A real taste of island life for Fr Ted star Ardal

IT'S a long way from Father Dougal on Craggy Island but Ardal O'Hanlon is making his way back to Ireland's coast for his latest TV adventure.

The former Father Ted star and comedian is presenting his first Irish language programme which will look at life on Ireland's islands, taking in trips to West Cork, in Inis na nIontas, starting on TG4 on January 10th at 9.30pm.

The series begins in Rathlin Island on the other side of the Wild Atlantic Way but the South West plays a major part of the series. Ardal will be travelling to Ilnacullin: Garinish Island, home to the amazing Italian gardens, where he will discover the breeding programme for the white-tailed eagle. He takes a kayak from Glengarriff to visit the seal colony on Seal Island on the trip out to Garinish.

He also heads to Sherkin Island to glimpse a dolphin pod while learnign about the island’s pirate past and why Sherkin has become a painters’ paradise.

A short hop takes Ardal to Cape Clear, Ireland’s southernmost island, where he’s taken on a tour in one of the island’s electric buses and learns the huge importance of the island for migratory birds, as well as visiting the island's gin distillery.

'It was remarkable for me to witness the extraordinary diversity of our islands and to meet such a range of astonishing people. As an Irishman, I'd obviously heard of a lot of these places, but I was quite taken aback by visiting and seeing for myself,' Monaghan man Ardal said.

'I was genuinely moved. We have some of the most breathtaking scenery and wonderful nature. There's truly nowhere like an island, and I now know there's no island like an Irish island! We need to cherish these places. And I'm especially proud of doing the whole thing in Irish! It just seemed so fitting.'

Inis na nIontas is Ardal O’Hanlon’s first Irish-language show. His mother, Teresa, is a native Irish-speaker and, in this series, Ardal fulfils a longstanding ambition to practise and improve his Irish and promote its use to a wider public.