RTE programmes focus on emigrants

RTE has a few interesting productions coming up.

Tonight, it will screen “Duffy’s Cut”, the story of 57 Irish labourers who arrived in Pennsylvania in June, 1832 to construct a railroad. The men, who were mainly from Donegal, Derry and Tyrone, were all dead within six weeks; they were buried in a mass grave. While cholera claimed many, others were apparently murdered by neighbours fearing the plague.

An archaeological project by Immaculata University has been unearthing items which may have belonged to the men, including clay pipes, buttons and coins. The project is hoping to identify the exact location of the burial grounds on the one-acre site known as Duffy’s Cut. They are hoping that they will be able to investigate whether the men were victims of violence, and plan to rebury the men in a nearby church graveyard.

The network will also screen a new series focusing on Irish families who have moved abroad. “The Great Escape” producers say the programme is "about people making radical moves and changes in their lives by relocating to another country in search of a better life. The first programme will follow a family who left Swords in 2004 to move to France; it airs on January 8.