Waterford town to hit TV screens this week in new TG4 series

The award-winning series ‘Bailte’ returns this September for its 4th season with Síle Nic Chonaonaigh continuing her journey through the townlands of Ireland, including to Waterford this week.

There are over 60,000 townlands in Ireland and they remain one of the pillars of modern Irish life. On this journey, Síle explores the resilience of our rural communities and reveals the deep connection people have with their townland and how local landscapes and traditions remain a constant influence on our daily lives.

The series is a celebration of the hard-working and vibrant communities who are doing their very best to ensure their own community is more than just a mere layby and a pretty stop-off along the Wild Atlantic Way. With rural Ireland as a spectacular backdrop, ‘Bailte’ provides a distinctive and honest portrayal of life in Ireland today.

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The show visits a different townland and its respective community each week to learn what life is like there. Some of the townlands Síle visits have larger populations than others, one of which only having one family. As well as the many advantages of living in rural townlands, the series also shares the difficulties of living in remote areas, such as rural depopulation, a lack of basic services, unemployment and the uncertain futures of both the farming and fishing industries.

On the episode this week 26th September Síle heads to Baile na nGall which is situated in County Waterford in Gaeltacht na nDéise. Surrounded by Heilbhic, Maoil an Chóirne and Cnocán an Phaoraigh, this is the smallest of Rinn Ó gCuanach’s townlands. With Baile na nGall Mór and Baile na nGall Beag, it is flanked to the north and to the south by the sea with views across the bay of the Comeragh Mountains.

In this programme, Síle meets singers and writers who show her the wealth of creativity to be found in the area, as well as those who once left but who returned to their homeplace. She also visits Criostal na Rinne, a crystal studio workshop, to try her hand at designing a piece of her own.

Among the other townlands visited in this series are Leitir Ard and An Bóthar Buí in Galway, Toraigh, and Clochán Bréanainn on the Dingle Peninsula.