Though shy in person, Shannon has no fear when it comes to getting on stage and performing with the best of them, and the programme looks back at some of her career highlights, including her time as a member of The Waterboys<\/a>, her debut album in 1991, simply titled Sharon Shannon, which remains the bestselling Irish trad album of all time, her participation in the landmark album A Woman\u2019s Heart, and her hit collaboration with Steve Earle<\/a>, Galway Girl. <\/p>\n Shannon also talks about the tragedy she has experienced in her life, particularly the death of her partner Leo Healy in 2008, and reveals how she still struggles with anxiety but finds resilience from the many rescue dogs and cats she has brought into her home. <\/p>\n You\u2019d need a whole series to fit in the number of famous colleagues and collaborators lining up to pay tribute to this musical force of nature, but somehow the programme manages to find room for contributions from the likes of Adam Clayton, Imelda May, Mair\u00e9ad N\u00ed Mhaonaigh, Mike Scott, Paul Brady, Steve Earle, Frances Black, D\u00f3nal Lunny, Mary Coughlan, Lisa Canny and Mundy.<\/p>\n Highlights Back from the BrinkSunday, RT\u00c9 One, 6.30pm<\/p>\n Derek Mooney goes wild once again with the fifth series of this show focusing on efforts to restore biodiversity and bring species back from the edge of extinction. In this new two-parter, Mooney looks at how wild animals are migrating into cities due to the continuing destruction of their habitats. He meets the people helping wildlife to adapt to urban living, and also learns how people are adapting to their new neighbours from the country. <\/p>\n Jodie O\u2019Regan, aka the Fox Lady, is a research student at Galway University who has been heading a citizen-driven project studying the rise of urban foxes in Ireland\u2019s towns and cities. Retired lecturer Martin Hanrahan has also been studying urban foxes, by feeding them in his Rathfarnham garden every night and then watching them from his kitchen. Mooney also travels to Ljubljana in Slovenia and spies on bats living in former cold-war tunnels, and then heads to Ibiza where the island\u2019s wall lizards are under threat from an invasive species of snake. <\/p>\n Death ValleySunday, BBC One, 8.15pm Timothy Spall returns as actor-turned-detective John Chapel in the new series of the comedy crime drama set in the Welsh valleys. Chapel is no longer treading the boards, but he\u2019s still recognisable for his most famous role, as TV detective Charles Caesar. Gwyneth Keyworth returns as actual detective Janie Mallowan, who enlists Chapel\u2019s help in solving real-life murders. Chapel reckons his experience as a telly sleuth gives him a unique insight into the criminal mind; Mallowan is not so sure, but the cop and the luvvie soon prove a deadly crime-solving team. <\/p>\n But there\u2019s tension between them as series two opens: Mallowan is a bit annoyed that Chapel has been dating her mum behind her back. Still, now that she\u2019s been promoted to detective inspector, she reckons she can manage fine without the randy old thespian\u2019s help. However, the police are baffled by a murder in a community group, and the chief inspector wants Chapel back as a consultant. To unmask the killer, Chapel reckons he\u2019ll have to go undercover, but how to you do that when everyone knows your boat race? <\/p>\n Carl Frampton: On ProbationMonday, BBC One, 10.40pm Former world champion boxer Carl Frampton knows how easy it is to find yourself on the wrong side of the law, especially if you come from the wrong side of town. Frampton credits boxing with keeping him from falling into criminal behaviour in his hometown of Belfast, but many other young people fell by the wayside and ended up doing time. In this new six-part series, Frampton goes behind the scenes at Northern Ireland\u2019s Probation Board, which works to help offenders reintegrate into society following a prison term, and also works to prevent them reoffending and finding themselves back on the prison treadmill. It\u2019s been an eye-opener, says Frampton. \u201cI\u2019ve met people with long criminal records \u2013 and the probation staff working with them, trying to make sure they get their lives back on the straight and narrow.\u201d <\/p>\n Lucy Worsley Investigates: The American RevolutionMonday, BBC Two, 9pm<\/p>\n In 1776, America declared its independence from Britain. Two hundred and fifty years later, Donald Trump declared America\u2019s independence from reality. But never mind that. In this two-part special commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Lucy Worsley looks back at the events leading up to the declaration, and the eight-year-long war that followed, and asks, could this very messy and bloody break-up have been avoided? <\/p>\n Marilyn and the MobWednesday, Channel 4, 10pm & 11pm<\/p>\n In Some Like It Hot, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis played two clueless musicians on the run from the mob. But their costar Marilyn Monroe may have had real-life connections with some of America\u2019s most notorious mobsters, and this two-part documentary looks at how Monroe\u2019s social circle encompassed Hollywood, the White House and the Mafia. She was also close friends with Frank Sinatra, long rumoured to have organised-crime connections, and this documentary asks the provocative question, was her death in August 1962 suicide, misadventure, or a mob hit? <\/p>\n Br\u00faThursday, TG4, 9.35pm<\/p>\n What do footballer Ro\u00eds\u00edn Nic Ruair\u00ed, athlete F\u00f3dhla Nic Ph\u00e1id\u00edn, boxer Kaci Rock and golfer P\u00e1draig \u00d3 Dochartaigh have in common? A lot more than you might imagine. All four are young amateur sportspeople trying to make their mark at elite level, and willing to make all sorts of sacrifices to achieve their ambitions. This two-part documentary follows these four disparate yet very similar youngsters as they train hard over the course of a season, and try to balance their sporting passion with the demands of everyday life. <\/p>\n Nic Ruair\u00ed is captain of the Donegal GAA women\u2019s football team, and dreams of leading her team to an All-Ireland final win. Nic Ph\u00e1id\u00edn works as a schoolteacher in Dublin, and every weekend she travels home to Donegal to train with Rosses Athletic Club. Rock is the daughter of former champion boxer Jim Rock, and is training hard in Belfast with an eye on an Olympic medal, while golfer \u00d3 Dochartaigh, from Gweedore in Donegal, is working hard to come back from a wrist injury and get back to winning tournaments. <\/p>\n StreamingMaximum Pleasure GuaranteedFrom Wednesday, May 20th, Apple TV Paula is a freshly divorced mom locked in a custody battle with her ex, and also in the throes of a serious identity crisis. What can she do? Why, get herself embroiled in blackmail, murder and naughty internet chats, of course. Suddenly, Paula\u2019s life is no longer complicated \u2013 it\u2019s super-turbo-complicated. Believing she has witnessed a crime (like Rear Window with added social media), Paula decides to investigate, and finds herself in danger of ending up like Janet Leigh in Psycho. This 10-part comedy thriller series with a dark edge stars Emmy Award winner Tatiana Maslany as Paula.<\/p>\n The BoroughsFrom Thursday, May 21st, Netflix In a luxury retirement community, a misfit group of residents band together to solve a mystery. But this ain\u2019t Richard Osman\u2019s Coopers Chase. This new sci-fi horror series is executive produced by the Duffer brothers, so you know that stranger things will be lurking beneath the pleasant suburban surface. Alfred Molina plays Sam, a new arrival at the Boroughs, a seemingly idyllic retirement community in New Mexico that promises to give its residents the time of their lives. Sam\u2019s not buying the sales pitch, though, and when he has a terrifying encounter with something monstrous and otherworldly, he suspects that the Boroughs may be more than just an old folks\u2019 village. The series co-stars Geena Davis, Alfre Woodward, Denis O\u2019Hare, Clark Peters, Bill Pullman and Ed Begley jnr.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pick of the weekTradfluencer: The Sharon Shannon StoryMonday, RT\u00c9 One, 9.35pm Box-accordion player Sharon Shannon is the Pied…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[265],"tags":[593,3412,213349,6016,212041,18,117,19,17,99371,127,1181,160727,8336,122191,128],"class_list":["post-488992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-apple-tv","tag-bbc","tag-carl-frampton","tag-channel-4","tag-derek-mooney","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-marilyn-monroe","tag-netflix","tag-rte","tag-sharon-shannon","tag-tg4","tag-timothy-spall","tag-tv"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116589240272964283","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Death](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/HZSDJRQZS37MCSW2COWTM255YU.jpg\")
Death Valley: Gwyneth Keyworth and Timothy Spall. Photograph: BBC <\/p>\n![\"Carl](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ZV24OUL7BBA4FFX6FFWJIDPQ2I.JPG\")
Carl Frampton. Photograph: Colm Lenaghan\/Pacemaker <\/p>\n![\"Maximum](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GE3E7TNWFIZDEHR7JRY7RGIWWE.jpg\")
Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed: Tatiana Maslany and Jake Johnson. Photograph: Apple TV+ <\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/VAPY5JQK6XUEEQDZPJA5BGVLD4.jpg\")
The Boroughs: Denis O’Hare, Alfred Molina and Alfre Woodard. Photograph: Netflix <\/p>\n