Michael Palin travels through Ireland - from Derry in the North down to his ancestral homeland of Kerry in the South. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. I don't own the rights to this video. All copyright goes to BBC.
This was a deep blast of nostalgia for me. I remember borrowing a VHS tape of this episode from my local public library all the way back when I was just 3-4 years old. This was how I learned about Michael Palin years before I'd ever heard of Monty Python. This was my first exposure to Ireland long before I was old enough to understand about things like The Troubles. Looking back now, like most of the Great Railway Journeys episodes, it's become a unique snapshot of how the world was at the end of the 20th Century from a personal point of view; not the highbrow detached perspective of a documentary into the past, or a focused political dissection, but seeing the world as it was through the eyes of an ordinary traveller who just happens to have a film crew following him. Some places they visit, like the Shanes Castle Railway and the Tralee & Dingle Light Railway no longer exist, this film standing as a record of some of their last years of operation. One of my favorite aspects of this series is how things don't always go to plan; you cannot tell me that the director foresaw there being no Sunday railway service onwards, let alone that they'd find an alternative in the form of a motorcycle club. It's things like this that truly make Great Railway Journeys unique in the chronicles of travel documentaries.
When Michael filmed this some 28 years ago he'd probably never thought that it would also become a part of history that people feel lucky to be able to see and feel through his memory. Fills me with sadness to see all the places and people many of whom are no more, and even the air itself reminds me of the things past gone forever.
This man is so simple and unaffected in the way he approaches a project like this that it makes the result far more enjoyable than those of all the unblissfully ignorant, ego driven people who do otherwise.
My parents taped this for me on PBS (WTTW-11) some time around 93-94, I was still very small. I would watch it endlessly, mostly for the trains, but eventually for the history and to hear a priest sing Sweet Caroline. So glad to see it again!
I was in Ireland for a month the same year this was made just after my university days had come to an end. I travelled all over the place on the railway system. It was ... unique! But Ireland - what a country. Just wonderful. I didn't always get the friendliest of welcomes because of my English accent I suppose, especially in Cork for some reason, but that was rare. The folks were mostly lovely and often hilariously funny, particularly in the pub. Happy memories that this treasure brings back.
I have watched many rail route and travels documentary. Many are interesting from a historical prospective, but this documentary stands out by the way it captures a little prospective on the Irish people. The best rail trip documentary I have ever watched.
Yes, he was so gracious and accessible. He spoke at my alma mater and signed his Hemingway book and anything Python after his wonderful talk. The signing line was a wonder to watch - life-sized Python figures, you name it, endless silliness all to be signed by Mr. Palin at the end of a very long day for him. (You'd never have known it - he was grand to one and all.)
Palins strength has always lay in the fact that he ask questions and allows people to answer without jumping in with " Well i think..." or "What about such and such?". He has a generally disarming manner that gets folk onside straight away. Remember this programme first time round, superb. Theres a similair situation in a programme he did with North Korea, you couldnt get a peep out of his minders in first few days he was there, by the end of the week they were laughing joking and telling him about their families. Great stuff.
I'm from Dublin and I'm so Happy that we have Peace now I never want to see them dark day's of the troubles again we have to RESPECT each other whatever side your on.
I had a pen pal in Ireland and went to visit him on a interrail trip across Europe in 1985. When adressing the separation one evening, his father said with such spite that they wouldn't want Northern Ireland back, I realized ( as a 16 year old from the continent with no background on the troubles),that it would need a generation gap to heal since those wounds were too deep.
I'd seen parts of this in other places, but the whole show itself is a real revelation, even for Palin. Makes me want to pack up and fly off to Ireland...if it were possible :(
Another great Palin programme. All Priests Show was hilarious also what a different time the 90’s was you could tell a non PC joke and get a laugh instead of cancelled. The best band to come out Northern Ireland are from Londonderry, The Undertones.
I love the opening segment of this program, especially at 0:11 where Slieve Gullion is featured. The footage of her in this episode is just so breathtaking and really exemplifies why I've always wanted to be an engine driver on the footplate of a steam locomotive. @4:10
He has a gentle and civilised viewpoint that is a blessing. I believe Ireland should reunite, once the various traditions replace fear with familiarity. Over the last 40 years I believe that moment has been getting closer. But it's not quite here yet. It will happen at the right time.
BUT THERE WAS NO SIGN OF RHIS DOCUMENTARY ON TV IN LONDON IN 1993 AND THIS YOU TUBE VIDEO IS THE FIRS TIME THIS 27 YEAR OLD FILM HAS BEEN SEEN BY MANY PEOPLE, SO WHY WAS IT NOT ON THE TELEVISION THEN ???? JUST AFTER IT WAS PRODUCED !!!! ????.
In fact I recently moved to Ireland and I’m quite amazed at how similar everything is. Other than the age of the cars, and the soldiers in Belfast, there is very little really to age this. Dublin and Rosslaire look like they were filmed yesterday. Obviously the trains are more modern now!
Visited Derry in June 2005. Was staying in Portrush and took the train to Derry for the day. Spent a lot of time in the Bogside looking at the Murals and in the City Center walking the walls. Beautiful city.
I love watching the sequence of the Shane's Castle Railway, the engine there is the sister of the engine I work on the Stradbally. I met Lord O'Neill last year when he came down to see our engine, very nice man who's still obsessed with his steam engines :)
I believe the Shane's Castle Railway closed only two years after this came out. Trains have always had an uphill struggle in Ireland. Fun fact: Lord O'Neill's mother married Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond.
23:33 Chris Hudson should never be forgotten for the part he played in bringing peace to Northern Ireland. First saw him in Peter Taylor's Loyalists. A very decent man.
i never heard of him, did see taylors series tho. did you see the old city centre bus check point where the city bus dude would get on to check for bombs 13.42
Any adventure with steam trains in it seems to carry us into another, mellower dimension. And for every viewer annoyed by ads, may I suggest looking for an ad-blocker to add to your Internet browser.
Around 30:40 Michael Palin--Michael Palin!!--asks how do you farm dirt! The man I grew up watching as he grew "some lovely filth" in The Holy Grail. He is the poster boy for dirt farmers! Astounding sound work getting clear dialogue on a moving motorcycle, by the way. This crew was amazing.
Really like this video can't stop from watching it lol I've been to derry 7 times one of my favourite city's to vist never get bored of visiting I really love train from Belfast to derry its best getting to there early as there's plenty to see in derry I would recommend solo trip as u can just take ur time lol 😎😉
If there was anyone to give the facts behind the reason for the peace walls in Belfast, it would be Iver Oswald who Michael Palin spoke to in this. I feel the same way about Belfast as Michael Palin does, it doesn't matter where you are from, people are so approachable. In fact I recorded my stay in the city in 2015, taking in the sites that the city boasts, like Titanic Quarter, Stormont, Shankill Road, Falls Road, Queens University, you name it, on a bus tour of the city (feel free to check the videos out) One of the fascinating things about the Gable walls, whichever community they're in, if the fighter/hero depicted has a Balaclava painted on their depiction, it means that they're still alive, if not, it means they're deceased. I went to the city for my own reasons, I wanted to learn more about what happened in Northern Ireland and Ireland as a whole that lead to the status quo. The result is that I highly recommend it, I have nothing but positive memories of Belfast and will definitely return there in the future :)
Director "Grab the dog, it's running past you!" & the woman at 25:25 was reading a BOOK! I know, not a smartphone. I'm from Dublin but haven't been home in 10 years. Miss it so much
If you're watching this in late 2022, don't want ads, and don't want to "just install an adblocker n00b" like commenters have unhelpfully suggested, it's currently on iPlayer. It's from 1994, not 1993, by the way.
The little railway in Derry is gone, they let it turn to shit, i think even the track is gone, born and raised around the corner from it and was never on it
Very fond memories of this program. Makes me want to visit Ireland again. Something that does intrigue me is the Tug at 24:43. Have no idea where that is located if it even still is?
At 27:34 does the railway enter a tunnel of which the lower foreground is above, and is there a road to the right of the camera position? If so, this may be the spot when, as a young boy of 4 or 5, in about 1952 or '53, I almost was run over by a fire engine on the road because I was too intent on watching the trains. I could be wrong.
Father Gary Sullivan plays better than U2 lol. All jokes aside when we lived in England in the late 60s we had Irish lodgers staying with us who were working on the gas line, they were great and as a kid they would let me start the compressor for the jack hammer on the way to school.
I noticed that Ireland's Railways, both in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland, is the unique 5ft 3 track gauge. Can someone explain why they have this gauge, when many other countries have the 4ft 8.5 gauge?
It was due to two different companies using standard and broad gauge, couldn't agree on what to use. So someone came along and chose the exact middle 5 foot 3 inches.
@@Miner4472 ah, thanks for that, I knew that in England at least, the two most prominently used track gauges were 4ft 8.5 inches (standard gauge) and 7ft 1/4 inch (Brunel Broad Gauge, exclusively used by the Great Western Railway) but, at the time of my original comment I wasn't so sure about the situation in Ireland
