John Bishop's Ireland

In episode one, John goes to watch the All Ireland Gaelic football final. Like an Irish Super Bowl, it’s a match that sees over half the country crowd around the TV in pubs and living rooms for the culmination of a competition involving all of the 32 counties in the north and south. Since winning in 1951, Mayo has lost the final seven times which many put down to a curse – Is this the year they will finally lift the curse? Next, John travels on to Cork, where he goes to the local university for a lecturer on Folk law and fairies and meets a fisherman, who like him, has met the Queen.

In episode two, John visits Lisdoonvarna, where he meets Ireland’s last traditional matchmaker, Willie Dalyand and his world famous magic book, at a 200-year-old festival. He then travels to Knock, where he meets Father Richard Gibbons, and finds out why, despite having a population of just 972, it annually hosts more than 1.5 million visitors who travel from all over the globe.

John travels to the TG4 TV studios to meet the team at the Irish-speaking weather channel. Next, he visits the town of Westport, where one pub stands out as the mecca of music. The owner is Matt Malloy of the six-time Grammy Award-winning Irish super group, The Chieftains. In Derry he interviews Stuart Moore about the Apprentice boys, and his travels continue to Museum of Free Derry – where he meets information officer John Kelly, who has a very personal attachment to Bloody Sunday.

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