DFA STAFF PICK: Lesser Spotted Ulster - Rathlin Island

This month’s DFA staff pick is a 2010 episode of ‘Lesser Spotted Ulster’ which focusses on Rathlin Island, just off the coast of County Antrim.

Presented by Joe Mahon, this Ulster Television Production skilfully interweaves an informed and engaging commentary on the history of the island with picturesque shots of its scenery and wildlife, and verbatim anecdotes from a wide variety of its inhabitants who, among other things, emphasise their symbiotic relationship (both past and present) with Rathlin and its surrounding ecology.

Perhaps the two most noteworthy takeaways from the programme are that Rathlin houses what remains of “Bruce’s Castle” where Robert The Bruce holed up in 1306, and that the island’s population was dramatically halved by mass emigration caused by the 1845-48 Famine. Although all these facts are unequivocally eclipsed by the RSVP warden’s truly hair-raising account of how, just a couple of generations ago, both men and women alike would dangle from the top of Rathlin Island’s cliffs to harvest eggs from the nests of sea birds for food. Something of which, doubtless, Health and Safety would take a very dim view these days.

The result of this audio-visual tapestry, then, is a beautiful and compelling snapshot of what life used to be like on Rathlin and what, in the 21^st Century, with only around 100 inhabitants whose current sources of income are mainly tourism and fishing, it has now become.

Yet, what makes this programme so utterly engaging is not just its content but the enthusiasm with which the programme-makers have approached and embraced Rathlin’s history and inhabitants, thereby allowing us to become subconsciously infused with and enthused about the island.

And never is this more apparent than the high spot at the end of the programme when Joe Mahon, in a series of highly entertaining interviews with the distinctly charming Julie-Ann McMullan about her life, her family and their veritable menagerie of animals (all of which are unsurprisingly adorable), suddenly finds himself having to fend off the unashamed affections of one of the goats who goes by the delightful (if somewhat incongruous) name of Scooby-Doo.

In other words, the makers of this episode of Lesser Spotted Ulster have allowed Rathlin Island to tell its own story in its own inimitable way while never losing sight of the true purpose of TV: to inform, educate and entertain its audience. 

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