Whiddy brothers for TV3 series

Whiddy Island will be shown in a new TV3 series

WHIDDY Island in Bantry Bay is to feature on a new TV3 documentary about island life, to be broadcast next month.

Islanders is described as ‘an emotional series following the lives of native islanders across an entire year’.

Filmed in 2014, this observational documentary is the biggest in-house production undertaken by TV3 Productions.

As well as Whiddy, the show will feature stories from Arranmore in Co Donegal and Inishturk in Co Mayo in the four-part series.

‘Set within breath-taking landscapes, the islanders’ stories are emotive, uplifting and told with honesty and frankness,’ according to TV3. It will be narrated by Irish actor Andrew Bennett (Angela’s Ashes, Garage,), and is a landmark series for TV3 Productions and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

Islanders features stories including two brothers’ solemn promise to revive their island; a tug of loyalty between a mother’s children and her island; a long-distance love story set 14km out to sea; a lone fisherman fighting bureaucracy to save his island’s future and an embattled activist trying to galvanise her community.

Episode 1 features the story of contrasting brothers on Whiddy Island: fisherman Danny O’Leary (51) and his brother Tim O’Leary (43).

With many twists and turns along the way, the series will follow the lives and stories of these characters to learn what threatens their survival, to discover a different way of life, and to share in what it means to be an islander.

Whiddy Island sits near the head of Bantry Bay and is almost four miles long, and 1.5 miles wide. In the late 1800s, the island had almost 500 residents.

The main industry at this time was mainly engaged in fishing and small-scale farming, but today the population has reduced to about 20 people.