Emerald Germs radio plays return to RTE 1

Emerald Germs, the nine radio plays adapted from Patrick McCabe’s book, for which Gavin Friday and Maurice Seezer composed the music, is 20 years old this month. To celebrate, RTE 1 radio will repeat the plays starting today, Wednesday July 8th, at 10.30 pm GMT. (Listen here)

Featuring a high profile cast including Niall Toibin, Pauline McLynn, Pauline Flanagan, Pat Kinevane, Joan O’Hara, Mick Lally, Mikel Murfi and Gina Moxley, Emerald Germs are based on the life and times of Pat McNab, who lives with his mother on the house on the hill outside Gullystown and within a striking distance of Tommy Sullivan’s Select Bar.

Each story has a title of a well-known song or ballad ranging from ‘Love Story’ to ‘The Garden Where the Praties Grow’. The first play in the Emerald Germs of Ireland series is ‘The Turfman from Ardee’. It stars Joan O’Hara, Pat Kinevane, Niall Toibin, Séan Rocks, Pat McGrath, Ciaran Owens and Kathy Downes. Don Cockburn returns to read the news and Jimmy Magee and Lorna Madigan also make an appearance.

The nine plays are:

• The Turfman From Ardee
• Whisky On A Sunday
• Old Flames
• South Of The Border
• The Garden Where The Praties Grow
• Love Story
• Stop! Hey, what’s That Sound?
• Three Lovely Lassies From Bannion
• 21 Years