Pet Island returns (7.30pm RTÉ 2), the Mise Éire documentary charting the violent struggle that ultimately led to the foundation of the new state is revisited at 9.30pm on TG4 and there are documentaries on bird life on the Outer Hebrides -The Last Seabird Summer? 9pm, BBC4 - and human life on Scafell Pike - Life of A Mountain which follows a year in the life of England’s highest mountain through the eyes of the farmers who work the valleys and fells.
Mise Éire - Lorg na gCos
9.30pm TG4
More than fifty years on, the full and definitive story of Ireland's most famous documentary film, Mise Éire is told. Director George Morrison, who was born in 1922, recalls the making of the film, while key creative personnel behind the production and ordinary Irish people who experienced the film upon its theatrical release in 1960 also contribute. The Gael Linn film was seen by tens of thousands of adults and children across the country, breaking all previous cinema box office records in what became a key cultural moment in the history of the Irish State. Morrison assembled historical footage of the events surrounding the 1916 Rising from archives across Europe to make Mise Éire, which was launched at the 1959 Cork Film Festival. It was the first feature-length Irish language film. The sequel, Saoirse?, was not as big a hit with the Irish public, arguably because of the fact that it dealt with the divisive Civil War years.
George Morrison at the National Concert Hall
Pet Island
7.30pm RTÉ 2
Ferrets, budgies, raccoons, alligators, cats and dogs – they are all on board for the second series which begins tonight. Jacqueline Hopkins from Castlebar has a photoshoot with a sick ferret. In Kildare, Martin and Jennifer get their dogs ready for competition and in Belfast we meet Loca, a special pug who has become an internet celebrity.
Martin Bailey and Jennifer Duggan and their dogs on Pet Island
The Last Seabird Summer?; Life of A Mountain
9.00pm, 10.00pm BBC4
New series. Adam Nicolson is in the uninhabited Shiant Islands in the Outer Hebrides to marvel at the huge variety of seabirds that congregate there, including puffins, guillemots and razorbills. Nicolson also explores the history of human dependence on seabirds. It’s followed at 10.00pm by the equally interesting Life of A Mountain: A Year on Scafell Pike which follows a year in the life of England’s highest mountain through the eyes of the farmers who work the valleys and fells.
