200 years after the Irish uprising of 1798 RTÉ is to screen a major new documentary 'Rebellion'.
Filmed in Ireland, France and the United States, 'Rebellion' has been in production for the last year based on diary entries, eyewitness accounts of battles and atrocities, and official documents from Dublin Castle.
Executive Producer, Kevin Dawson, describes the scale of the events of 1798 when twenty to thirty thousand people were killed in eight weeks.
Perhaps three thousand people killed in a morning's fighting in the town of New Ross alone.
The documentary hopes to bring home the international dimension of the rebellion to viewers.
The whole project of the United Irishmen that lead to the rebellion was provoked by the revolution in America and the revolution in France.
'Rebellion' features more than three hundred 18th century archive illustrations many of them have been rarely seen in public before.
Kevin Dawson explains that the United Irishmen tried to create an Ireland free from the penal law times. Their goal was a peaceful democracy shared between Catholics, Protestants and Presbyterians. However, they failed.
'Rebellion' will be broadcast over three weeks and includes part one 'An Age of Revolutions', part two 'Pike, Fire & Slaughter', and part three 'The Reckoning'. The documentary is presented by Cathal O'Shannon.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 5 May 1998. The reporter is Colm Connolly.
