A radio documentary about the treetop protests that gripped the Irish psyche in the late 1990's when a nature reserve in Co Wicklow, the 'Glen of the Downs', became the focus of national attetion as a national prim...
The Glen of the Downs or in Irish Gleann dá Ghrua, meaning "The Valley of the Two Brows" is a 2 km long wooded glacial valley with steep sides rising to almost 250m located in Co. Wicklow, on the east coast of Ireland. It is a designated Nature Reserve.
The N11, a National Primary Road passes along the floor of the Glen as a dual carriageway. The upgrade of this road, completed in 2003, was severely delayed by protesters opposed to it's development on environmental grounds.
Adrian Smyth's documentary is about the Glen of the downs protests and was made through the darkest part of the winter, November 1997 through to January 1998.
It focuses on the people involved rather than on the environmental issues.
Protesters from widely varying backgrounds speak of the different motivations that drive them from cosy 20th Century indoors to take up an uncomfortable neolithic lifestyle. What they left behind and their hopes for the outcome of their campaign.
Compiled by Adrian Smyth.
Production supervision by Lorelei Harris
First broadcast April 1998.
An Irish radio documentary from RTÉ Radio 1, Ireland - Documentary on One - the home of Irish radio documentaries.
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