Mayo natives Mary Robinson and Louis Walsh are up for nomination for Ireland’s Greatest series on RTÉ.
The top five, out of an extensive list of 40 hopefuls, who get the highest number of votes, will have a documentary made about them and after the series is broadcast on RTÉ, the Irish public will get another chance to decide who they think is the greatest Irish person of all time.
The series will be brought to the screens in autumn giving the Irish public a chance to vote on the greatest Irish figures in the country’s history.
The shortlist of 40 was derived from an MRBI poll and includes figures from across the gamut of Irish life including sport, politics, music, arts, and literature.
The public will vote for their favourite contenders for the title on a dedicated website: www.rte.ie/tv/irelandsgreatest/ which opened at 9am on Monday and closes at noon on Friday April 2.
The top five, as nominated by voters, will then become the subject of one of five new hour-long documentaries, each charting the individual’s impact and contribution to Irish life, as interpreted and championed by a well-known personality. This series of documentaries will be broadcast this September on RTÉ One. Once these documentaries have aired the public will again be given the opportunity to reassess which person actually deserves the accolade of Ireland’s greatest. The winner will be announced on The Late Late Show in October.
The premise for the show is based on the BBC series Great Britons. Ireland’s Greatest will be a quintessentially Irish interpretation of this format and will provide a platform for the Irish public to engage and participate in debate, discussion, and analysis in determining who is, to their mind, Ireland's greatest.
