30-05-2025
Colin Farrell traces 8,000 years of Irish history in new series on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player
Colin Farrell narrates From That Small Island - The Story of the Irish, a new four-part documentary series coming to RTÉ One and RTÉ Player next month.
Premiering on Sunday 8 June at 6:30pm, the series will bring to life "the extraordinary story of the Irish people, from the island's very first inhabitants to the global diaspora that now numbers over 80 million people".
From That Small Island is created by the writer and filmmaker Bríona Nic Dhiarmada and produced by the award-winning team behind 1916: The Irish Rebellion.
Along with filming across the island of Ireland, the programme makers have also travelled "from Barbados to Belgium, Singapore to Switzerland, UAE to the United States".
"In the first episode, viewers are taken back to the ancient Céide Fields and introduced to the earliest settlers, including the remarkable discovery of the remains of a baby with the Down Syndrome gene, cared for and breastfed over 5,000 years ago," says the team.
"The series then moves through millennia, from the Viking invasions and Christianisation of Ireland to the modern era, all while spotlighting personal stories and seldom-told truths."
Highlights from the series include:
The television debut of the face of 'Rathlin Man', a 4,000-year-old ancestor whose face was reconstructed using cutting-edge DNA technology.
The first written reference to hurling.
Darker chapters of Irish history, from cannibalism and plague to Irish involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.
Forgotten Irish explorers: a Galway man on Columbus's 1492 voyage and two more on Magellan's circumnavigation.
A Mayo-born general who rose through the ranks to lead the Argentinian army.
The Irish-language printing press in Leuven, Belgium, and the Longford priest who heard the final confession of King Louis XVI.
From That Small Island - The Story of the Irish is a COCO Content production written and produced by Bríona Nic Dhiarmada and directed by Rachael Moriarty and Peter Murphy.
It begins on Sunday 8 June on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.
