TV Documentary Series

EPIC Women. This series tells the stories of some of Ireland’s most remarkable pioneers in the fields of business, science, technology, the arts, aviation and technology:

​

• Record-setting and daredevil aviator Lady Mary Heath, a Limerick woman of many ‘firsts’ and one of the best known women in the world in the 1920s;

• Groundbreaking computer programmer Kay McNulty, a Donegal Gaeilgeoir who was one of the six original programmers of the ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer;

• Pioneering Cork surgeon Dr. James Barry who lived as a man, pursued a medical career, and whose many achievements include performing the first successful caesarean section in the British Empire in which both mother and baby survived;

• Cork-born activist and union leader Mother Jones (“the most dangerous woman in America”) who founded the Social Democratic Party and helped establish the Industrial Workers of the World;

• Dubliner Oonah Keogh a successful trader and entrepreneur who became the world’s first female member of a Stock Exchange;

• Wicklow-born choreographer, director and founder of the Royal Ballet Ninette de Valois.

 

Running alongside the TV series, an 18-part podcast series, produced by Underground Films with Tall Tales, will bring to light the stories of 18 more Irish female pioneers from history. Discoverable on any platform where you download your podcasts, tune in to the HERSTORY: Ireland’s EPIC Women podcast. Find out more on rte.ie/herstory including biographies of remarkable Irish women, alongside Herstory lesson plans for primary and secondary schools and much, much more.

​

Writer: Ruth Meehan & Rachel Lysaght

Director: Kim Bartley, Aoife Kelleher, Rachel Lysaght

DOP: Eleanor Bowman

Sound: Susan Downey & Colm O'Meara

Editors: Róisín McDonnell, John O'Connor, Janice Toomey

Year: 2020