- 18 hours ago
Martin and Romans Irish Road Trip S01E03
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Short filmTranscript
00:03you know what i love about it is the craggy coasts the what the craggy coasts what's a
00:08craggy coast ah the craggy coasts the way it cuts in and out along the shoreline i think it's
00:16beautiful oh it's not there's not called the craggy coast no it's not called that
00:19it's that's what the way i'm explaining it
00:26i'm roman kemba i mean look at this there's some of the scenery we're driving it's beautiful
00:31where we are really nice and i'm his proud dad marcy so are you ready for this road i'm ready
00:37yeah i'm ready and we're off on a father and son road trip like no other
00:44oh my goodness around the landscapes you don't fancy paddling then dad i'm just taking life
00:50easy road and legends i mean it looks cool it is beautiful it looks cool yeah of the magical
00:56island of island it sounds like my dad in the car
01:03i lived here back in the 80s back in my spandell ballet days this place had a huge influence on
01:09me
01:10my mom always said she was half irish so that makes me a quarter irish that makes you
01:15an eighth irish so coming back now with roman feels a little bit like coming home
01:21i can't remember the last time we went on holiday not together
01:26that's not me since you were a kid
01:28we don't spend nearly enough time together these days
01:34and life seems to be getting faster and faster
01:39rome makes me feel bad if i don't do it no it's not makes me feel bad it makes me
01:44feel old
01:46so this is a chance to slow down and explore some of the things ireland does best
01:53stories
01:55mystery
01:55so from looking at that you think there's a vampire under that upside down
02:00yeah
02:00and history
02:01out of all the places i've been i've never come across anything like this
02:06after all ireland is in our blood
02:09i think
02:10that we've literally done those dna tests
02:13i know
02:14and it turned out that we were what
02:16germanic
02:17oh little devil within little devil without
02:23proper boys week together
02:25that's what we wanted isn't it
02:27yeah
02:41for the last leg of this bewitching road trip we're in northern ireland
02:46right at the top northern ireland okay yeah i like it here i mean it's some of the most beautiful
02:53landscapes that you can see
02:54an area famous for its mythical giants
02:58world-class stargazing and yep the craggy coast
03:04no one's ever said the word craggy
03:06what i'm saying is dramatic is that your attenborough test
03:10yes no that is the way i like to describe things you've never said the word craggy in your life
03:16i do say craggy you say you've saved that for this trip
03:21our first story is intrinsically linked to this epic majestic and all right let's call it higgledy-piggledy coastline
03:29it's the story of the selkie the only time i've ever heard that word before
03:34was in a line from a poem
03:36or maybe it was a song lyric
03:38i am a man upon the land
03:40i am a selkie in the sea
03:43who's that durand durand
03:46durand durand didn't pay your schooling
03:47i'll tell you that
03:49wham did
03:50yeah wham did
03:59so anyway selkies we're off to discover selkies
04:02right on our father and son trip
04:05okay
04:05all right
04:07all right just watch how you're driving otherwise i'll drive
04:10nah you're good
04:11our search for the selkie has brought us to the known strand on the causeway coast
04:16and the chilly waters of the north atlantic
04:19and when we say chilly we mean chilly
04:22the whole place is covered in a blanket of snow
04:26not the weather for an ice cream it is cold looks stunning out there though
04:31but that hasn't put off helen henderson and locum mcbride
04:34guys warm isn't it
04:36it's fresh this morning
04:38who leads small group swims and walks along this coastline all year round
04:44it's a myth that actually for island nations like ourselves ireland scotland and actually
04:49north up in the faroe islands
04:50yeah
04:51it's a myth that's shared with a lot of people that live beside the sea but
04:55really it says that on the full moon the selkie seals come ashore and they turn into
04:59women
05:00and on that night of the full moon they dance and they sing and they take a human woman
05:05form the seed skins they take off and they leave them and by the shore and then very
05:10often some mischievous fisherman or farmer comes and takes the skin
05:15and they can't return to the sea without their seed skin so it's a really lovely story
05:20about a search for coming home a search for belonging on the sea
05:25standing here you can kind of get why selkie stories took hold
05:29the sea was mysterious and dangerous who knew what lay beneath those waves but why do these
05:35stories still matter today
05:38there seems to be a lot more i guess spiritual connection that the irish mythology has towards
05:44its own nature than i thought certainly i mean is that what inspires you guys to go in and do
05:49this
05:50sort of thing the mythology itself they give us a kind of understanding of our local places
05:54yeah and they give they seduce more culturally in our place
05:58i always see it as a the myth is like it's a kind of the ancient wisdom it's the wisdom
06:03of our ancestors
06:04i mean getting in there is all about spiritual connection but i feel like my body's going to have
06:09a disconnection on my own head
06:11this is a chance for you to empathize with uh the selkie because you're going to go in on your
06:17skin
06:18you might think ron was being brave here but don't be fooled
06:22this is all about making me do something he knows i don't want to do
06:27okay so let's not think about it too much
06:29yeah we're going to do a couple of breath holes and the purpose is to stop us getting too cold
06:33yeah yeah dad is the type of person when it comes to peer pressure with me
06:38he always wants to do it like my dad doesn't eat meat but for some reason if we go for
06:42dinner
06:42together and i order a steak he has to order a steak i don't know why it's a nice big
06:47deep inhale
06:47under our belly one more i love the stories that they tell about the selkies and i love the myths
06:56and the legends from around here and the connection with the sea i didn't think i was going to go
07:00in
07:00though i'll be really honest with you i'm only going in because i throw this as you exhale out this
07:06time
07:06down your hunkers and try and hold your breath down here
07:10just because i've put my beanie on he's got his baker boy hat on it doesn't make sense in this
07:16scenario and will look weird it's not competitive it's not one-upmanship it's just that
07:23bro makes me feel bad if i don't do it no it's not makes me feel bad it makes me
07:28feel old
07:31look at that that's how cold it is look what am i doing
07:37coming in
07:40well there's no going back now
07:57oh yes there is oh my absolutely mad the weather now is closing in i'm heading for a storm
08:08where the waves will lash the setting clouds and legends will be born where the very force of nature
08:18is like ice in there i can't feel my feet tell me if you see any selkies
08:28this freezing ocean knocks everything out of you it's like a cold hard reset of body and mind
08:35so it's hard to shout anything back but then the less said about my dad's performance here
08:40probably the better
08:41dan dan where were you i saw your toe going
08:48i did it
08:49ciao
09:00oh
09:02oh
09:03oh
09:04oh
09:05nice we deserve this right
09:07are you joking what what happened you sold me out i went in i went in i turned i i
09:13went to go in
09:14yeah and i turned around and i looked at what looked like old mother may in a you know pinky
09:21blinders cap heading back to the sauna it was cold i did enjoy it though adrenaline rush yeah it's
09:28that fight or flight thing when you go in there yeah you know your body's telling you what the hell
09:31are you doing and so is your brain it's just see that's the thing my body told me what the
09:36hell are
09:36you doing just a little bit earlier yeah than yours yeah what was really nice though is it
09:40having you know helen and lork and tell us those stories and feeling like they want to
09:46actually feel where they're from yeah you know it's what it's one point knowing where you're from
09:50and it's another i guess way in part of feeling it yeah selkies aren't just some random story the
09:58island of islands got thousands of kilometers of coastline and all the way around it people have
10:05told stories about what's out there about gods in the waves about kingdoms hidden under the sea
10:12about islands you can only reach if the tide and the light are just right some even believe there's
10:18a place beyond the horizon where nobody grows old not even pop stars from the 1980s so are you glad
10:26i
10:27brought me here i'm glad you brought me here but i'm not impressed with what you've achieved
10:39cheers with the feeling slowly returning to my fingers and toes it's time to head to our next
10:44location bro bro a place that's well within dad's comfort zone because it's indoors and involves beer
10:54some kind of help you old man
11:10after my chilly swim off northern ireland's causeway coast me and my dad are on our way to our next
11:16storytelling stop which thankfully will be indoors do you want any better good news yeah it's time for
11:24a pub visit yay couple of stouts oh i love that couple of tales yeah it's a good place to
11:32meet
11:32someone by a fireplace and get a weird old ghost tale so i thought you'd enjoy that oh we'll love
11:37that yeah
11:40great stories often begin in unlikely places
11:46and the 19th century pub we're going to is just down the road from a location that may have inspired
11:53one of the most iconic and terrifying characters in the history of storytelling to find out more we're
12:00having a pint with folklore expert dr bob curran thanks for seeing us bob so tell us about your vampire
12:06oh everybody everybody thinks that vampires come from transylvania yes forget that almost every
12:16culture in the world has vampires from malaysia to south america to norway yeah and dr bob thinks it's
12:27an iris legend that inspired the iconic story of dracula the story of our sack a cruel fifth century
12:35chieftain a story embraced by the parents of oscar wilde each night during the week
12:43sir william and lady wilde threw their house open for a number of guests who came in and told ghost
12:50stories or stories of the fairies or stuff like that and there is no doubt that the story of the
12:59vampire
12:59the story of the auartagh was told now one of the guests which they had at their dinner party was
13:06bram stoker
13:07right so he would have come away hearing the story of auartagh and he transferred it i think into
13:17the the story of dracula dracula was a noble man so was auartagh dracula drank blood so did auartagh
13:26dracula needed wood and a stake to lay him to rest so did the auartagh it said his subjects wanted
13:37to kill
13:37their cruel king so they went across the mountain to another kingdom and got another king
13:45kahan who came across the mountain and slew him being a king avatagh was buried upright in the ground
13:54but the following day he returned demanding a bowl of blood so kachen slew him again and avatagh rose
14:02again still thirsty so they sent an sos to a holy man and he said what you must do is
14:10you must slay him
14:12with a sword made from you wood like a stake like a stake bury him upside down so that if
14:20he wakes up
14:21he goes down rather than up you must put a series of thorns around his grave and put a capstone
14:29over
14:30the top of him so that if he does come up he can't lift it yeah the capstone is still
14:35there
14:36and tree which has grown out of the thorns is still there unbelievably dr bob has given us directions to
14:45what local law says is avatak's actual resting place well i didn't have this on my bingo card i gotta
14:51gotta be honest so we're going to the graveyard right we're gonna check it out yeah you up for that
14:58i didn't
14:59like the idea of not dead but suspended yeah well that's how it's put in isn't it it's putting upside
15:05down apparently here amongst this beautiful rich farmland mid-olster is a spot smack dab in the
15:13middle of what would be a very useful field that no landowner has ever dared disturb it's not even dark
15:20you've got your torch out no it is dark he's so scary that's way creepier than i thought it would
15:34be
15:41no no no roman roman oh come back here come on
15:51all right oh i would say if it was picked black i'm not going there yeah oh i'm not sure
15:57about this now
15:59i'm not gonna lie i was giving it bigger that's a lot scarier than i thought it'd be when you
16:07think
16:08no he's under there upside down well no it freaked me out more because that's exactly how he's told it
16:14in that story it was yeah let's get a look come on
16:21this place feels as scary as it looks but for my frustratingly logical brain something
16:27doesn't quite add up they killed him twice yeah but it was only the third time that they realized
16:33oh something's a bit wrong here yeah we better go and kill him properly no he said third time
16:40they've gone to someone and said we might have an issue yeah it's not not the first time he got
16:47back
16:47yeah yeah not the second time no third time third time yeah he might not be human well he gave
16:52it a chance he might not be human yeah okay the story is far-fetched and doesn't make a whole
16:59lot
16:59sense but i'm certain there's something buried here this stone has been placed here for a reason
17:06if i go with bob's story and bob was telling it really well this is the spot and that is
17:13where
17:13he is upside down under the ground in a grave so from looking at that you think there's a vampire
17:21under that upside down yeah all right i do well listen that's your that's your call i think there
17:28is something buried there i don't think that stone gets there by natural means i love believing in
17:35stories i don't want to believe it i have to admit the atmosphere and mood here is all very christopher
17:42lee
17:42so although i don't quite believe as much as my dad does i am pleased to be leaving
17:49you deserve that as well
18:00leaving the undead and the buried behind us we're on our way through the foothills of the sparing
18:06mountains where the glaciers have left distinctive rounded summits and where stargazing visitors
18:12flock to its famously dark skies we're searching for one of ireland's most important mythological figures
18:19a fearless warrior kuhullan the warrior equal to the greek god achilles okay got my attention a little
18:27bit of legend yeah well i've got a big old achilles tattoo on me so i might as well get
18:33a kuhullan i'll tell
18:34you that yeah yeah get a kuhullan oh yeah we've heard that there's a deep connection between the myth
18:39of the great warrior kuhullan and the 3 000 year old sport of hurling and this is hallowed hurling ground
18:46stand up on your feet arm yourselves up to the teeth a drinking head and a firm belief your
18:52marker's got your back with your sway
18:59smart neil is one of the most successful clubs in the country
19:06and these are two of their star players brendan rogers and rory omeynon
19:13how are we doing guys how's it all good looking at that ball i'm surprised you've
19:18both got teeth to be honest well you wear a helmet as well on camera this looks like a
19:22like a tennis ball but that is yeah it's rock solid it's a baseball isn't it yeah
19:26yeah yeah so it's the fastest field sport in the world yeah is the uh sport completely amateur then
19:32yeah yeah totally amateur yeah like we were training there for the well for the whole year
19:37but building up to that all iron and herring semi-final would maybe three four nights a week
19:40yeah and you don't i suppose you don't do it for money it's about pride isn't it about pride
19:46this weather's not i presume not your regular playing weather not this bad no it is to be fair
19:52it can be very very cold up here as you can see there's a big white mountain up there and
19:56cairns
19:56yeah it does be cold during training and stuff but this is because of going a bad time lads
20:02no this is good though this is beautiful dad's probably hoping the snow will stop play today
20:08but before we can get involved in any kind of training here we need to know about this ancient
20:13connection between hurling and the warrior kuhullan the original name was satanta so the kind of
20:19story goes back to the folklore that you'd have been taught from primary school around king connor
20:24who's obviously the king of the area um invited a local warrior satanta to cullens yard for like a
20:32party but as the travels there on foot back then he had brought a stick with him on a ball
20:37and been
20:37playing around but standing guard at cullens yard was a beast a huge irish wolfhound that could rise
20:45taller than any man when he charged satanta defended himself so the story goes that he struck the
20:54hurling ball into the dog's mouth and killed it on the spot and obviously king connor was glad satanta
20:59arrived but cullen was very disappointed he lost the dog yeah yeah yeah to honor the dog what satanta
21:06said to cullen was i will guard your area as the dog would until such times where you get a
21:11replacement for
21:12the area and he would slap out in the dog's pen but they called him coo cullen which would be
21:18hound of
21:18cullen so he became the god yeah the hound of cullen so as for that guarding with the stick and
21:24the
21:24ball or what sticking a ball yeah so he stood by his own principles there can't be many sports with
21:30an
21:30origin story to match that no wonder people still love to tell it to this day i remember my father
21:36like
21:36sitting us down and before bed and stuff and he'd be sitting talking to you about coo holland and satanta
21:40and you'd be sort of mesmerized by it like so yeah but when you're a kid and you're learning that
21:44sort
21:45of stuff at school it kind of draws you into which is to the culture and to the history of
21:50where you're
21:50from and who your people are and all that stuff it definitely ties you in now we know how hurling
21:55began
21:56all we have to do next is learn how to play it if you see the goals there you've got
22:01a mixture of
22:01it's like it's like a rugby and a football goal yeah so if you score in the football goal or
22:05under
22:05the crossbar yeah it's three three if you put it over the crossbar and in between the posts
22:10it's one yeah so you get a point to go over the bar yeah see that would do tottenham
22:17they need more than a point yeah yeah all right coming in chuck you know what this could be the
22:23sport
22:23i was made for i've always let roman win ever since he was a kid you know to bring him
22:30up yeah well
22:31done row well done but this time i'm gonna smash it i'm not very good at tennis i'm not very
22:38good at
22:38golf i'm not very good at cricket so i should be fine you wear this yeah i'm wearing a helmet
22:47tape yeah a little bit after a quick bit of practice
22:53nearly beheaded somebody oh that's it
23:04we're ready for a hurling face-off or what's known as a pack feather
23:08fighting talk will lead to a friend basically whoever hits it the furthest wins great let's do it
23:15this is your game to lose by the way you know this is your game to lose you got all
23:19the chat
23:20oh come on the kent i think i got around one roger didn't you
23:28get in there all right i've got the distance on that i can see it
23:37short i think i've won that go on bro your turn let's go
23:44yes oh terrible good shot oh kutah kutah we're in business are you short for those windows back
23:53there the windows yeah go on that's good oh that was lovely i'll tell you what you hit that air
24:11really good for brendan and rory hurling is so much more than a sport the folklore that comes
24:19with it bonds them to the land to their history to their team and their community too i have a
24:26feeling
24:27in the real world the match would have been called off i get a sense of that bonding at arsenal
24:31when
24:31we're standing on the terraces only our stories aren't quite as deep or repeatable
24:51having mastered the art of hurling we're driving east to the antrim coast where for centuries cliffs
24:58coastlines and castles have set the scene for gripping tails often told late into the night
25:07built in the 1600s bally galley castle has lived many lives it's been a fortress a family home and now
25:15it's a reputedly haunted hotel where the ghost of former owner lady isabella still makes an appearance
25:22i don't know why it's scarier because it's a woman of course it is it reminds me a woman in
25:28black will
25:29go in there and there'll be a someone new rocking chair the rocking chair will be moving on it's
25:46our father and son road trip through the landscapes and legends of ireland is definitely having an effect
25:53on me and roman as we go deeper into the stories of the past it's making the present feel just
25:59a little
25:59less frantic and stressful but all that might be about to change because we're going to spend the
26:04night at what is reputed to be northern ireland's most haunted hotel but again it looks scary doesn't it
26:11it is scary i've got another bag somewhere don't i have a bag yeah when you stay in the night
26:18yeah there
26:20all right let's do it shall we
26:25welcome to valley galley castle great thank you very much you're welcome so this is your room here
26:30in the tower staying in the tower
26:34i'm sure you notice it's getting colder roman the spirits spirits are making it colder
26:40there we go it is yeah yeah these are your bedrooms here tonight now not that i want to say
26:45too much
26:46but we've had people leave at three or four o'clock in the morning they haven't stayed the whole night
26:52so does that just why why well you just felt spirits in the room and things have happened
26:59like where they've had bibles and stuff on the end of the table and it's flipped off and opened a
27:05passage
27:06in the middle of the night but these are your bedrooms which is just literally below the ghost
27:11room now i've worked here for 31 years and i'm not a lover of going up into the ghost room
27:17so i think
27:18i'll let you do this bit on your own and see how you get on just want to make your
27:23way up so this is
27:24the room where people hear crying coming from this is it well i'll tell you what you're gonna hear crying
27:27coming from that home as well good luck all right see you soon see us in a bit norma
27:34the story goes after giving birth to a daughter lady isabella fell out of favor with her husband
27:41lord jane shore he took the baby from her and locked her in this tiny room in the tower
27:49starving and tormented by her baby's cries isabella tried to escape through a window
27:55and fell to her death on the rocks below oh my goodness it's cold man it is freezing you can
28:05feel it can't you it's not just that you can feel the atmosphere also i actually stayed in here with
28:13no
28:13tv yeah hotel as well definitely didn't believe in ghosts at all before i started in here but
28:19i've totally changed night oh this is uh this is a lot creepier than i thought it was what's it
28:27say here
28:30no what's it say i am looking for my daughter he keeps me against my will
28:40oh god come on um wait there yeah go on oh get lost roman bro
28:49the story of my night was that i spent it fully closed with all the lights on
29:03but my dad's night went a little differently you know when you you get a smell really strong
29:11and it wakes you up you ever read that no yeah sometimes you have a smell okay yeah yeah yeah
29:16last night right i smelled this really sweet like oil smell and it wasn't just in one place in the
29:24bedroom it felt like it was moving yeah i filmed it listen i'm not saying it's a ghost or anything
29:30i'm not saying i'm just saying this is what happened to wake me up guys this is so strong
29:38it's making it's making my throat almost burn
29:45darling this one of the weirdest things it's so strong it was fast asleep it woke me up
29:50well i will say one thing i don't know how you had all the lights switched off because best
29:53believe all of them were on what did you leave oh we were in full beam
29:57we were in full beam the master light was on the bathroom light was on i'll cover the energy
30:02how did you go to sleep i bet this hotel was glowing there's no there's no yeah that room would
30:06have been glowing yeah yeah all right come on in having lived to tell the tale i'm calling home
30:12to let my mum know that i'm okay but unfortunately my dad is no longer with us
30:22hi mum hi uh how's it going yeah it's all right i'm finally on my own what do you mean
30:30i got rid of
30:31dad well where is he what have you done with him he's gone on his own mission and i am
30:38off to go and
30:39meet a lady called dreia who get this is an irish pagan oh wow that sounds interesting what do you
30:48know what do you know about pagans um not much but they do live by the calendar and the full
30:55moons
30:56and the moon they worship the moon well i'm off to go and find out what the origins of halloween
31:02are and
31:02how they used to do it back then oh very nice and what did you say dad was actually doing
31:07who
31:08cares where he is i don't know is he gonna be all right on his own yeah looking after him
31:13no be
31:14fine you can make some friends about time you know what if you can't make friends in ireland
31:21you can't make friends anywhere and right now i'm in a city where strangers have no problem talking to
31:28strangers especially at halloween this is derry londonderry a historic wall city beside the river
31:43foil compacts full of character are fiercely proud of its past and just as proud of its present because
31:51every year this city is home to europe's biggest halloween festival so how did it become such a wicked
31:57party town at this time of the year well i'm going right to the source brian docherty cheers martin
32:05right welcome to dairy thank you very much the former pub landlord who may have just inadvertently
32:13started it all back in 1985 at this very pub by making an offer people simply couldn't refuse
32:21that's the original invitation of the night it says here 50p off for fancy dress well it was a little
32:27bit of an incentive shall we say yeah 50p in those days was was a lot of money was a
32:31lot of money
32:32i can't recall but it was probably nearly the price of a pint at the time yeah i used to
32:36work a week for
32:3750p come nine o'clock the whole downstairs bar is packed with everybody in fancy dress and some of
32:44the costumes were unbelievable how people thought them up do you know what this is real halloween 1980s
32:50style isn't it yeah i i i i i'm sure the guy on the end there he's kind of like
32:56got a fill in it
33:00he has got a little bit of cindy lawper in there as well you know adamant well spotted well
33:07spotted exactly he's proper 1985 exactly i love that exactly suddenly after about an hour hour and a
33:13half policeman comes the door bomb scare evacuate the premises right they pulled up outside in a
33:19land rover right so they come to the door it was pretty serious forced from brian's pub by the bomb
33:25scare the punters took their factory dress party onto the streets instead and it's argued that this
33:31was the genesis of what's become europe's largest halloween parade everybody flowed out into other bars
33:41on mass it was that coincidence yeah of the night that other bars that hadn't uh put on a fancy
33:48dress
33:48party that night suddenly realized wow this is the thing to do yeah and everybody seemed to do it the
33:53following yeah from there the dairy halloween festival simply grew and grew and in that time ireland
34:02just like so many other places in europe has incorporated american influences into the party
34:08with trick or treating and pumpkin carving and fancy dress costumes galore best halloween party was
34:15a time when i was living in los angeles with the kids and a friend of mine owned the original
34:22house
34:23for the halloween movie the location and as you walked out of that house and you were on the street
34:29that all halloween was shot in it was the best thing ever but halloween didn't start in america it
34:36started here in the island of ireland long before trick-or-treating pumpkins and hollywood there was
34:43a time when people genuinely believed that the veil was getting thinner between this world and the
34:48next kind of mesh together it's not it's not as it's not as big that jump isn't as big as
34:53we think
35:01while my dad's off exploring modern halloween i've come to meet practicing pagan andrea dixon to trace
35:08the tradition right back to where it began right here in ancient ireland
35:16it's absolutely gorgeous i like it nice by the fire to a time when november marked the change not
35:23just between autumn and winter but between one year and the next for us it was our new year originally
35:31right okay so if you think about new year celebrations and how big those are even today
35:34yeah it's that kind of energy where our new year's now you tend to look backwards at the year you've
35:38been
35:38and think about the year going forward what's going to happen and things yeah and when you think about
35:42the timing of that it happens sort of at the very end of october the very beginning of november
35:47and to us it was so important that it's not only we call it sahan and it's not what sorry
35:52sahan sahan in gaelic it's sound sound in ancient irish okay we celebrate the cusp it happens that so
35:58it's the eve of november when you sort of celebrate that crossover that idea of crossing over isn't
36:05just about crossing from one year to another but the possibility of spirits crossing here from the
36:11next world so on that kind of eve what separates our world from the afterlife and from the other world
36:18was there so they kind of cross they kind of mesh together it's not it's not as it's not as
36:22big
36:22yeah jump isn't as big as we think so things we seen as like our ancestors could technically come
36:27back type thing and we would honor them at that time but so could more negative things as well so
36:34the idea of like wearing masks and stuff was to scare off anything evil or anything darker so dressing
36:38up as something scary wasn't to scare other people it was to scare away the the bad spirits and trying
36:44to ward off the the negative energy as much as possible the games we play at halloween like bobbing for
36:50apples were all linked to trying to work out if good fortune was coming your way it'll do what it's
36:55meant to and once you had your apple you had to peel in one go and see what the peel
37:02revealed
37:03as i see the straight lines with a c joining yeah okay personally i would read that straight line as
37:09things are going to be made straight friends that it will be a very obvious path for you ahead there's
37:15more modern pagan way of setting intentions for the future writing wishes down and throwing them
37:20into the fire so fyi if arsenal win the premier league and the champions league yeah that was all
37:26down to me to me the ancient traditions added depth to it it doesn't take away from the fun because
37:33a lot
37:33of the traditions are still fun but they added grinding to it yeah oh thank you very much good luck
37:38on your
37:38intentions thank you back at the dairy halloween festival if there are any evil spirits coming
37:49through the veil they're going to have a hard time tonight because the halloween masks and disguises
37:55are on another level
38:02jim nice to meet you how's it going what a place everywhere i look you've got amazing models
38:10jim collins heads up the artists and volunteers who spend months preparing props and costumes for the
38:15festival well this is the wolf of leermount forest this was actually produced in a local village and far
38:23from the city we had a master class we were trying to uh upskill local artists we're exploring the
38:28parka which is a mischievous spirit who shapeshifts into many animal forms and detectors so one of
38:34which is the wolf jim tell me about these these are absolutely brilliant i've got to say obviously it's
38:42halloween and these were drawn inspiration from the mexican day of the dead and people don't disguise
38:47us it becomes something completely different yeah that's got magic on its own yeah you know and
38:52obviously we want to create a wee bit of a wee bit of fright there without scaring people to death
38:56you know so what's up here jim this is the costume department it's all the costume department
39:02yeah yeah exactly yeah i can never resist a good costume and this one made by amy carol
39:09suits me perfect oh man i love it i just want to take part how long did that take to
39:20me um well it
39:21actually probably took me about five hours so far yeah the horns are quite difficult to to build so
39:25yeah amy you work here but you also get a lot of volunteers right yeah we get loads of volunteers
39:31why do you think they all come down oh because they love just being involved with the with the dairy
39:36halloween we're proud of it i think it's we're proud of it and everybody wants to be a part of
39:40it
39:40and it's really good fun this is what this journey is all about for me meeting people who are living
39:46and breathing the stories and traditions of their ancestors amy jim and their volunteers might find new
39:53ways to spook people every year but there's a thread running through all of these costumes
39:58a storytelling thread that connects past to present as much about storytelling yeah as dressing up and
40:05taking part in a parade you know and you've been here i'm sure on and off to you realize that
40:10you
40:10know dairy people aries people in general general are following a chat and telling a few stories they've
40:15got a good story the story of halloween here is all about transformation and reinvention what started
40:24as an ancient ritual became folklore that folklore turned into a tradition that traveled the world
40:30and then found its way back to where it all began i honestly thought that before i came here that
40:39halloween was american for me it's really cleared up of where halloween started you know it's part of that
40:45kind of history mystery that uh i've been missing in my life
40:54the thing that i love the most is the way that dairy has found its own personality its own culture
41:01that is created from that moment that all those guys were kicked out of that pub and onto the streets
41:07while they were having this small halloween festival party to what it's become today where there's
41:1340 000 people on the street it's just blowing me away we've almost reached the end of our irish
41:27adventure from ancient legends medical tales and reinvented rituals this trip has shown how stories
41:36begin evolve and pass on from generation to generation across the centuries and if there's one place
41:44where stories will always thrive in ireland it's in a pub so we've come to round off our journey in
41:56style
41:57with father and son musicians and songwriters shamey and stephen o'dowd who are carrying on the tradition
42:04of handing down stories through song
42:13roman good to see him that sound is so fantastic you think about it like if you go to a
42:18pub in
42:19england for instance like if there's a band the band are playing a song by the beatles yeah whereas
42:24you guys are singing songs and telling stories that have been passed down from you you don't even know
42:28who yeah oh yeah in some cases yeah you'll know you'll probably know where you got the song yourself you
42:32might you might associate songs like there was a lot of songs passed down through the traveler
42:36community they would have just sung to each other and they had a big part in preserving songs why do
42:41you think those songs stick in people's memory is it the story or is it the tune i think it's
42:46a
42:46combination of the two the tune nearly opens up your mind and then you get the idea and
42:52the tune is the trojan horse that's exactly well put well put could be anything from a story that
42:59people want to talk about from history to a yarn or a jaw and things it is the two things
43:05have to
43:06come together oh yeah yeah yeah and that's what makes a brilliant song all these things have to
43:11come together at the same time absolutely so what's this song that you're about to play
43:15uh it's the galleys la gerona from uh the spanish armada there's a bit of a tale to it i
43:19suppose but
43:20the gist of it is they were were on their way over to england it didn't work out for them
43:24evidently
43:25yeah um but when they were on the way back the the english actually uh sacrificed some ships uh
43:31and sent them a light and something towards the spanish and they cut their anchors to escape but
43:36coming around the top of ireland they came into some bad weather as a result of that they foundered
43:40against the rocks and stuff and they all sank but as if that wasn't enough i decided to make finn
43:44mccall the bad guy okay yeah should we jump flash into it i suppose yeah yeah
43:59finn mccall is the legendary giant said to have built the giant's causeway so he's normally a hero
44:05in irish stories but stevens made finn mccall the villain for a change by playing his part in helping
44:12the english sink the spanish ships in order to protect his causeway on the voyage home from war they sank
44:25but all the waves only nine men mercy that was the galleys serona
44:41wow that is better than good it's better than good it's just it's just absolutely brilliant
44:51this mix of facts and fiction to create a living legend is what makes irish stories so powerful
44:58what a fantastic way to mark the end of the road the final stop in our journey through the history
45:04and the mystery of this extraordinary land well it's nice being able to do something like this
45:12together together together yeah isn't it i think we've got a nice little relationship bro but i don't
45:19think you can ever bond enough it's about making memories it's about everywhere we go everybody we
45:24talk to every little bit of culture that we see every pipe we suck is about a bonding memory
45:30yeah that's what i'm talking about yeah and we have all of this irish experience to take home with us
45:37yeah feeling the pinch and push to the limit what's fueling civil unrest in ireland
45:48ireland on empty wednesday at nine on virgin media play and virgin media one
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