Stories from the Boyne

A 1-hour radio documentary for LMFM Radio

Funded by Coimisiún na Meán with the Television Licence Fee

Stories from the Boyne, a new radio documentary by Little Road Productions Ltd., will broadcast at 12noon on Thursday December 26th 2024 on LMFM Radio.

Stories from the Boyne is a one-hour radio documentary that traverses the river’s winding bends as it flows through Louth and Meath from its mouth at Mornington to the Mary McAleese bridge, with all interviews taking place with a new audio-visual perspective of viewing and discussing the land from the water, as opposed to the usual perspective of looking at the water from the land. 

From an aural perspective, the voices we hear along the river seem to travel in a unique way across the water from a moving vessel, depending on so many factors on the river landscape. Whether it’s the roar of traffic as you get closer to the imposing Mary McAleese bridge on the M1 to the roar of the seagulls as you get closer to the sea at Mornington, the aural landscape of the Boyne is varied and unique, especially when paired with the voices of those telling stories that create a sense of place and time. 

These voices include members of the Boyne Fishermen's Rescue and Recovery Service who provide a 24 hour emergency rescue service along the River Boyne, 365 days a year, who discuss the key points of interest along the river from Mornington to their base on the Marsh Road, followed by members of Inver Colpa Rowing Club, who bring us along the river in one of their rowing boats from the Marsh Road to the Mary McAleese bridge.

On this journey, the rhythmic sound of four oars entering and exiting the water in unison, the thud of the turning of the oars in the oar locks as the rowers feather for the next stroke, and the ripples caused by passing boats that lap against the carbon-fibre hull of the boat, all create a calming and unique acoustic backdrop to the many historical, geographical and social conversation points along the way as we pass through the town of Drogheda.

Stories from the Boyne invites the audience to journey along with these storytellers, who offer a glimpse into the past, present and future of this important and infamous stretch of the river.

The documentary was funded by Coimisiún na Meán with the Television Licence Fee

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A Fiver for a Tenor

A one-hour radio documentary for LMFM

Funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee

A Fiver for a Tenor, a new one-hour radio documentary from Little Road Productions Ltd., will broadcast at 12noon on Monday October 25th on LMFM.

A ‘Fiver for a Tenor’ is a one-hour radio documentary that will transport us back to May 1963, when a then unknown tenor took to the stage of the Town Hall, Dundalk for his first ever solo performance not in an opera outside of Italy. His name? Luciano Pavarotti.

‘A Fiver for a Tenor’ explores a story that at first read, could be dismissed as local legend. But as we dig deeper, even local legends are often grounded in fact.

It was the spring of 1963 - Eamon de Valera was President and Sean Lemass, Taoiseach. In the South of the country, preparations were well underway for the visit of US President John Kennedy early in the summer. In Dundalk, on May 7th, a group of opera lovers who together formed St. Cecilia’s Gramophone Society were on their way to Belfast to see a performance of Puccini’s La Boheme in the Grand Opera House. Waiting nervously behind the scenes before his performance on that day, was a man whose name would soon become recognised world-wide. That name was Luciano Pavarotti. 

A few days later, the then 27-year was to perform in Dundalk, stopping over with other Italian singers as he was travelling to Dublin to take part in the opera Rigoletto hosted by the DGOS - Dublin Grand Opera Society (as Opera Ireland was then called) - in the Gaiety Theatre. 

The sum paid for his performance in Dundalk? Five punts, with each ticket sold for a half crown. Five days later, on May 12th 1963, the now world-famous Pavarotti took to the small stage of the Town Hall in Dundalk and performed his first ever solo concert outside of Italy, to a small but appreciative audience and accompanied only by a piano. He performed Che Gelida Mamina from Puccini's La Boheme, La Donna E Mobile from Verdi's Rigoletto along with a role in the Duet from Puccini's Butterfly.

‘A Fiver for a Tenor’ explores the story behind how such a world-famous name began his international solo career on a humble Town Hall stage in Ireland. Helping us piece together this story is Sr. Leonie Marron, a lifelong friend of Monsignor Peter Shields, who helped organise the night.  Sr. Leonie recounts the strange rules that existed in the church at the time that meant that Monsignor Shields could organise the trips for the Society to these concerts to places like Dublin and Belfast, but was not allowed to attend many of the performances as it was forbidden by the Archbishop of the Diocese. Also interviewed are Paddy Brennan of the DGOS and Niall Morris, a founding member of ‘The Celtic Tenors’, who staged a show about Pavarotti’s life. 

In the creation of this 1-hour radio documentary, ‘A Fiver for a Tenor’, we seek to elevate what was once local legend to the realms of fact and in doing so, recount an almost unbelievable tale for a modern audience.

The documentary was funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee.

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The Death Lady’s Cottage

A one-hour radio documentary for LMFM

Funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee

This one-hour documentary explores the life of Dr Elisabeth Kübler-Ross who came up with what could be the most famous psychological model in existence: The Five Stages of Grief, also known as the Kübler-Ross model.

The documentary delves into her life as a researcher and thinker, but with particular interest in her strange connection with Ireland—for nearly fifteen years from 1990 to 2004 she owned a small cottage in Co Louth where she came to write. Using personal stories from neighbours who met her on the lane, family members and colleagues she knew in Ireland, the documentary uncovers the important story of a woman who found a refuge in Ireland in the midst of world-wide fame.

We all know the psychological model, even if we can’t name where it came from. The Five Stages of Grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance – it has become the go-to source of guidance when talking about the grieving. But what may come as surprise is that the model is just 50 years old this year, with roots in a single book published in 1969 by a fiery psychiatrist intent on changing how the grieving process was thought of around the world.

Dr Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was born in Switzerland in 1926, was educated and worked in the USA for most of her life before dying in August 2004. She was the author of 25 books, including On Death and Dying, which in 1969 catapulted her to global fame with the presentation of her Five Stages of Grief. She was presented with nineteen honorary degrees, named woman of the decade in the 1970s by the Ladies Home Journal, and became known—affectionately—as the Death and Dying Lady.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross first came to Ireland in the late 1980s, invited by a bourgeoning group of women therapists who wanted to learn from a leader in their field. What is today known as the Turning Point Institute in Dublin hosted seminars by Kübler-Ross, and it is at this point that it appears Kübler-Ross fell in love with Ireland, enough that she purchased a place of her own on the Island.

Nestled in the Cooley Mountains near Omeath, in north County Louth, is a little stone cottage with a broad garden and views of Carlingford Lough. There is no blue plaque on the cottage, and the only people who know that the cottage was once owned by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross are the long-standing neighbours and the current owners, who noticed her name on the deed of ownership. Kübler-Ross spent the summers writing at the cottage, her booming American voice lodged in the minds of those neighbours she met on the laneways.

Using their stories and others, the documentary unfolds the personal story of one of the most important women of the 20th Century, a scholar who sought safety and refuge in the Cooley Mountains of County Louth.

The documentary was funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee and produced by Chris Nikkel for Little Road Productions Ltd, based in Co. Louth (www.littleroadproductions.com).

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Born in Meath, Made in Hollywood

A 1-hour radio documentary for LMFM Radio

Funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee

Born in Meath, Made in Hollywood, a new radio documentary by Little Road Productions Ltd., will broadcast at 12noon on Monday December 26th 2022 on LMFM Radio.

Only 13 actors of Irish descent boast stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and very few realise that 3 of those were brothers (Owen, Matt and Tom Moore) who hailed from Fordstown, Co. Meath and who were stalwarts of the early Hollywood film industry, between them boasting over 600 Hollywood film credits. This one-hour radio documentary retells the story of the journey of the Moore Brothers from a small boreen in Co. Meath to Hollywood film stars, along with their contribution to the Golden Age of Hollywood.

When the Moore family, father Tom, mother Rosanna (nee Carry) and their then four children Tom (13), Owen (10), Matt (8) and Mary emigrated to the US as steerage passengers on the SS Anchoria in May 1986, little did they know that their journey would take all of their children to the silver screens of Hollywood while three of them would make such a mark on the film industry that they would have their own stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Tom and Rosanna’s journey to find a better life in the USA took them through the inspection channels of Ellis Island and initially on to Toledo, Ohio, where their fifth child Joe was born. Not long after, teenagers Tom and Owen, sensing that their future lay on the stage and not in the country fields of Ohio, ran away to join a travelling theatre company. They were both seasoned stage performers by the time the Hollywood motion picture industry kicked off in 1908 and both made their movie debuts that year - Owen in ‘The Guerrilla’ and Tom in ‘The Christmas Burglars’, filmed at the Biograph Studios run by the now infamous D. W. Griffith.

Using interviews with Turtle Bunbury, broadcaster, historian and author, who featured the brothers in his recent book ‘The Irish Diaspora’, and Dr. Ruth Barton, Professor of Film Studies at Trinity College Dublin, along with on location commentary from local historians Stephen Ball and Kenny Timmons, the documentary uncovers the story of these siblings who were household names across the US by the mid 1920s, known as the Roaring Twenties, and became as well known as the other Hollywood elite of the Golden Age, starring alongside names like Mae West and Cary Grant.

The documentary was funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee

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740 & Counting: Collette O’Hagan, Marathon Woman

A one-hour radio documentary for LMFM

Funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee

‘740 & Counting: Collette O’Hagan, Marathon Woman’, a new one-hour radio documentary from Little Road Productions Ltd., will broadcast at 12noon on Monday Oct 26th at LMFM.

Since October 2017, Collette O’Hagan from Dundalk has held the title of becoming the first woman in Ireland to complete 500 marathons. 3 years later in October 2020, she has now hit an amazing total of 740 marathons!

The mother of five, grandmother and foster parent of over eighty children was encouraged by her husband Larry to take up running at the age of 40, after she had been hospitalised due to illness. She admitted that she initially hated it but persevered and ended up getting the ‘bug’ to keep on running.

Collette went on to complete her first race, the Women’s Mini Marathon in 1990. That year Collette also completed the Dublin Marathon for the first time. Over the past 30 years, Collette has now completed an astonishing 740 marathons all over the world, including the ‘Big Five’ of New York, London, Chicago, Berlin and Boston, and doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.

Despite her 740 marathons, Collette has only ever been injured once when she suffered a stress fracture in her foot, but that didn’t stop her from running and in August 2015 she completed the Quad Marathon in Donegal while wearing a protective boot.

She believes that you are ‘never too old to start’ and that that running keeps her mentally strong, gives her a goal and helps keep her motivated in life. She also decided to help set up a marathon in her hometown and was one of the main organisers of the first marathon in Dundalk which took place in September 2016.

As if running marathons and ultra-marathons didn’t take up enough of her time, Collette has also fostered over eighty children as well as raising five children of her own. She has also raised money for charity, including an orphanage in Romania. Collette first came in contact with the Aurelia Trust, an Irish charity that helps children in Romanian orphanages at a conference about fostering in 1994. Shortly after that, Colette travelled to Romania to help the children at the Negru Voda Orphanage. The North Louth Hospice is also a charity very close to her heart for whom she often fundraises.

This one-hour radio documentary explores the powerful motivations behind the woman who says that ‘you’re never too old to start’, and who is an inspiration to us all for so many reasons.

The documentary was funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee.

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Whatever Happened to Gertrude Page?

A 1-hour radio documentary for LMFM Radio

Funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee

Whatever Happened to Gertrude Page?, a new radio documentary by Chris Nikkel for Little Road Productions Ltd., will broadcast at 12noon on Monday October 31st 2022 on LMFM Radio.

Gertrude Page has been called the Maeve Binchy of her day. She’s also been called, ‘the Kipling of Rhodesia’, the country she lived out the last two decades of her life. Her 20 books sold 2.5 million copies worldwide, making her a household name in Britain and Ireland, and as far away as New Zealand, South Africa and Australia. Her most famous novel, Paddy the Next Best Thing, set in her favourite village of Omeath, in Co Louth, sold more than 300,000 copies.

So popular was Gertrude Page, that when she died in 1922, the play-adaptation of Paddy the Next Best Thing was on a record-breaking run at the Savoy, in London—the following year the Irish story hit the silver screen as a British-made silent film, and then was subsequently remade as a Hollywood blockbuster starting Janet Graynor and heartthrob Warner Baxter. Few writers could top the success of Gertrude Page in the early 20th Century. The question is: Whatever happened to Gertrude Page?

Whatever happened to Gertrude Page? is the story of one writer who scaled the heights of fame and fortune, only to have her legacy dismantled just as quickly because the inevitable shifts in historical and political perspectives. It is a cautionary tale, but also an illustration of a how easily history moves on from the convictions and beliefs of the past.

The documentary was funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee.

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Have Tyre, Will Travel: Brian Bell, Ultra Runner

A one-hour radio documentary for LMFM

Funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee

‘Have Tyre, Will Travel: Brian Bell, Ultra Runner’, a new one-hour radio documentary from Little Road Productions Ltd., will broadcast at 12noon on Monday 1st June at LMFM.

Brian Bell has experienced the world in a way that many of us could never even imagine. From the Amazon jungle to the top of the Himalayas and from the Arctic to the Sahara desert, he has taken part in some of the world’s toughest challenges. Taking up ‘Ultra Running’ a little later in life, he has successfully completed challenges in all four Ultra Running environments; Hot (Sahara Desert), Cold (Arctic), Altitude (Himalayas) and Jungle (Amazon).

Already a familiar face to many running across the Cooley Mountains while dragging a tyre strapped to his back, this 1-hour radio documentary explores the man behind ultra-challenges, as we accompany Brian on training sessions and races and seek to understand the motivations of a man who is determined to be anything but ordinary, while examining the effects these challenges can have on the body with the assistance of Michael McCorry, Lecturer in Human Performance from Dundalk Institute of Technology.

Despite having already achieved so much in the ultra-running and endurance arena, Brian is not resting on his laurels and while the Gran Trail Couramayeur in Italy and the and UTMB in the Alps have both been cancelled this summer, Brian is staying closer to home with the 50K Seven Sisters Skyline Race in Donegal in August and the 200K Kerry Way Ultra Marathon in September, a single-stage self-sufficient race.

The documentary was funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee.

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McClintock: The Forgotten Explorer

A one-hour radio documentary for LMFM

Funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee

McClintock: The Forgotten Explorer, a new one-hour radio documentary from Little Road Productions Ltd., will broadcast at 11am on Monday August 2nd on LMFM.

2019 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of Sir Francis Leopold McClintock, a Dundalk native and someone whose name should be as well-known as Ernest Shackleton and Tom Crean as one of the greatest Arctic Explorers of our time, but who has unfortunately largely been forgotten in his home town.

Francis Leopold McClintock was born in 1819 at Seatown Terrace, Dundalk, Co. Louth. The eldest son of fourteen children, he was always an avid explorer and is rumoured to have spent as much time as possible out in the wilds of the Cooley Mountains, roaming the land as a child, always looking for his next big adventure. 

With little formal education, he entered the Royal Navy as a gentleman volunteer in 1831, just before his 12th birthday. While in the Navy, he rose through the ranks and was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1845. 

This was a time of immense Arctic Exploration by the British Navy, in the search of the elusive North West passage that would allow for safe and easy movement of both merchant and navy ships to the Pacific Ocean through the Arctic Ocean. 

The ill-fated Franklin expedition in 1845, where two ships and 129 men were lost, was a huge blow to British Arctic Exploration and in 1857, McClintock re-tread the route of the expedition and in the steps of another Scottish Explorer, John Rae, to confirm their fate that their ships became lodged in ice, causing the men to abandon them and begin to trek across the icy conditions, without correct equipment, food or water, until all finally perished. McClintock’s expedition not only allowed for closure of the Franklin narrative but also to finally map out the so-long sought after North West passage.

Not only was McClintock a master explorer, he also pioneered new methods of polar travelling, preparation and packing styles, using sleds for ease on the body over hundreds of miles. Between 1852 and 1854, it is said that McClintock travelled 1,400 miles by sled and discovered 800 miles of previously unknown coastline along the Arctic Circle.

He also amassed a vast collection of zoological and fossil specimens, many of which were new to science. Today the largest collection of these specimens is held in the Natural History Museum in Dublin. 

Retiring from the army in 1884, he died in 1907 and is buried in the UK, while in his birthplace in Dundalk in Co. Louth, all that remained for many years to mark his memory was a small plaque on the wall of the house where he was born in Seatown Place, which has now been removed, and an exhibition in the local museum.

Over 200 years after his birth, this one-hour radio documentary places the name of Sir Francis Leopold McClintock in the same realm as Shackleton and Crean for those in his home town of Dundalk, Co. Louth and its wider environs.

The documentary was funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee.

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Each year we invite TY students into LMFM to create their own show , on matters that are important to them

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‘The Big House’ holds an important place in Ireland’s rich history and heritage, with many dating back to the 17th century. Many abandoned and destroyed ‘Big Houses’ still litter the countryside, full of memories and stories long since forgotten. Left victim to the elements and a shadow of what they once were, for many, these stately homes have become symbols of a former divided society.

Using interviews with both locals and historians recorded on location at these now abandoned houses, this one-hour radio documentary will explore the personal narratives behind a selection of these ‘Big Houses’ throughout the counties of Louth and Meath, allowing their rich history to be captured before they disappear from our landscape forever. Recounting the stories of the families who lived there, along with their impact on their local communities, their unique place in local and national history will be captured and preserved.

For LMFM radio. Funded by the BAI.

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