The Story of Ireland - a groundbreaking new series presented by Fergal Keane about the history of Ireland – cultural, social, and economic(Celtic tiger),of Irish people, Robert Kee and its role on the international stage.The Story Of Ireland is a five-part landmark history of Ireland, to be presented by Fergal Keane.
Ireland is living through a significant period in its cycle of history – since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the island has been at peace. This is unprecedented in the history of modern Ireland and so seems like a perfect time to reflect on the Irish as a people now, as a modern European nation, and how we got to this place.
The big ambition of this telling of the story is that it should be expansive and outward looking. When the previous television history series was told by the historian Robert Kee in 1981, Ireland was in a very different place, at war with itself in the north and economically ravaged in the south. The series naturally reflected those conditions and primarily viewed our story through the prism of our troubled relationship with our nearest neighbour.
This series will show us that this view is narrow and self – limiting. The Story of Irelandwill look at the evolution of the country in a world context and will show that as an island people our very DNA has been formed by successive waves of peoples coming from outside and that we in turn have travelled and influenced world events for nearly 2000 years.
As a BBC foreign correspondent, Fergal Keane has nurtured a world view of current affairs and history for over 20 years and will act as a knowing and trustful guide for this new Story of Ireland.
The Story of Ireland is vivid, exciting and immensely varied. It is far more than the sum of old cliches and myths which set the Irish as a people who were prisoners and victims of history. This series sees Ireland as an international island which is both changed by and helps to change the world beyond her shores. As a foreign correspondent who has traveled on every continent he has tried to bring his experience of the wider world to this story of Ireland and. I have tried to see our past with a clear eye and an open heart.