AFTER SPENDING the last few weeks looking through streaming services from abroad, like Netflix and Amazon, I spent the last week trying to limit my content to local services. TG4 as we all know is a brilliant local resource, but maybe you have not seen the quality content they have in their website for free?
An Klondike: A western about three brothers from Connemara living in north America during the gold rush. The first season closed the Galway Film Fleadh in 2015. The production quality is absolutely top notch and the whole thing is filmed just outside Oughterard. If you have some Leaving Certs in the house who would like to hear some Irish, this is a great option and one that everybody in the family can enjoy.
Rocky Ros Muc: The best type of documentaries are the ones you cannot believe you knew nothing about before. Rocky Ros Muc is about Connemara born boxer Sean Mannion, who emigrated to Boston in the 1970s, rising through the boxing ranks to get a world title shot in Madison Square Garden in 1984. A darker side to his story is his past working with notorious criminal Whitey Bulger. A genuinely remarkable story that would surely make a great feature.
Jump Girls: Another great sports documentary. Jump Girls is about women involved with horse racing in Ireland. I don't have a huge interest in horse racing but this is an enthralling doc and extremely well made. I really did not expect to be as drawn into this as I was.
Rugbaí Gold: This will be available to stream after it is broadcast on TG4 this Saturday at 7.15pm. It is the pro12 final of 2016. Leinster v Connacht, the culmination of an underfunded but overperforming project by Pat Lam, with a core of local players, against a team with one of the biggest budgets in Europe and supplemented by Internationals from other countries. The best day of my life.
1916 Seachtar Dearmadta: Each episode of this show looks at one of the seven men who were killed in Kilmainham Jail after the Easter Rising. Fantastically well done I particularly enjoyed the Willie Pearse episode but each one I learned a huge amount and got me to track down my DVD copy of The Wind That Shakes The Barley.
