty, old...
0:07:01 > 0:07:03I suppose we were very lucky he didn't shoot us.
0:07:03 > 0:07:06It probably wouldn't work, it'd blow up in his face!
0:07:06 > 0:07:08But it brings back happy memories.
0:07:08 > 0:07:09I'm delighted to see it's still here.
0:07:09 > 0:07:11Foster Place.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14Yeah, working in a bank was a respectable job then.
0:07:14 > 0:07:20Here I am desperately trying to look like a man about town on the bonnet of my da's car.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23But I thought of myself as an urban Irishman and the problem
0:07:23 > 0:07:25with the bank was sooner or later,
0:07:25 > 0:07:28they'd send you off to work in a branch out in the sticks.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32It could be years before you returned to what you thought of as civilisation.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36That wasn't for me, so I was on the lookout for something else.
0:07:36 > 0:07:42In those olden times, I indulged the hidden show-off in me in amateur dramatics,
0:07:42 > 0:07:44never thinking of a professional career
0:07:44 > 0:07:46until I stumbled into broadcasting.
0:07:46 > 0:07:50Irish National Radio offered me a traineeship and before I knew it,
0:07:50 > 0:07:56I was sitting in front of a microphone talking to the nation, no-one more surprised than me.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05That fear I had of being trapped in a small, provincial town
0:08:05 > 0:08:10goes back perhaps to my father who spent a very unhappy childhood growing up under the patronage
0:08:10 > 0:08:16of an English Protestant landowner in the little country village of Enniskerry.
0:08:16 > 0:08:21My father in the great Irish tradition, resented authority
0:08:21 > 0:08:24and the kind of authority that he had to endure,
0:08:24 > 0:08:29and most people had to endure in Enniskerry in the 1900s,
0:08:29 > 0:08:34was the authority of Lord Powerscourt who not only owned all the land,
0:08:34 > 0:08:39but actually in the tradition of those English lords,
0:08:39 > 0:08:41owned the people as well.
0:08:45 > 0:08:51The village of Enniskerry was built to house the servants and workers of the nearby Powerscourt Estate.
0:08:51 > 0:08:56Now, I've come back to my father's birthplace to meet a relation of mine,
0:08:56 > 0:09:02Una Wogan, a second cousin and she's traced the Wogan clan as far back as they go in this village.
0:09:02 > 0:09:06- Just look at one of them.- God, you've got the pictures of my antecedents.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10We have a picture of your grandfather and grandmother.
0:09:10 > 0:09:11Look at that.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15So that's Michael and he married a Sarah MacRoe, she was from Fermanagh.
0:09:15 > 0:09:17Your father was very fond of, his mother,
0:09:17 > 0:09:21- I heard.- He was.- Yes.- And my father didn't like his father much.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24By all accounts, his father wasn't a very pleasant man.
0:09:24 > 0:09:26- Well, my father was a really nice man.- Yeah.
0:09:26 > 0:09:29But he didn't have a moustache like that,
0:09:29 > 0:09:31but I can see the resemblance.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35'My father left Enniskerry and his home and family'
0:09:35 > 0:09:38as soon as he could, at 15.
0:09:38 > 0:09:43He couldn't bear having to kowtow and doff his cap to Powerscourt's local dignitaries.
0:09:43 > 0:09:48Now it seems Una has discovered a previous generation of Wogans in Enniskerry
0:09:48 > 0:09:51'going way back into the 19th century.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54'A man that would be my great-grandfather.'
0:09:54 > 0:09:57The very first Wogan to come to the village was Michael Wogan.
0:09:57 > 0:10:03He came from Dublin City and he married an Eliza Kelly who was from the village.
0:10:03 > 0:10:05And then they went on to have 11 children.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09They didn't fool around in those days, did they?
0:10:09 > 0:10:10- No.- And what did he do for a living?
0:10:10 > 0:10:13He was a bootmaker. A master bootmaker.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16Young Una here claims to have tracked down a photograph
0:10:16 > 0:10:19of the great Wogan ancestor hanging on a wall in a pub.
0:10:19 > 0:10:21'That's a surprise(!)
0:10:21 > 0:10:23'This I must see.'
0:10:25 > 0:10:29- So this is the old pub. - This is the old pub.
0:10:29 > 0:10:33- Yeah. And what's this?- This is your great-grandfather, Michael.
0:10:33 > 0:10:35- Of course, I'm a Michael. - You're a Michael?
0:10:35 > 0:10:42- Yeah, I'm a Michael Terence and my mother called me Terry because my father was Michael Thomas.- Right.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46To distinguish between us instead of shouting Michael and nobody knowing who's being called,
0:10:46 > 0:10:48she called me Terry and that's another Michael.
0:10:48 > 0:10:51Look at the herbaceous border. Don't tell me there's more.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54- This is him sitting down. - Where was this taken?
0:10:54 > 0:10:59- Powerscourt House so he was 75 in this.- And is that Lord Powerscourt there?- That's him, yeah.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03He's sitting there in what could only be described as a seigneurial position.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07This is it. They were all at attention, really.
0:11:09 > 0:11:11And this is Powerscourt today.
0:11:11 > 0:11:17Over a century after my great-grandfather toiled over making the boots and shoes of the people
0:11:17 > 0:11:20that served and worked here.
0:11:20 > 0:11:25It's been transformed from Lord Powerscourt's stately home to one of Ireland's
0:11:25 > 0:11:30most popular tourist destinations, but the reminders of the old hierarchies are still here.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39These steps look strangely bare, don't they,
0:11:39 > 0:11:44after those photographs in the pub. So how does one man get all this?
0:11:44 > 0:11:48Well, his ancestor was a very successful soldier,
0:11:48 > 0:11:52Wingfield was his name, and so he was rewarded by being Marshal of Ireland.
0:11:52 > 0:11:57Given this huge parcel of land, he built this modest little place behind us...
0:11:57 > 0:12:01Not him, the unfortunate Irish peasantry built this little place behind
0:12:01 > 0:12:07and then these magnificent Italianate gardens.
0:12:09 > 0:12:13For 20 years, hundreds of local Irish labourers slaved over the creation
0:12:13 > 0:12:15of these fabulous gardens
0:12:15 > 0:12:20and inside the house, great teams of butlers and cooks and tweenies
0:12:20 > 0:12:24and housemaids and footmen would've been put to service running
0:12:24 > 0:12:29and maintaining this vast residence for the comfort and pleasure of its wealthy owners.
0:12:32 > 0:12:34You know, the good Lord and Lady Powerscourt,
0:12:34 > 0:12:38they didn't get where they are or WERE by not thinking of everything.
0:12:38 > 0:12:43This sunken road was specially designed by them so they didn't
0:12:43 > 0:12:45have to see the rough peasantry
0:12:45 > 0:12:49and their servants making their way to the fields and the house.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53And the only reason you can see me is I'm taller
0:12:53 > 0:12:56than the average peasant of those times... I like to think.
0:12:58 > 0:13:00Powerscourt was built
0:13:00 > 0:13:03by the people of Enniskerry.
0:13:03 > 0:13:08And indeed, they relied on this place for their living.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10They still do.
0:13:10 > 0:13:15Enniskerry relies on Powerscourt and its tourism to this day.
0:13:20 > 0:13:24At one time, Ireland was full of little fiefdoms like Powerscourt.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28English and Scottish settlers seized much of the country's best land.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31The native Catholics became tenants in their own country.
0:13:33 > 0:13:37During the 1840s, the country experienced a crippling famine.
0:13:37 > 0:13:41A million people died of starvation.
0:13:49 > 0:13:55Even before the famine, thousands of people eked out an existence growing their crops among the stony hills
0:13:55 > 0:13:58and valleys of the Wicklow Mountains.
0:14:00 > 0:14:04On family drives over here over the weekends in the 1950s,
0:14:04 > 0:14:08we'd marvel at the beauty of Sugarloaf Mountain, but coming from
0:14:08 > 0:14:14the poverty-ridden countryside as he did, my da would always remind us, "You can't eat the scenery."
0:14:18 > 0:14:23During the Great Famine, over a million people emigrated rather than starve to death
0:14:23 > 0:14:25and the austere conditions in Ireland
0:14:25 > 0:14:31meant people continued to emigrate in large numbers right up until the 1960s.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34They left without knowing what they were going to,
0:14:34 > 0:14:38they left because they were desperate, they left because they were starving,
0:14:38 > 0:14:42they left because there was no work and their last view
0:14:42 > 0:14:46of their native land was Cobh.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49And I just thought that you might like to see it.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55Adjacent to the city of Cork, the port of Cobh lies on an island
0:14:55 > 0:14:59in the middle of the second-largest natural harbour in the world.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05This was Ireland's emergency exit.
0:15:08 > 0:15:14Poverty, escalating rents, anti-Catholic discrimination were just some of the reasons
0:15:14 > 0:15:17Irish people sought a better life elsewhere.
0:15:17 > 0:15:22Between the 1850s and the 1950s, 30% of the population,
0:15:22 > 0:15:27around 2.5 million people, emigrated to America.
0:15:27 > 0:15:30One of them was Philomena O'Shea.
0:15:30 > 0:15:36She was just 17 when she decided to leave her family behind and set sail for America in 1952.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39Why did you decide to leave?
0:15:39 > 0:15:42There wasn't any work,
0:15:42 > 0:15:45but it was an adventure I suppose as well, you know?
0:15:46 > 0:15:50And we went to the cathedral that afternoon and lit candles and said our prayers.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53Of course.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57They brought us out and there was about 600 passengers on it
0:15:57 > 0:16:04and we were shown our cabin and there were six of us in the cabin, to my memory I think, in bunk beds.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07It was dawning in the morning.
0:16:07 > 0:16:13We came up on deck, they told us that we were seeing the last sight of Ireland, but I do remember
0:16:13 > 0:16:18looking at that and being very lonely and everybody was lonely on the deck.
0:16:25 > 0:16:29That's the recollection I have, it was very sad.
0:16:29 > 0:16:34Leaving it, I suppose, you know, and seeing my family out there.
0:16:34 > 0:16:38- Did you cry?- I did and I remember my brother was crying.
0:16:40 > 0:16:46And how long did it take you to get over that on the boat before you recovered from the sadness of it?
0:16:46 > 0:16:49Oh, I think I never got over it, for a year.
0:16:49 > 0:16:55- It was a very tough year, that, for us.- Were you lonely?- Very lonely.
0:16:55 > 0:16:57Very lonely.
0:17:07 > 0:17:12But Philomena didn't stay lonely forever.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15- You met the love of your life when you were there?- I did.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18- How did you meet him? - At the Irish Centre.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21William O'Shea. He was from Ventry, Dingle.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24- That's where you're up from at the moment? - That's where I'm living now, yeah.
0:17:24 > 0:17:26He dragged you back to County Kerry?
0:17:26 > 0:17:29He did!
0:17:29 > 0:17:32Did you have a family before you left America?
0:17:32 > 0:17:35I had brought one daughter with me, she was five months old from the States.
0:17:35 > 0:17:37And how many children did you have again?
0:17:37 > 0:17:40Six children altogether.
0:17:40 > 0:17:45- Six O'Sheas. And so now, your children have married.- They have.
0:17:45 > 0:17:47- You've how many grandchildren? - I have ten grandchildren.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49God, I've only got four.
0:17:49 > 0:17:53- Ten grandchildren, the prolific O'Shea family.- Yeah.
0:17:55 > 0:17:57History seems to be repeating itself,
0:17:57 > 0:18:02the number of Irish people emigrating to the United States is up by 12%.
0:18:02 > 0:18:08For the first time in 15 years, there are more people leaving Ireland than entering it.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14Further up the River Lee is Cork City.
0:18:18 > 0:18:24There's one thing that's all too readily associated with the Irish, and that's the demon drink.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30There's no doubt it has been a problem in the past, there were once
0:18:30 > 0:18:34800 licensed premises here in Cork alone.
0:18:36 > 0:18:41Holy Catholic Ireland though has always regarded drinking as ungodly.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44Back in the 1840s, the great temperance reformer Father Mathew
0:18:44 > 0:18:46convinced almost half the adult population
0:18:46 > 0:18:52of the country at the time to take the pledge and banish alcohol from their lives forever.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54It didn't last forever though.
0:18:54 > 0:19:00By 2003, Ireland had the second highest alcohol consumption in the world.
0:19:03 > 0:19:07I've come to one of the oldest and most far-famed bars in Cork, to meet the bar owner
0:19:07 > 0:19:12Mary O'Donovan and the Hi B proprietor himself, Brian O'Donnell.
0:19:13 > 0:19:17I remember serving in the parlour of my aunts in the country
0:19:17 > 0:19:1950 years ago or longer
0:19:19 > 0:19:23and I saw a man having 24 pints,
0:19:23 > 0:19:28but there was yeast in the pints at that stage and it was a kind of nourishment.
0:19:28 > 0:19:30I see, this is kind of...
0:19:30 > 0:19:33This wouldn't be regarded as a health drink now?
0:19:33 > 0:19:36They'd like to call it that, but it wouldn't be any more.
0:19:39 > 0:19:41The Hi B is like pubs used to be.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45You won't find any plasma screens or Wi-Fi spots here.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48The problem is, though, pubs can't be like they were.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52The smoking ban has been enforced since 2004 in Ireland.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55You can barely sniff a drink here before you're over the limit.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59How can pub culture survive?
0:19:59 > 0:20:04The pub can be the focus of a community.
0:20:04 > 0:20:09Would you say that the pub is a very important part of Irish culture?
0:20:09 > 0:20:12- Not any more.- Have things changed?
0:20:12 > 0:20:16Ah, they have. The drink-driving and the smoking.
0:20:16 > 0:20:19So in your experience, Mary, are there less people coming into your pub?
0:20:19 > 0:20:21Well, it has changed completely.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24- The day trade has gone. - The day trade?- Yeah.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26We don't open now until 4.00.
0:20:26 > 0:20:28So, tell us about an average day
0:20:28 > 0:20:31when times were good. When would the first customer come in?
0:20:31 > 0:20:34- Oh, 10.30.- Yeah.
0:20:34 > 0:20:36Taking a drop of the craythur
0:20:36 > 0:20:39during the day was once commonplace in Ireland
0:20:39 > 0:20:44and this was because bars like the Hi B were at the centre of the community.
0:20:44 > 0:20:46People came seeking company and conversation.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49Not any more.
0:20:49 > 0:20:54I understand you threw somebody out of this pub for having a mobile phone.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57HE LAUGHS
0:20:57 > 0:21:02- You're a hard man.- But, I mean, you see in a kind of way, Terry, it is antisocial in a sort of way.
0:21:02 > 0:21:04I mean, we provide people to talk to.
0:21:05 > 0:21:10Social drinking and the pub has been at the heart of Irish life for centuries.
0:21:10 > 0:21:15In times of hardship people have sought solace in drink and companionship.
0:21:16 > 0:21:21But, of course, the other great mainstay of Irish life has been religion.
0:21:26 > 0:21:28From Cork, and its neighbouring port of Cobh,
0:21:28 > 0:21:33it's a short, but scenic journey to the little village of Ballinspittle.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38To get there we head west over the picturesque estuary
0:21:38 > 0:21:41of the River Bandon and on past the Old Head Of Kinsale.
0:21:43 > 0:21:49'Like 90% of the population of the Republic of Ireland, I was raised in the Catholic tradition.'
0:21:49 > 0:21:54Roadside statues of the Virgin Mary are as familiar as bus shelters,
0:21:54 > 0:22:00corner shops, yet this one managed to catch the attention of the entire nation.
0:22:00 > 0:22:04The statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary just outside the little village
0:22:04 > 0:22:10moved, at least according to passers-by and devout Catholics.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13This was the very statue.
0:22:13 > 0:22:18It was first spotted moving in July 1985 by a small group of local people.
0:22:18 > 0:22:24Two months later, it had become one of the biggest news stories in Ireland.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28# Mother of Christ... #
0:22:28 > 0:22:30Since that first sighting in July,
0:22:30 > 0:22:33more than 250,000 people have flocked
0:22:33 > 0:22:35to see Ballinspittle's moving Madonna.
0:22:35 > 0:22:40They come from as far away as Dublin and Belfast in special coaches laid on for the pilgrimage.
0:22:42 > 0:22:44Look at her head now.
0:22:44 > 0:22:47Her head is moving now.
0:22:47 > 0:22:49- Yeah.- Yeah!- Definitely now.
0:22:49 > 0:22:51Kind of bowing a lot.
0:22:51 > 0:22:56I thought we'd better go along and meet a couple of people, sensible people,
0:22:56 > 0:22:59all right, devout Catholics,
0:22:59 > 0:23:05who believe that they saw the statue move in Ballinspittle.
0:23:08 > 0:23:13Pat Bowen and Sean Murray were there the day the alleged miracle happened.
0:23:13 > 0:23:17..and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.
0:23:17 > 0:23:20- She began to receive the Holy Spirit.- You're a former policeman.
0:23:20 > 0:23:24- That's right.- So, you know, you're not going to be too easily deceived.
0:23:24 > 0:23:29No. Well, I came here on the evening of the 24th July, 1985.
0:23:29 > 0:23:35It was the crowd I was watching, not the statue, because as a policeman it's the crowd interested me.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39And the only time my gaze switched to the statute was when the crowd
0:23:39 > 0:23:44of about 400 people that were here at the time in mid-sentence stopped.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50It was like you flick a light switch.
0:23:50 > 0:23:54There was this collective gasp of amazement and then I looked at the statue.
0:23:54 > 0:23:59It sounds crazy even today, and even mad today, but the statue, to my mind, was free of the grotto.
0:23:59 > 0:24:01- It seemed to be floating. - Floating in the air.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04Now, I was so convinced this was a hoax
0:24:04 > 0:24:09that the following morning at 7.00 on my way to work in the city
0:24:09 > 0:24:14I decided I was going to solve this thing once and for all and I climbed up there at 7.00 in the morning.
0:24:14 > 0:24:19I expected to find some form of trick wiring or trick lighting or something
0:24:19 > 0:24:22and I was absolutely amazed when I found nothing.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26And I actually walked right around the statue, even at the back.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29I caught it by the shoulders, I tried to shake it
0:24:29 > 0:24:32and it was as solid as the railings there we're looking at here.
0:24:36 > 0:24:39So, tell me, did it change your life?
0:24:39 > 0:24:45Well, I was always religious, but, yeah, it definitely deepened my faith.
0:24:45 > 0:24:49So it's been a place of inspiration and consolation.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52- Yes.- Does it console you still?
0:24:52 > 0:24:54Yeah, it certainly does.
0:24:54 > 0:24:56I always come here with my troubles.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59- And what about you? - It's been an extraordinary place.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03The only way I can describe it to you is that, like,
0:25:03 > 0:25:07I can touch Terry Wogan, I know that's you because I can touch you,
0:25:07 > 0:25:09but by the same token there are things out there that
0:25:09 > 0:25:14we can't either see or touch, but that's where a bit of faith comes in.
0:25:14 > 0:25:19The statue continued to attract the crowds for more than four months after the initial sighting,
0:25:19 > 0:25:23but you have to remember back in 1985 Ireland was one of the most devout
0:25:23 > 0:25:28Catholic nations in the world, so it's not hard to understand
0:25:28 > 0:25:33how an alleged miracle like this might gather momentum amongst the faithful.
0:25:33 > 0:25:40Back in the village, local journalist Tim Ryan has followed the story from the very beginning.
0:25:40 > 0:25:44The amazing thing about the events of '85 was very ordinary people
0:25:44 > 0:25:47believed they saw something moving, something happening.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50I would say, an estimated guess from my memory,
0:25:50 > 0:25:54about three out of five people who came believed they saw something happening.
0:25:54 > 0:25:59- What did you think?- Well, I thought if I gazed at it long enough
0:25:59 > 0:26:03I could see a wobble on the statue, but I never put it down to
0:26:03 > 0:26:08more than sort of staring at an number of bulbs together for a long enough time,
0:26:08 > 0:26:10and I wear glasses anyway.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13Why do you think it happened at the time it happened?
0:26:13 > 0:26:14It was a very bad time.
0:26:14 > 0:26:16The economy was going nowhere.
0:26:16 > 0:26:20It was a phenomenally bad summer. People were praying for fine weather.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23At that time farmers made hay, and in order to make hay you needed
0:26:23 > 0:26:27two or three sunny days together, and it just wasn't happening.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30People were desperate for saving their crops and I think
0:26:30 > 0:26:34it all came together into a reaching out for help from the supernatural.
0:26:34 > 0:26:35..And dwelt amongst us.
0:26:35 > 0:26:37Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee.
0:26:37 > 0:26:41Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now...
0:26:44 > 0:26:45The devotion
0:26:45 > 0:26:48to the Catholic Church
0:26:48 > 0:26:53I suppose goes back to the times of oppression and, indeed, the times
0:26:53 > 0:26:57of starvation because when a people have nothing else,
0:26:57 > 0:27:00when they've got very little to eat,
0:27:00 > 0:27:04when they've got nothing else to believe in,
0:27:04 > 0:27:08when they can't be educated and they can't own land...
0:27:10 > 0:27:17..they're going to fall back on the only thing that gives them any succour whatsoever,
0:27:17 > 0:27:25and that's a belief in God and, more specifically, a belief in the Catholic Church.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30But with church attendance waning, I wonder whether the new generation
0:27:30 > 0:27:38of Irish look more to their Celtic heritage, to music and language, to define themselves.
0:27:41 > 0:27:46We're hurtling ever westwards and onwards and out towards the Atlantic.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50We're heading to a little island off the southwestern corner of the country.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53The western fringes of Ireland are known as the Gaeltacht.
0:27:55 > 0:27:58This is where the Gaelic or Irish language is spoken.
0:27:58 > 0:28:03Clear Island is a favourite place for the young to learn their mother tongue.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13The greatest gift you can have in Ireland is to be a good listener
0:28:13 > 0:28:17because everybody is talking ALL the time.
0:28:17 > 0:28:19And it's partly the fault of Gaelic.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22I'll give you an example. If you say something like,
0:28:22 > 0:28:27"I'm going out". No, "I went out", past tense.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30"I went out". Well, in Gaelic that's expressed as...
0:28:30 > 0:28:32HE SPEAKS GAELIC
0:28:32 > 0:28:33I'm AFTER going out.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36So you'll hear that with Irish people speaking English.
0:28:36 > 0:28:42They'll say, "Oh, I'm after doing something terrible here", you know?
0:28:42 > 0:28:45There's no such thing as "hello" in Gaelic, it's...
0:28:45 > 0:28:48HE SPEAKS GAELIC
0:28:48 > 0:28:50..which is God and Mary be with you.
0:28:50 > 0:28:52The answer to that is not, "Hello, yourself", it's...
0:28:52 > 0:28:54HE SPEAKS GAELIC
0:28:54 > 0:28:57..which is "God and Mary and St Patrick be with you".
0:28:57 > 0:29:02So, you can see that conversations take just that little bit longer.
0:29:10 > 0:29:13So, here we are, Clear Island.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16I want to meet some of the young people who come here every summer
0:29:16 > 0:29:20to learn the Gaelic among these glorious surroundings.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27And the added advantage to the parents of course is that,
0:29:27 > 0:29:32unless they're very good swimmers, they can't escape.
0:29:32 > 0:29:34I'm on the local bus.
0:29:34 > 0:29:37Thank goodness Jim, the driver, is a fellow Dubliner
0:29:37 > 0:29:38and happy to speak English.
0:29:42 > 0:29:46Obviously, you speak Gaelic, you speak Irish because you live here.
0:29:46 > 0:29:48I speak a small amount of Irish.
0:29:48 > 0:29:50Although you don't speak it in Dublin and that,
0:29:50 > 0:29:55but from schooling we have it and it does come back to you. The office where I work now...
0:29:55 > 0:30:00All businesses translate it through Gaelic and it's amazing the way it will come back to you.
0:30:00 > 0:30:03How many people are living here at the moment?
0:30:03 > 0:30:07130 people live here all year round, and it increases by maybe 300, 400,
0:30:07 > 0:30:11500 in the summertime, depending on the weather, really,
0:30:11 > 0:30:16but also the colleges bring a lot of people and certainly brings a boost to the economy of the island.
0:30:16 > 0:30:19Now, tell me this now, is it dangerous driving here?
0:30:19 > 0:30:22Not a bit, as long as you stay between the ditches!
0:30:22 > 0:30:23THEY LAUGH
0:30:25 > 0:30:27Is this island a tax haven by any chance?
0:30:27 > 0:30:29Yes!
0:30:29 > 0:30:31Could I save money if I came to live here?
0:30:31 > 0:30:34You could, because there's nowhere to spend it,
0:30:34 > 0:30:36and that's the only reason why.
0:30:36 > 0:30:40When my mother in law came down here, she said, "It's a lovely place, but there's no shops!"
0:30:44 > 0:30:47THEY SPEAK GAELIC
0:31:19 > 0:31:24'So, I seem to have got away with it, or maybe they're just being polite.'
0:31:24 > 0:31:31When I was at school here Irish was compulsory and if you didn't pass Irish you failed all your exams,
0:31:31 > 0:31:36which was very, very tough and what it meant was we didn't love Irish,
0:31:36 > 0:31:39we were forced to learn it.
0:31:39 > 0:31:45Can any of you say why you're doing this course in Irish? Why?
0:31:45 > 0:31:48So I can do better in my Junior Cert than everyone, but...
0:31:48 > 0:31:50It's for exams, yeah, isn't it?
0:31:50 > 0:31:57- And also because certain jobs are only available if you have Gaelic, isn't that true?- Yes.
0:31:57 > 0:32:00Civil service, government jobs, etc.
0:32:00 > 0:32:04So, do you have an affection for the language?
0:32:04 > 0:32:06- Do you like speaking the language? - Yeah.
0:32:06 > 0:32:09After coming here, I think I like it a lot more.
0:32:09 > 0:32:11Yeah. And do you like being here?
0:32:11 > 0:32:13- Yeah. - You're not lonely on the island?
0:32:13 > 0:32:14No.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17IRISH MUSIC PLAYS
0:32:21 > 0:32:26'So, now learning Irish is about doing well, getting ahead in the world.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35'Over 1.5 million people speak Gaelic now.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38'That's three times the amount there was when I was born.
0:32:40 > 0:32:45'Well, this is how you preserve your national identity, and it's working.'
0:32:45 > 0:32:46I'd say he's a decent height.
0:32:55 > 0:32:57What are you looking at?
0:32:57 > 0:33:02Now, before I leave, I head up on the hill to take in the view from the top of Clear Island.
0:33:06 > 0:33:08Out there in the distance is Fastnet Rock.
0:33:08 > 0:33:12This is the southernmost point of the entire country.
0:33:12 > 0:33:13I've never been there before.
0:33:13 > 0:33:15Now is my chance.
0:33:23 > 0:33:26With a height of over 50 metres above sea level,
0:33:26 > 0:33:30Fastnet is the tallest lighthouse off the coast of the British Isles.
0:33:30 > 0:33:37Even so, in 1985 a rogue wave as high as the lighthouse itself smacked into the building.
0:33:39 > 0:33:43Every one of the 2,047 Cornish granite blocks
0:33:43 > 0:33:45stayed firmly in place.
0:33:48 > 0:33:52Fastnet is where Ireland ends and the Atlantic begins.
0:33:52 > 0:33:58This thought was not lost on the many that have sailed past it over the centuries,
0:33:58 > 0:34:01hence its nickname.
0:34:01 > 0:34:06This is called Ireland's Teardrop because that was the last little bit of Ireland
0:34:06 > 0:34:11that the emigrants saw as the ship sailed off
0:34:11 > 0:34:16into the Atlantic and on to the New World.
0:34:27 > 0:34:29Now it's time to head northwards.
0:34:29 > 0:34:32I'm off to beautiful County Kerry.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35This has always been one of my favourite parts of Ireland.
0:34:35 > 0:34:39Of course, this is what the tourists come to this country for.
0:34:43 > 0:34:48So, we're off to, I suppose, the gem in the diadem of Ireland's scenery.
0:34:50 > 0:34:57It was around about the Sixties that some clever people in Bord Failte,
0:34:57 > 0:34:59which is the Irish Tourist Board,
0:34:59 > 0:35:05thought, "Let's start selling this country as a place where tourists can come."
0:35:08 > 0:35:13One of Bord Failte's greatest successes was branding the country The Emerald Isle.
0:35:13 > 0:35:15They're not wrong about that.
0:35:15 > 0:35:19There's one particular scenic route that's a must-see
0:35:19 > 0:35:20for lovers of landscape.
0:35:20 > 0:35:23It's called the Ring of Kerry.
0:35:25 > 0:35:28Tomorrow Dave and I plan on driving it.
0:35:30 > 0:35:34Starting in Killarney, the Ring of Kerry is a 180-kilometre circular
0:35:34 > 0:35:38route around the spectacular coast of the county's peninsula.
0:35:38 > 0:35:41Tourists usually do the entire trip in a day,
0:35:41 > 0:35:43so we'd better start early.
0:35:43 > 0:35:44THUNDERCLAP AND HIGH WINDS
0:35:44 > 0:35:49Ah ha! This is the view that greets us the next morning.
0:35:49 > 0:35:51It's what the Irish call a 'soft day'.
0:35:51 > 0:35:54Breathtaking scenery is out there somewhere.
0:35:54 > 0:35:56Will we ever see it?
0:35:56 > 0:36:02From the look on his face, I don't think Dave is overjoyed at the prospect of a 180-kilometre drive.
0:36:02 > 0:36:04Do you know, you do this drive
0:36:04 > 0:36:08on a beautiful day and you think,
0:36:08 > 0:36:10this is magnificent.
0:36:10 > 0:36:15You do this drive on a day like today and you say...
0:36:15 > 0:36:16How does anybody live here?
0:36:16 > 0:36:20How does anybody want to be in this part of the world, isn't it horrible?
0:36:20 > 0:36:21Is it difficult to drive?
0:36:21 > 0:36:24I mean, the scenery is a bit distracting, isn't it?
0:36:24 > 0:36:27'Or it might be, if we could see it.'
0:36:27 > 0:36:32This section of road is quite good, but as we go up the road does get much narrower.
0:36:32 > 0:36:37I suppose it's better if you're doing it the right their round, rather than the wrong way round.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40'Because of the weight of traffic on this road, Kerry County Council
0:36:40 > 0:36:45'advise people to travel the ring in one direction, anti-clockwise.
0:36:45 > 0:36:50'Rebel at heart that he is, Dave has chosen to travel the opposite way around.
0:36:50 > 0:36:52'I fear we'll all pay the consequences.
0:36:52 > 0:36:56'This is the tenth bus that's tried to force us off the road.'
0:36:56 > 0:36:58Is this dangerous going the wrong way?
0:36:58 > 0:37:02Absolutely! Sure, if it wasn't dangerous it wouldn't be fun. BUS HORN BEEPS
0:37:02 > 0:37:06That's all very well taking that attitude, I'd just like to be able to finish this documentary!
0:37:06 > 0:37:10'It's comforting to see the visibility going down by the second.'
0:37:10 > 0:37:14So, I suppose you're saying now your life is in my hands.
0:37:15 > 0:37:18Well, I hope I'm up to the task.
0:37:18 > 0:37:20And so do I!
0:37:20 > 0:37:22If we go over the edge...
0:37:22 > 0:37:24You look after my wife and family.
0:37:24 > 0:37:28I will absolutely, yeah. As I'm sure you'll look after mine as we both say goodbye.
0:37:28 > 0:37:30Absolutely no chance of that!
0:37:32 > 0:37:36DAVE'S LAUGHS ECHO
0:37:36 > 0:37:39'The rain seems to be having a strange effect on our Dave.
0:37:39 > 0:37:44'Luckily, my mind is still on the job and I persuade him to pull over, let me take a look
0:37:44 > 0:37:50'at what the guidebooks tell me is one of the very best views in the whole Ring of Kerry.'
0:37:53 > 0:37:56This is what the view is supposed to look like.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03This is the view to end them all.
0:38:03 > 0:38:05You can hardly see your hand in front of your face!
0:38:07 > 0:38:09This is Ireland, come on!
0:38:09 > 0:38:11Nobody comes here for the weather!
0:38:11 > 0:38:17They come here for the scenery, even if you can see nothing.
0:38:17 > 0:38:20I'll leave you now because I want to drink in this wonderful view.
0:38:26 > 0:38:29'So much for the views, I need a drink!
0:38:30 > 0:38:33'And I think Dave's spirits need topping up a little, too,
0:38:33 > 0:38:38'though luckily for us, Tuesday night is Irish music and dance night
0:38:38 > 0:38:40'at the Bridge Inn in Portmagee.'
0:38:44 > 0:38:47Tell me this, I'm an urban Irishman myself,
0:38:47 > 0:38:49do you like singing in pubs?
0:38:49 > 0:38:51Do I like singing in pubs?
0:38:51 > 0:38:55Do you like when you go into a pub people bursting into song?
0:38:59 > 0:39:01That's a good question.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04'Somehow, I don't think Dave is going to be joining me.'
0:39:06 > 0:39:08IRISH MUSIC PLAYS
0:39:17 > 0:39:19This is the craic. When you see advertisements for
0:39:19 > 0:39:24Ireland, cead mile failte, 100,000 welcomes, come for the craic.
0:39:24 > 0:39:28They don't mean, fall through something in the floor.
0:39:28 > 0:39:34They mean craic, which is Gaelic for fun.
0:39:34 > 0:39:40And you won't have more fun then you have in an Irish bar with the singing and the music.
0:39:40 > 0:39:42Just listen to the hum of the atmosphere.
0:39:42 > 0:39:45I mean, these are people having a good time.
0:39:45 > 0:39:47IRISH MUSIC PLAYS
0:39:49 > 0:39:52There are Irish pubs all over the world, of course.
0:39:52 > 0:39:55Wherever you go now - Kiev, Riga, Moscow,
0:39:55 > 0:39:58but they're not Irish pubs and you won't find anybody Irish in them.
0:39:58 > 0:40:00This is an Irish pub.
0:40:05 > 0:40:09Of course, you wouldn't feel like this kind of thing every night.
0:40:09 > 0:40:14Particularly when it starts getting a little maudlin, as it always does.
0:40:14 > 0:40:19# Come fill up your glasses
0:40:19 > 0:40:24# And we'll drink hand in hand
0:40:24 > 0:40:31# For tomorrow I'm leaving
0:40:31 > 0:40:36# The shores of Lough Bran... #
0:40:36 > 0:40:41The thing about most Irish songs is there's not many laughs in them.
0:40:42 > 0:40:50It's usually a bit like country music, which is mostly about people's dogs or horses dying.
0:40:50 > 0:40:52Irish music is usually about people going,
0:40:54 > 0:40:57passing on,
0:40:58 > 0:41:00or being shot by the Redcoats.
0:41:03 > 0:41:08# And we'll all go together
0:41:08 > 0:41:15# To pull wild mountain thyme... #
0:41:16 > 0:41:21And before someone shoots me, I'm going to turn in for the night.
0:41:21 > 0:41:27# Go, lassie, go... #
0:41:37 > 0:41:39The next day, we head for Tralee.
0:41:39 > 0:41:42Although it's the capital of County Kerry,
0:41:42 > 0:41:45it can hardly be described as the jewel in the crown
0:41:45 > 0:41:47of this otherwise beautiful county.
0:41:49 > 0:41:57For that reason, Tralee has had to draw hard on the reserves of Irish ingenuity to get itself on the map.
0:41:57 > 0:42:01I'm rather proud to say, I've played a part in all of this.
0:42:01 > 0:42:04Back in the 1950s, Tralee had come up with the idea
0:42:04 > 0:42:09of hosting an annual competition to find the country's loveliest lady.
0:42:09 > 0:42:12Like all beauty contests, it wasn't all about beauty.
0:42:12 > 0:42:14It was called the Rose of Tralee.
0:42:14 > 0:42:17It was to become a national event.
0:42:17 > 0:42:21The woman who helped create it and who became its first Lady President,
0:42:21 > 0:42:23Irish-American, Margaret Dwyer.
0:42:23 > 0:42:26- Well, hello.- Margaret Dwyer?
0:42:26 > 0:42:30Now in her 90s, Margaret recalls how it all started.
0:42:30 > 0:42:37We had the bright idea, we were trying to figure out what we could have some kind of festival on.
0:42:37 > 0:42:40The only kind of thing they could think of
0:42:40 > 0:42:46was the song the Rose of Tralee, that John McCormack made famous over the world.
0:42:46 > 0:42:51So it would be to choose a Rose each year.
0:42:51 > 0:42:54There was no such thing as bathing suits, or anything like that.
0:42:54 > 0:42:56What a shame!
0:42:56 > 0:42:59No, no. I'm not that kind,
0:42:59 > 0:43:02I was never that kind of a woman!
0:43:02 > 0:43:05But how did you manage to spread the word?
0:43:06 > 0:43:08Well, we worked at it.
0:43:08 > 0:43:10We went out. We sold ourselves.
0:43:10 > 0:43:15And it grew. It was successful, and people liked it.
0:43:15 > 0:43:19Tralee got on the tourist map for the first time, ever.
0:43:19 > 0:43:24So, you decided, OK, we're going to bring Ireland to Tralee,
0:43:24 > 0:43:28so we're going to have this festival, the Rose of Tralee.
0:43:28 > 0:43:32The Rose of Tralee, and it was not her beauty alone that won me.
0:43:32 > 0:43:36# She was lovely and fair
0:43:36 > 0:43:41# As the rose of the summer
0:43:41 > 0:43:51# Yes, twas not her beauty alone that won me... #
0:43:52 > 0:43:58There is a line in there that says, "'Twas not her beauty alone at that won me".
0:43:58 > 0:44:01So, it wasn't just beauty, then.
0:44:01 > 0:44:05It had to be intelligence, you had to have general knowledge,
0:44:05 > 0:44:11and perhaps play the bodhran or indeed the banjo.
0:44:11 > 0:44:13The girl had to be an all-rounder.
0:44:18 > 0:44:22By the late 60s, the Rose of Tralee had become a major international event.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25Any lady who could claim Irish descent,
0:44:25 > 0:44:28no matter where she lived in the world, could enter the competition.
0:44:28 > 0:44:31With the more ambitious show,
0:44:31 > 0:44:35the organisers were on the lookout for a new compere.
0:44:35 > 0:44:40Yours truly had started appearing on a television game show for RTE's new TV channel
0:44:40 > 0:44:43and somehow, I became a contender.
0:44:43 > 0:44:48The committee decided that I would be the man to present it.
0:44:48 > 0:44:50At that time, I wasn't going to argue with that.
0:44:50 > 0:44:54I was a veteran of Irish beauty contests.
0:44:54 > 0:44:58I presented the competition from 1968 until 1970.
0:44:58 > 0:45:05So, that's how I ended up playing my part in Tralee's success story.
0:45:05 > 0:45:09Nowadays, the competition is one of the most popular events in the country.
0:45:09 > 0:45:13This year's final was the most watched programme on Irish television.
0:45:13 > 0:45:16The Rose of Tralee transformed the fortunes of the town,
0:45:16 > 0:45:21but I wonder what effect it had on the 51 ladies who've won over the years?
0:45:21 > 0:45:27I called in on the winner of 1969's Rose.
0:45:27 > 0:45:31Cathy Quinn, the green-eyed student nurse, born in County Longford,
0:45:31 > 0:45:33proudly wears the Dublin sash.
0:45:33 > 0:45:36She says, her selection at Dublin's Gresham Hotel,
0:45:36 > 0:45:39the most amazing, surprising and fabulous night of her life.
0:45:39 > 0:45:43- Which of course, with immediately topped...- By winning it!
0:45:43 > 0:45:46But there's an even better one, Terry, wait till I show you. This one.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49- Look at this.- Look at that!
0:45:49 > 0:45:51- Isn't that wonderful? - Isn't that frightening?
0:45:51 > 0:45:55My boys say, I want sideburns like that.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58Well, actually, that was '69.
0:45:58 > 0:46:01- Sideburns got even longer.- They did!
0:46:01 > 0:46:03You were, in fact, tripping over your sideburns.
0:46:03 > 0:46:07Looked at the faces of the girls behind you.
0:46:07 > 0:46:09Raging!
0:46:09 > 0:46:11They were not!
0:46:11 > 0:46:14Raging. Look at them!
0:46:14 > 0:46:17If any of them had a knife,
0:46:17 > 0:46:19they'd be stabbing you!
0:46:19 > 0:46:23So, there you were, Rose of Tralee, and the next thing, you're back,
0:46:23 > 0:46:27- being kicked around as a student nurse.- That's right.
0:46:27 > 0:46:29And look at the headline, here.
0:46:31 > 0:46:34You're trying to choke a patient there.
0:46:34 > 0:46:36Oh no, you're taking his temperature.
0:46:38 > 0:46:41Life's no bed of roses for Cath...
0:46:41 > 0:46:43When you went back to the hospital,
0:46:43 > 0:46:45did you find the matron bullying you?
0:46:45 > 0:46:49Did you find a lot of what can only be described as jealousy from the other nurses?
0:46:49 > 0:46:53When I went back, all the nurses came into the refectory,
0:46:53 > 0:46:59and sang the Rose of Tralee with a big cake and all the candles, and Matron led them.
0:46:59 > 0:47:01She was wonderful.
0:47:01 > 0:47:03Oh, that's terrific.
0:47:03 > 0:47:06- Now, that's Irish.- It was Irish!
0:47:12 > 0:47:16And now, after more than 700 kilometres on the road,
0:47:16 > 0:47:18we're about to arrive in Limerick.
0:47:18 > 0:47:23This is where I was born, where I lived until I was 15.
0:47:23 > 0:47:24I'm coming home.
0:47:24 > 0:47:26Apart from being my birthplace,
0:47:26 > 0:47:31Limerick's other claim to fame is that it lies on the mighty Shannon,
0:47:31 > 0:47:33the longest river in the British Isles,
0:47:33 > 0:47:37running as it does, all the way up to the border with Northern Ireland.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46At Sarsfield Bridge, I cycled back and forth over that bridge
0:47:46 > 0:47:50every day, travelling from home to school and back again.
0:47:50 > 0:47:54And now, as a Freeman of the city, I can drive a herd of sheep over the self-same bridge.
0:47:57 > 0:48:01And this was the school, Crescent College, run by the Jesuit Fathers.
0:48:01 > 0:48:04The building's still standing.
0:48:04 > 0:48:08I hope the same can they said of my old school friends.
0:48:08 > 0:48:12- Look, look at the boys. Look! - I thought you'd be running to us, Terry, with open arms!
0:48:12 > 0:48:16- I've just had my knee replaced. - And be saying, Sebastian, I haven't seen you for years!
0:48:16 > 0:48:18'They're Jim Sexton,
0:48:18 > 0:48:20'Bobby Mulrooney, and Mick Leehy.'
0:48:20 > 0:48:23- Good to see you.- How are you getting on?- Oh, carrying on.
0:48:23 > 0:48:26'The building is still used as a school, so I hope it hasn't changed too much.
0:48:26 > 0:48:29'I haven't been through these doors in 60 years.
0:48:31 > 0:48:35'Crescent College was run on a diet of study, rugby, prayer and punishment.
0:48:35 > 0:48:41'This old staircase here takes me straight back to the person that dished out the punishment...'
0:48:41 > 0:48:46Am I right in thinking that Snitch McLoughlin used to stand up at the very top there?
0:48:46 > 0:48:49He was what, Jim, what did we call him?
0:48:49 > 0:48:50The prefect of studies.
0:48:50 > 0:48:54- He'd stand here. - His real name was Gerry McLoughlin.
0:48:54 > 0:48:56He was a northerner.
0:48:56 > 0:48:58And he was a man of severe aspect.
0:48:58 > 0:49:01He was. He was very strict.
0:49:01 > 0:49:06And as you quite rightly say, we were all in a certain terror of him.
0:49:06 > 0:49:07Remember you got a docket.
0:49:07 > 0:49:11When you were punished for not knowing something, your teacher wrote out a little docket.
0:49:11 > 0:49:12Six of the best.
0:49:12 > 0:49:15Had the whole morning or afternoon to think about it.
0:49:15 > 0:49:19- And he was the executioner. - This is where you used to go to get your hands knocked off.
0:49:19 > 0:49:24My screams could be heard at all the way down O'Connell Street.
0:49:24 > 0:49:27'Just looking at that door brings back painful memories.
0:49:27 > 0:49:30'I was larruped, twice a day sometimes.'
0:49:30 > 0:49:31CANE WHIPPING
0:49:31 > 0:49:33I wasn't brave.
0:49:33 > 0:49:40'The Jesuit Fathers, or Jays as we called them, were hard taskmasters, but they were good teachers.
0:49:40 > 0:49:44'Every so often, we even had some fun.'
0:49:44 > 0:49:46- Do you mind if we go in and see the hall?- OK, let's go.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49Do you remember the dances that we used to have,
0:49:49 > 0:49:54where they brought the girls from Laurel Hill in, and we could all dance?
0:49:54 > 0:49:58But the priests and the nuns were still walking amongst us to make sure that nothing was going on?
0:49:58 > 0:50:03The guys would all be lined up on one wall and the girls would be on the other.
0:50:03 > 0:50:09And the gap in between was... I was very shy, I just couldn't manage it.
0:50:09 > 0:50:12I found it hugely difficult to walk across the floor.
0:50:12 > 0:50:15You see, it was Irish dancing. There wasn't waltzing or foxtrots.
0:50:15 > 0:50:19There used to be a waltz or two during the course of it.
0:50:19 > 0:50:21Did you know how to waltz?
0:50:21 > 0:50:24Anybody know how to waltz?
0:50:24 > 0:50:28You're the dancer, you're the dancer. What a boy.
0:50:28 > 0:50:29What a boy.
0:50:29 > 0:50:31I remember I learned to dance in the Hydro Hotel, Kilkeel.
0:50:31 > 0:50:35One-two-three, one-two-three.
0:50:35 > 0:50:38Whereas the foxtrot was one-two, one-two.
0:50:38 > 0:50:40My gosh, you learned well!
0:50:40 > 0:50:42Only up as far as three!
0:50:48 > 0:50:51In the end, even though I had a strict religious upbringing,
0:50:51 > 0:50:58rather than strengthen my faith, it left me with no great love of religion or the Church.
0:51:08 > 0:51:12Limerick station, the gateway to the East, as it was when my mother and I
0:51:12 > 0:51:16would escape to Dublin during the school holidays.
0:51:16 > 0:51:21And today, the brother is coming the opposite way, to give me a bit of moral support.
0:51:24 > 0:51:26Don't panic, no sign of the train.
0:51:26 > 0:51:28I'm a bit worried about if the brother's going to turn up or not.
0:51:28 > 0:51:31But I'm looking forward to seeing him.
0:51:31 > 0:51:35We can reminisce a little bit about Father's store,
0:51:35 > 0:51:38and what Limerick was like in those days.
0:51:38 > 0:51:39Although he was very young.
0:51:39 > 0:51:42He would have been very young when he left Limerick.
0:51:42 > 0:51:45Brian's about, oh, six-and-a-half years younger than me.
0:51:45 > 0:51:48I left I was 15, so he would only have been about eight.
0:51:48 > 0:51:52So, his memory is probably fresher than mine, since he's a great deal younger.
0:51:54 > 0:51:58You'll find him a small, red-headed person, with a wooden leg.
0:51:59 > 0:52:01Hiya, Brian.
0:52:01 > 0:52:04Welcome. You're looking very brown.
0:52:04 > 0:52:07- And yourself. Good to see you. - Good boy.- That wasn't bad.
0:52:07 > 0:52:10- No, no. Good journey? - You should try the train sometimes.
0:52:10 > 0:52:12- Good journey? - 57 years later after the last one.
0:52:12 > 0:52:15You're looking brown. Is the sun shining on you?
0:52:15 > 0:52:19It crossed my mind, you know, how would they recognise me when I got off the train at Limerick.
0:52:19 > 0:52:21But then of course, I realised,
0:52:21 > 0:52:25you're just going to stand out in the crowd with that handsome figure walking down.
0:52:25 > 0:52:27And the six-pack stomach.
0:52:27 > 0:52:31- I hope I didn't show you up in a bad way.- No, not at all.
0:52:31 > 0:52:32Well, I'm a bit like yourself.
0:52:32 > 0:52:34My body is a temple.
0:52:34 > 0:52:39Our first stop is to see the site of the Da's old grocery shop.
0:52:39 > 0:52:45- Do you remember the Dad was more of a Fortnum & Mason than a Marks & Spencers.- It was, yeah.
0:52:45 > 0:52:49He used to keep all the stuff that the remittance men and the relics of "oul dacency"
0:52:49 > 0:52:53- who lived in Tipperary came for... - Oh, they all came round.
0:52:53 > 0:52:58- The horse people. They used to come for exotic stuff, dried fish from India.- That's right.
0:52:58 > 0:53:01They even had, I think, caviar.
0:53:01 > 0:53:03Yeah, and he had foie gras.
0:53:03 > 0:53:07And he also had what he used to call "lichies".
0:53:07 > 0:53:09The "lichies"!
0:53:12 > 0:53:15Were coming down on to O'Connell Street now.
0:53:15 > 0:53:18You see that thing on the corner?
0:53:20 > 0:53:26- That's the father's old shop. - That's the Da's old grocery store there.- It is, yes.
0:53:26 > 0:53:29It's now a clothing store, but if you look very carefully
0:53:29 > 0:53:34at this rare old photograph, you'll see Leverett & Fry on the far right.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37So, this is where it was.
0:53:37 > 0:53:42- Do you remember, the Da used to carve the ham around about here? - That's right.
0:53:42 > 0:53:46Which when you think about it, he was handling all this exotic foodstuffs,
0:53:46 > 0:53:51and he was actually an expert in meat and the cooking of meats and hams, and stuff like that.
0:53:51 > 0:53:55My dear mother, God rest her soul, with the great destroyer of meat.
0:53:55 > 0:53:59- She was.- She did the incineration technique of cooking.
0:53:59 > 0:54:01Auntie May used to say,
0:54:01 > 0:54:04Rose couldn't boil water.
0:54:04 > 0:54:06- That's right!- That's my mother, Rose.
0:54:06 > 0:54:09If he'd been any good he would have left the shop to us.
0:54:09 > 0:54:13I think it was more a case, we certainly didn't want to be working for my Dad!
0:54:13 > 0:54:15A hard taskmaster.
0:54:15 > 0:54:17Yeah. It was really hard work.
0:54:17 > 0:54:22He'd never have cut corners. We'd never have been able to get away with the new techniques.
0:54:22 > 0:54:25Because you and I were intrinsically lazy people.
0:54:25 > 0:54:28- Absolutely.- Absolutely.- Absolutely.
0:54:28 > 0:54:31'At least we haven't any delusions about ourselves.
0:54:31 > 0:54:35'Now, the moment I've been waiting for - Elm Park is were Brian and I were born,
0:54:35 > 0:54:39'where we spent our childhood, and for the first time,
0:54:39 > 0:54:43'since we left Limerick over half a century ago, we're going home.'
0:54:46 > 0:54:48- 18 Elm Park, Limerick.- That's it.
0:54:50 > 0:54:53- It's got a new name.- St Judes!
0:54:53 > 0:54:54- It was never called that.- No.
0:54:54 > 0:54:56I'm going to tear that down.
0:54:56 > 0:54:59Number 18, this is.
0:54:59 > 0:55:00Can we go in?
0:55:00 > 0:55:02Yes, why not.
0:55:02 > 0:55:04You go first.
0:55:04 > 0:55:06OK, OK. I'll knock.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09Just in case they set the dog on him, you know.
0:55:09 > 0:55:11- Hello.- Oh, my God.
0:55:11 > 0:55:13How do you do?
0:55:13 > 0:55:16- How are you?- May we come in? This is my brother, Brian.
0:55:16 > 0:55:19- Nice to meet you. How are you? - Who have I got here?
0:55:19 > 0:55:20- Tim.- Tim.
0:55:20 > 0:55:23- Thank you, very much.- Come in.
0:55:23 > 0:55:24Thank you very much indeed.
0:55:24 > 0:55:26I remember that staircase.
0:55:26 > 0:55:29And look, the good room.
0:55:29 > 0:55:31It's a television room now.
0:55:31 > 0:55:34- Excellent.- That's wonderful.
0:55:34 > 0:55:36This is grand, this is a huge, big room.
0:55:36 > 0:55:38- Great room.- Isn't that great?
0:55:38 > 0:55:41Like what they've done with this, huh?
0:55:41 > 0:55:43My mother was never a great cook.
0:55:43 > 0:55:47But, she would have been impressed with the kitchen, wouldn't she?
0:55:47 > 0:55:48Do you mind if we go upstairs?
0:55:48 > 0:55:50- Do you mind?- Work away.
0:55:52 > 0:55:55- Look at this. - The old narrow staircase.
0:55:57 > 0:56:00Now do you remember were the bathroom was?
0:56:00 > 0:56:02Oh, the bathroom was much classier.
0:56:02 > 0:56:09In this very bathroom, Michael Wogan used to sing every evening as he shaved.
0:56:09 > 0:56:15He used to sing songs like Dead For Bread and Valentines Goodbye to Faust,
0:56:15 > 0:56:20and he used to deafen everybody within a radius of 100 metres.
0:56:20 > 0:56:23But he always shaved the night before.
0:56:23 > 0:56:24Meticulous man.
0:56:24 > 0:56:28I learned the Floral Dance because in this very bathroom, he used to sing it here.
0:56:28 > 0:56:32- That's right.- Michael Wogan. - You can hear it echoing.
0:56:32 > 0:56:34Baritone extraordinaire.
0:56:34 > 0:56:37MUSIC: "Floral Dance" by Terry Wogan
0:56:37 > 0:56:40# All together in the floral dance... #
0:56:40 > 0:56:43'The more cultured members of the audience might remember I recorded
0:56:43 > 0:56:46'a version of the Floral Dance myself back in 1978.
0:56:46 > 0:56:52'It got to number 21 in the charts, but many believe it went much higher than that!'
0:56:54 > 0:56:58# Hurrah for the Cornish Floral Dance. #
0:57:01 > 0:57:04'That's where it all began.
0:57:08 > 0:57:11'Limerick marks the halfway point on my journey.
0:57:11 > 0:57:14'My home town has certainly changed.
0:57:14 > 0:57:16'It's more prosperous, bigger, more confident.
0:57:16 > 0:57:20'Though much of what I've seen has been changed by the passage of time,
0:57:20 > 0:57:23'many of the people I met have reminded me how Irish I still am.
0:57:23 > 0:57:30'To paraphrase the old expression, once an Irishman, always an Irishman.
0:57:33 > 0:57:37'Next, I'm headed to a land I'm less familiar with -
0:57:38 > 0:57:40'the North.'
0:57:41 > 0:57:44Now you see how idyllic this place is.
0:57:44 > 0:57:48'I have some old friends here to catch up with.'
0:57:48 > 0:57:49The people were innocent.
0:57:49 > 0:57:51Everybody just went, thank you!
0:57:53 > 0:57:58'And there'll be lots of things, I'm sure, that will surprise me about Northern Ireland.'
0:57:58 > 0:58:02Three, two, one... Go!
0:58:03 > 0:58:07'By the time I get back to Dublin and catch up with the gossip...'
0:58:07 > 0:58:08People walked out in disgust.
0:58:08 > 0:58:13'..I hope I'll be able to make sense of what has become of this great island in my absence.'
0:58:13 > 0:58:18There are more of us in England than there are in Ireland.
0:58:18 > 0:58:25'After all, you have to remember, I spent quite a lot of the last 40 years cooped up in a darkened room.'
0:58:43 > 0:58:45Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:45 > 0:58:47E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk