New current affairs TV series to be produced in Kildare
Kildare television producer Enda Grace brings major new 15-part series Mo Thír, Mo Thuairim to Dundara’s Allenwood studio.
A new national current affairs television series will be produced and recorded in Allenwood this autumn, as local production company Dundara Television & Media launches one of its most ambitious television projects to date.
Mo Thír, Mo Thuairim, presented by broadcaster Cormac Ó hEadhra, begins on TG4 on Monday, September 7 at 10pm and will run for 15 consecutive weeks. The series will put younger voices at the centre of the national conversation, examining the issues shaping life today, from housing and the cost of living to social media, politics, relationships, Irish identity, the future of the Gaeltacht and whether young people can still realistically build the lives they want in Ireland.
But behind the national conversation is a very local story. The series is being produced from Dundara Television & Media’s studio in Allenwood, where company founder, producer and director Enda Grace has spent almost two decades building a television production business from his home village. For Grace, who grew up in Allenwood and established Dundara in 2008, bringing a weekly national current affairs production to the village represents another significant step in the company’s development.
“When I started Dundara in Allenwood, I always had a very simple belief that we shouldn’t have to move the company to Dublin to do ambitious television,” said Grace.
“You can build something in Kildare, employ and work with brilliant people here, bring some of the best people in the industry into Allenwood and make television that is seen nationally and internationally.
“I’ve always been very proud of where I come from and very determined that Dundara would remain rooted here. To now have a presenter of Cormac’s calibre walking into our studio every week to front a national current affairs programme on TG4 is something I’m particularly proud of.”
Over the years, Dundara has grown from a small operation into an established independent company, producing programmes for Irish and international broadcasters. Its credits include four series of the hugely successful award winning Moving West with Mary Kennedy for TG4, Guaranteed Irish, Are We There Yet? for PBS in the United States, Treyvaud’s Kitchen on Virgin Media One, and international entertainment productions including full coverage of the Game of Thrones final-season premiere for NBC.
The studio has also welcomed a range of well-known figures. Former President Mary McAleese and broadcaster Mary Kennedy record their Changing Times – The Allenwood Conversations podcast there, with guests so far including Dermot Kennedy, Phil Coulter, An Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Daniel O’Donnell and former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
Cormac Ó hEadhra said: “I am delighted to be working with Enda and the Dundara team on this exciting new series. Mo Thír Mo Thuairim will bring fresh energy and urgency to national debate, giving a dedicated platform to younger voices, emerging activists and the decision makers shaping their future. Each episode will centre on lived experience, including housing pressures, digital life, climate anxiety, education, work and community, with contributors speaking frankly about what it means to navigate modern Ireland."
Grace believes producing that conversation from Allenwood is significant in itself.
“There is something I really like about the fact that a programme discussing where Ireland is going is coming every week from a studio in the middle of the Bog of Allen.
“We are not making it from the centre of Dublin. We’re making it in the community where I grew up, a few minutes from where I went to primary school, with a team that we have built over many years.”
The production has also involved a significant development of Dundara’s facilities. Grace will lead the production alongside an experienced team, combining long-standing collaborators with a number of top broadcast professionals.