Athlone singer-songwriter to feature on RTÉ documentary tonight

Athlone singer-songwriter Trish Reilly is among those who will feature in a documentary being broadcast on RTÉ television tonight (Thursday).

Trish will appear in Songlines, a programme about Travellers and their songs and stories, which is being shown on RTÉ One at 10.15pm.

In recent years it has been generally recognised that Irish Travellers have contributed enormously to music-making within Ireland, carrying tunes and songs from town to town, making and repairing instruments, and transmitting their unique musical style.

Many of the songs that are now standards of the folk singing tradition have been kept alive by the Travelling community.

Songlines, produced by Harvest Films, shows Thomas McCarthy, one of Ireland’s best known traditional Traveller singers, meeting other singers in various parts of the country.

He meets Athlone's Trish, along with Martin Reilly, in Drogheda. Trish sings False Lankum and Martin sings Smuggling the Tin, a song covered by the singer Liam Weldon.

RTÉ promotional material for the programme states: "At 8 years of age, Trish and her four sisters were taken from their family into care, where she spent 10 years in institutional care.

"Trish sings her own composition Broken Lines about her experience of being in the care system."

Songlines is described as "an absorbing documentary on tradition, song and the importance of singing and pays tribute to the immense contribution that Travellers have made to the art of traditional singing in Ireland".

It can be seen on RTÉ One at 10.15pm tonight, Thursday, May 2.