Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Ireland. A verdant jewel in the Eastern Atlantic.

Europe’s most western frontier.

From the towering cliffs of its wild sea coasts

to unique geological formations forged by volcanic fire,

Ireland is a land of spectacular natural beauty --

the glorious backdrop of more than ten thousand years

of human civilization.

From a city of the dead that’s older than the Pyramids of Egypt

to the beach where director Stephen Spielberg

filmed the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan .

Where else would you find the country home

of the Lord of the Dance and the birthplace of the Titanic?

Ancient ruins that bring Game of Thrones to life

and a national sport that became the ancestor of ice hockey.

A country whose rich cultural legacy and living history

inspired generations of storytellers.

This is an Ireland you’ve never seen before.

A nation whose unique blend of tradition and modernity

has made it a bastion of the digital age.

[♪ theme music ♪]

♪ ♪

Sunrise in Dublin -- Ireland’s capital city

on the country’s east coast.

Inhabited since prehistoric times, Dublin’s city origins

lie with the invading Vikings, who sailed up the River Liffey

in the tenth century AD to establish a settlement here.

A thousand years on, Dublin is a city of 1.3 million people.

From the streets built on Viking foundations

to the medieval majesty of Dublin Castle

and the spires of St. Patrick’s Cathedral,

Dublin’s architectural legacy is writ large.

Among its most celebrated and historic precincts

are the great Georgian Squares laid out in the 18th century,

a golden age that would also witness the foundation

of Dublin’s most iconic commercial enterprise.

This is St. James’s Gate Brewery, ancestral home

of "the Black Stuff," Guinness Stout,

one of Ireland’s most recognizable brands.

In 1759, when the Irish brewer and entrepreneur Arthur Guinness

took out a 9000-year lease on St. James’s Gate,

he was supplied with crystal-clear water

from the Wicklow Mountains to brew his beer, free of charge.

At the heart of the brewery stands

the famous Guinness Storehouse.

This seven-story museum dedicated to the company’s

history is topped with a sky bar where visitors enjoy

a free sample of the famous brew and panoramic views of a city

still in the process of monumental change.

♪ ♪

Since the 1990s, the once-derelict Dublin docklands

have been transformed into a vibrant new

residential and business quarter.

It’s known as the Digital Docklands, or, alternatively,

Silicon Dock,

overshadowed by Dublin’s tallest commercial building,

Hyperlink, the European headquarters of Google.

♪ ♪

Downstream, the 680-foot red-and-white striped chimneys

of Poolbeg are one of Dublin’s most beloved

and iconic landmarks,

immortalized in the music video for "Pride"

by the city’s most famous musical export, U2.

♪ ♪

Ireland’s best-known rock group started life here

at Mount Temple School in the North Dublin suburbs when,

in 1974, a young drummer named Larry Mullen posted a notice

looking for like-minded musicians to form a band.

Lead singer Bono grew up here at Cedarwood Road

in the North City, a suburb made famous by U2’s album

Songs of Innocence .

U2 have left their mark all over Dublin.

The band once owned the Clarence Hotel in Temple Bar,

the city’s cultural quarter.

Bono now resides here at Temple Hill, a grand mansion

in the salubrious suburb of Killiney, where his neighbors

have included singer Enya, film director Neil Jordan

and Formula One racing driver Eddie Ervine.

For a few years in the 1980’s, Bono lived here at

the glass-roofed Martello Tower in the seaside town of Bray,

south of Dublin.

One of over fifty military forts dotted around the Irish coast,

they were decommissioned in the 19th century,

but have attracted artists and writers ever since,

among them the great Irish novelist James Joyce.

One of the finest writers of the 20th century,

James Joyce spent most of his life abroad,

and yet virtually all his work centers on Dublin,

capturing the spirit of the city in the early 1900’s.

His masterpiece, the novel Ulysses ,

begins here at the Martello Tower

beside the famous forty-foot swimming spot

in the picturesque South Dublin suburb of Sandycove.

Here, in September 1904, Joyce spent six nights

with fellow writer Oliver St. John Gogarty,

on whom he based one of Ulysses ’s main characters,

the irrepressible Buck Mulligan.

On the final night of his stay, Joyce was jolted awake

as Gogarty fired a revolver into the pots and pans

overhanging Joyce’s bed.

Soon afterwards, Joyce left Ireland, never forgotten,

but never to return.

He wasn’t the only writer whose legacy remains written

into the fabric of the city.

Here on Merrion Square in Central Dublin

is a monument to the great poet, wit and literary genius

Oscar Wilde.

Born in Dublin in 1854, Wilde became one of

the greatest playwrights of the 19th century.

But the author of The Importance of Being Earnest

and The Picture of Dorian Gray

was also a victim of the prejudice of his time.

Imprisoned in England for two years

on account of his homosexuality,

Wilde would remain defiant, dignified and, above all,

a Dubliner.

"Be yourself," Wilde once said.

"Everyone else is already taken."

This reclining statue, with its sardonic grace,

is a fitting tribute to one of Ireland’s most colorful

and celebrated writers.

Another of Dublin’s 19th century literary masters

was Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula .

Born in 1847 here at Marino Crescent in the North Dublin

suburb of Clontarf, Stoker is said to have based

some of the morbid details of Dracula

on his mother’s recollections of the cholera epidemic

that swept Ireland in 1832,

claiming tens of thousands of lives.

Stoker and Oscar Wilde knew each other well,

having spent time together as students

at Dublin’s most famous university, Trinity College.

Established in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I,

Trinity is Ireland’s oldest university, modeled on

the great English colleges of Oxford and Cambridge.

Along with 200,000 of the college’s oldest

and rarest books, Trinity’s 18th century old library

displays an extraordinary national treasure

on its ground floor: The Book of Kells , an

intricate illuminated manuscript dating from around 800 AD.

Containing the four Gospels of the New Testament

laid out in vibrantly illustrated Celtic script,

The Book of Kells is one of the most priceless

medieval artifacts on Earth.

Another historically important document enshrined here

is a copy of the Irish Proclamation of 1916.

♪ ♪

When rebel leader Padraig Pearse read the proclamation

beneath the portico of Dublin’s general post office,

it was one of the most significant events

of 20th-century Irish history.

It signaled the start of the Easter Rising,

a momentous rebellion against nearly 800 years

of British colonial rule.

In 1916, hundreds of Irish rebels took up

defensive positions around Dublin, using the post office

on O’Connell Street as their headquarters.

Defeated by British forces after a week of bloody fighting,

their sacrifice sent 26 of Ireland’s 32 counties

on the road to independence.

Ultimately, the six counties of Northern Ireland

would remain part of the United Kingdom.

♪ ♪

On March 17th, the world celebrates the feast day

of Saint Patrick, Ireland’s patron saint.

The symbol of this national holiday is the shamrock,

a three-leafed clover St. Patrick is said to have used

to explain the mystery of the Holy Trinity

to his pagan converts.

The Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin

is the biggest and most colorful outside of New York City,

with half a million Dubliners and a hundred thousand visitors

from around the world lining the streets

for the most joyful open-air party of the year.

The parade route leads from O’Connell street

to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, whose 18th-century dean

was also one of Ireland’s most famous writers, Jonathan Swift.

Although Swift is largely associated with Dublin,

his holiday home here in the Irish midlands

inspired his most famous book.

This is Lilliput House on the south shore of Lough Ennel

in County Westmeath.

It’s said that while boating out on the lake,

Swift was struck by how small people looked

on the distant shoreline.

It became the seed of an idea for the novel

Gulliver’s Travels .

On the far side of the lake stands

the imposing 18th-century mansion of Belvedere House.

The sinister legacy of its owner is said to have inspired

the novelist Charlotte Bronte

to write the dark classic Jane Eyre .

Landowner Robert Rochfort was a cruel and petty man.

Incensed when his older brother built

a much grander house nearby,

Rochfort had a huge Gothic ruin constructed

to block it from view.

Known as the Jealous Wall, the folly still stands,

a monument to one man’s bitterness and spite.

50 miles east of Belvedere House

in the neighboring county of Meath

stands a monument of an altogether different kind.

Over five thousand years old,

it was built to connect the living and the dead.

NARRATOR: The ancient Irish believed that the living and the dead

shared the Earth, drawn together by the changing seasons

and aligned by the light of the sun --

a sophisticated spirituality that they enshrined

in great earthen cemeteries.

Here, on a bend of the River Boyne in County Meath

stands the necropolis of Brú Na Boinne.

Built a thousand years before the earliest Egyptian pyramid,

this great 2000-acre city of the dead

contains over 40 ancient tombs.

12 meters high and 67 meters across, the great earthen mound

of Knowth contains two burial chambers

where the cremated remains of the dead were placed.

A mile southeast lies the centerpiece of Brú Na Boinne,

Newgrange.

A tomb containing a single burial chamber,

ringed with shining quartz rock and inscribed with

mysterious neolithic symbols, it was built around 3200 BC.

But this is more than just a tomb.

At the winter solstice, the rays of dawn shine

along a precisely aligned stone shaft built into the mound,

illuminating the burial chamber deep within.

A symbolic moment, signaling renewal, rebirth,

and the start of a new year.

♪ ♪

Carved out by glaciers during the last ice age,

the stunning lake valley of Glendalough

in the Wicklow Mountains south of Dublin

is home to one of Ireland’s oldest monastic sites.

In the 6th century, the hermit monk St. Kevin

is said to have lived here in the hollow of a tree,

communing with God, far from the distractions of the world.

With Europe plunged into the turmoil of the Dark Ages,

Ireland was a beacon of light.

Glendalough would evolve into a great monastic complex

overshadowed by an elegant medieval Irish round tower.

With their doors placed high above ground level,

these buildings were once thought to offer refuge

against Viking raiders.

It’s more likely, however, that they were bell towers

and storehouses for religious relics.

Overshadowed by its modern basilica, the town of Knock

in the west of Ireland is one of the country’s most revered

Catholic pilgrimage sites.

Here, one rainy night in the fall of 1879,

fifteen people claimed to have witnessed

an extraordinary apparition.

A vision of the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph

and St. John the Evangelist, all three standing motionless,

above the ground, deep in prayer.

Some say it was a hoax, others claim a miracle.

Either way, the meaning of the reported apparition

remains a mystery.

♪ ♪

According to another mysterious Irish legend, the devil himself

took a bite out of this mountain in Tipperary

-- and spat it out here, forming a hill called

the Rock of Cashel.

A spectacular ecclesiastical site occupies

the summit of the rock, surrounded by a ring

of ancient fortifications.

At its core, a complete medieval round tower

and the ruin of a Gothic cathedral.

This was the ancient seat of Ireland’s kings,

the most famous of whom was Brian Boru,

who attempted to unify the whole island under one rule.

♪ ♪

In 1014 AD, his armies defeated the Vikings of Dublin.

Though Brian Boru was killed on the field of battle,

his victory secured peace and prosperity

at a time of intense tribal war in Ireland.

♪ ♪

The wild beauty of the Wicklow Mountains forms the backdrop

to dozens of grand country estates.

Here, in a quiet valley at the north end of Lough Tay,

is one of the finest -- the fairy-tale castle of Luggala.

Owned by Garech De Brun of the Guinness family,

the castle has hosted some fabulous parties over the years,

attended by celebrities like Angelica Huston and Mick Jagger.

The Luggala estate has featured in Hollywood epics

from King Arthur to Braveheart .

More recently, the valley doubled as a Scandinavian fjord

for the TV saga, Vikings .

♪ ♪

If Curracloe Strand in County Wexford

seems strangely familiar,

it’s probably because you’ve seen this glorious stretch

of sand and dunes before.

Imagine the roar of landing craft

and the deafening sound of machine guns and artillery.

In 1997, Curracloe doubled as Omaha Beach

in the brutal opening scenes of Stephen Spielberg’s

World War II epic, Saving Private Ryan .

The imposing fortress of Trim Castle in County Meath

featured extensively in Mel Gibson’s Braveheart,

doubling as the besieged citadel

of York and London’s medieval Smithfield,

where the hero William Wallace is executed.

Built in 1173 by the Anglo Norman baron Hugh De Lacy,

the castle was once a powerful symbol

of English rule in Ireland.

In the 1970s, excavations revealed ten headless

skeletons -- the remains of executed thieves whose heads

were mounted on spikes on the castle walls.

In the late Middle Ages, the fortress defended the outer edge

of the Pale -- the part of east Ireland

dominated by the English.

Everything outside was considered the lawless,

uncivilized domain of the native Irish.

Hence the phrase "beyond the pale."

Far from the supposed civilization of the medieval

Pale lies one of Ireland’s most unique natural terrains,

an ancient landscape filled with extraordinary secrets.

NARRATOR: Here on the Atlantic coast of County Clare lies one

of Ireland’s most extraordinary natural landscapes,

the 96-square mile limestone terrain of the Burren.

A sacred place since prehistory, the Burren is dotted

with ancient ruins from churches to tombs,

all symbolizing a connection between this world and the next.

Here, the temperature of the bedrock remains

above 43 degrees Fahrenheit all year round,

supporting an incredibly rich and diverse ecosystem,

where arctic, Mediterranean and alpine plants

grow side by side.

The region is home to three-quarters

of Ireland’s wildflowers, including rare orchids,

thriving alongside hundreds of insect species.

♪ ♪

At the southwestern edge of the Burren stand

the spectacular Cliffs of Moher.

Rising at Hag’s Head in the south,

they reach their highest point -- over 700 feet --

five miles to the north.

This is O’Brien’s Tower, built in 1835 by the Irish politician

Sir Cornelius O’Brien.

An early pioneer of tourism, he was so prolific

that the locals say he built everything around here

except the cliffs.

Every year, a million visitors come to marvel

at the spectacular panorama.

♪ ♪

The nearby town of Lahinch, with its vast Atlantic beaches,

is one of Ireland’s most popular surfing destinations.

Here, in the summer of 2006, 44 surfers

managed to ride the same crest, setting a new world record.

♪ ♪

At the edge of Clew Bay on the Mayo coast,

a medieval Irish tower stands guard over the waters.

This is Rockfleet, once the home of the powerful

16th-century pirate queen, Grace O’Malley,

who commanded a private army, her own fleet of ships

and a string of fortresses along the Atlantic coast.

In 1593, she sailed her pirate galleon up the Thames to London

to parlay with the English queen, Elizabeth I.

O’Malley initially shocked the queen’s courtiers

by refusing to bow, but the meeting went well.

Though the pirate queen never achieved her goal

of freedom for her people, she died unconquered,

a rebel to the very end.

250 years after the time of Grace O’Malley,

the landscape of Ireland was changed forever.

These abandoned cottages are ghostly reminders

of the Great Famine of 1845.

At the time, nearly three and a half million people --

the poorest two fifths of Ireland’s population --

were entirely dependent on a single crop: the potato.

A devastating blight wiped out harvests across the country.

On the hill of Slievemore are all that remains

of a once-thriving farming community.

These ridged terraces known as "lazy beds"

once supplied the inhabitants with the one crop

that kept them alive.

In the space of ten years, a million died,

and a further million emigrated to America and Canada.

As they poured into Ellis Island, the country they left

behind was damaged in ways that have never been forgotten.

One of the many famines of Irish history, the Great Hunger of

1845 has left the most lasting mark on the Irish psyche,

a symbol of the oppression and abandonment

of a dispossessed people.

♪ ♪

The lush pastures and dramatic seascapes of County Sligo

were once a rich source of inspiration

for one of Ireland’s most celebrated poets.

This is the tabletop mountain of Ben Bulben,

a great limestone plateau sculpted by glaciers

during the last ice age.

From the top, climbers enjoy panoramic views

of the spectacular landscape known as Yeats Country.

The poem "Under Ben Bulben" was one of the last written

by William Butler Yeats.

The closing lines are famously inscribed on his tombstone

here at the churchyard of Drumcliffe in Sligo:

"Cast a cold eye, on life, on death. Horseman, pass by!"

♪ ♪

Another champion of the unspoiled beauty

of the west of Ireland was the American director John Ford.

Cong Village in County Mayo was the backdrop

to his iconic 1952 film The Quiet Man ,

starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara.

Many of its locations are still preserved,

including the scene of the film’s epic fistfight.

On the far side of Lough Outerard stands

the Quiet Man Bridge, where Wayne’s character,

the returned immigrant Sean Thornton,

spies his family home for the first time.

The elegant Ashford Castle also figures in Ford’s film.

One of Ireland’s most exclusive five-star hotels,

its illustrious guests have included King George V,

Oscar Wilde, Ronald Reagan and Beatle George Harrison.

♪ ♪

Galway City at the mouth of the Corrib River

is the de facto capital of the west of Ireland.

Galway, nicknamed "City of the Tribes," originates

with the fourteen ruling merchant clans

who made it a hub of international commerce

during the Middle Ages.

The city was once Ireland’s main port of trade

with France and Spain.

The medieval Church of St. Nicholas

has seen many famous visitors over the years,

including Christopher Columbus, who prayed here

some years before his historic voyage to the New World.

The city’s annual film festival continues to attract

latter-day celebrities too, including the star

of The West Wing , Martin Sheen.

In 2006, at the age of 66, he enrolled as a student

of English literature, philosophy and theology

at the University of Galway.

Nestled in the mouth of Galway Bay are the three Aran Islands,

Inishmore, Inishmaan, and Inisheer.

They’re home to some of the oldest archaeological remains

in Ireland, early Christian beehive huts,

meandering prehistoric dry-stone walls,

and ancient strongholds, including the Iron Age fort

of Dun Aonghasa, constructed between 1100 and 500 BC.

Perched atop a 330-foot cliff on Inishmore,

the fort was once a complete oval before the outer edge

of the cliff collapsed into the sea.

The first language of Aran is Irish.

Here, the country’s official tongue

is preserved zealously and spoken daily.

♪ ♪

Galway’s Gaeltacht region is home

to national broadcasting institutions,

including the country’s leading Irish language radio station

and TV network.

Twelve miles west of Galway City,

the picturesque coastal village of Spiddal

is also known as Ros Na Run, or "Glen of Secrets" --

filming location of the country’s best-loved

Irish-language soap opera.

Until the Middle Ages, Gaelic was the predominant language

of the Irish people.

Since the great famine of the 19th century,

which deprived the country of 2 million native speakers,

Irish has been in decline.

Once the second-most spoken language after English,

it’s now third, after Polish.

And yet its legacy remains strong.

English -- as spoken in Ireland --

has a structure, rhythm and vocabulary all based on Irish,

a prime example being the Irish word craic ,

meaning fun, mischief, and good times,

clearly defined to the world

during one memorable U.S. presidential visit.

In the summer of 2011, President Barack Obama

turned the sleepy hamlet of Moneygall, population 300,

into the biggest little village in the West.

The cause of the media frenzy was one Falmouth Kearney,

a 19-year-old shoemaker who emigrated from Moneygall

to New York City in 1850.

Local historians discovered he was none other

than President Obama’s maternal great great grandfather.

When the first couple came to town, they were greeted

by crowds of locals, including Henry Healy,

the president’s eighth cousin, known locally

as Henry the Eighth.

After a visit to his ancestral home, the President

spent an evening at Ollie Hayes’s pub,

pulling pints with enraptured locals

with the world’s media gathered outside.

Unveiled three years after the historic visit,

the Barack Obama Plaza has given

this once-remote rural backwater a whole new lease on life.

An estimated 100 million people around the world

claim Irish ancestry.

President Obama was only one of many Americans

keen to reconnect with their Irish roots.

Here on the banks of the River Blackwater in County Cork

stands the magnificent Palladian mansion of Castlehyde House,

bought and refurbished to the tune of $34 million by

Irish-American entertainer and undisputed lord of the dance,

Michael Flatley.

The Riverdance star wasn’t the first celebrated owner.

Castlehyde was once the family home and childhood residence

of Gaelic scholar Douglas Ross Hyde, the man who, in 1938,

became the first president of Ireland.

20 miles south of Castlehyde stands

an even more famous castle.

A place where, as legend has it, the "Gift of the Gab" was born.

NARRATOR: 600 years ago, the Irish chieftain Cormac MacCarthy

built a castle at Blarney near Cork City,

little knowing the fame it would one day enjoy.

For decades, eager tourists have come here to kiss

the Blarney Stone, a limestone block built into

the top of the castle’s battlement tower.

According to legend, the stone bestows the "Gift of the Gab" --

a magical ability to converse fluently.

To kiss the stone, visitors must literally bend over backwards,

suspended beyond the edge of the parapet.

At one time, the kiss involved a real risk to life and limb,

as participants were taken by the ankles

and dangled from the battlements.

♪ ♪

This is Killarney National Park

in the neighboring county of Kerry.

40 square miles of lakes and woodland, home to native species

from oak and yew forests to herds of Irish red deer

that have thrived here since the Ice Age.

Killarney’s three lakes are framed by

the Great MacGillycuddy Reeks mountain range,

where a dangerous three and a half thousand foot ascent

leads to the summit of Ireland’s highest peak, Carrauntoohill.

♪ ♪

To the north lies the historic town of Killarney,

childhood home of actor Michael Fassbender,

star of 12 Years a Slave and X-Men .

The Hollywood star attended school here

at Saint Brendan’s College.

But the town has an even more impressive former resident.

Killarney was once home to a man justifiably regarded

as the Oscar Schindler of Ireland.

Born in 1898, Hugh O’Flaherty grew up here

at the local golf course where his father worked as a steward.

Taking religious orders as a young man,

he was posted to the Vatican during World War II.

Using the Irish embassy as his refuge,

O’Flaherty operated a secret network,

hiding Jewish refugees and allied soldiers

in safe houses around the city.

He was so adept at evading the Gestapo

that he became known as

the "Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican,"

eventually saving 6,500 people from the Nazis.

The monsignor died in 1965.

Today, a monument to his honor stands in Killarney Town.

♪ ♪

Separated from the mainland by a deep chasm,

the Peninsula of Mizen Head in County Cork

is Ireland’s most southern extreme.

290 miles north as the crow flies,

Malin Head Lighthouse in Donegal is the most northerly point.

One of the great unspoiled wilderness terrains of Ireland,

County Donegal extends across 1800 square miles

of the northwest.

A third of the population speak Irish as their first language.

Up here, as the locals say, it’s different.

In the east of the county,

the monastic site of Station Island on Lough Derg

hides a subterranean cave where the 5th century Saint Patrick

is said to have experienced a vision of heaven and hell.

For centuries, pilgrims came here to atone for their sins.

In 1763, the original monastery was replaced by a basilica,

where the faithful still come to pray,

fasting for three days as they walk barefoot

around the remains of the old monastic cells.

Sealed in 1632, St. Patrick’s Cave

has never been opened since.

The most westerly of the six counties of Northern Ireland,

Fermanagh, is known as the Lake County,

and from above, it’s easy to see why.

The terrain is dominated by the great expanse of Lough Erne,

two connected lakes dotted with 154 islands

and a maze of inlets and peninsulas.

In 1994, this great waterway was linked by a 40-mile canal

to the Shannon River in the south,

creating a continuous navigable passage

between Northern Ireland and the republic.

♪ ♪

Belfast, on the east coast of Northern Ireland,

is Ireland’s second-largest city after Dublin.

Its administrative center, City Hall,

celebrates a charter granted in 1888 by Queen Victoria.

In the late 19th century,

Belfast was the world’s largest linen producer

and one of Britain’s great industrial powerhouses.

♪ ♪

But Belfast also bears the scars

of Northern Ireland’s sectarian conflict.

The Europa, in the city center, has a dark claim to fame.

Attacked no fewer than 28 times,

it’s arguably the world’s most bombed hotel.

The bitter 30-year legacy of the troubles

can still be seen today.

Sectarian division is evident

in the high, reinforced "peace lines"

that separate two of the city’s neighboring communities.

On the left, the Shankhill -- loyal to Britain.

On the right, the Falls Road -- dedicated to a united Ireland.

If there’s one industry that has defined Belfast

more than any other, it’s shipbuilding.

The Harland & Wolff shipyard on Queen’s Island in East Belfast,

overshadowed by its two towering gantry cranes,

Samson and Goliath, was originally founded in 1861.

Here, in 1909, work began

on the world’s largest passenger vessel -- RMS Titanic.

This sculptural building houses

the Titanic Belfast Visitor Experience,

a museum celebrating the construction

of the world’s most tragic ocean liner.

More than 800 feet long and 100 feet high,

Titanic required a huge expansion of the shipyard

and a workforce of over 3,000 men,

eight of whom died during construction.

To the north of Belfast lies one of Northern Ireland’s

most evocative landscapes, the County Antrim coast.

Some know it by another name -- the Kingdom of Westeros.

NARRATOR: Once home to powerful Gaelic families,

County Antrim in Northeast Ulster

is a landscape of ancient fortresses, dramatic seascapes

and towering cliffs.

No wonder that it was chosen as the location

for one of the most famous TV sagas of recent years,

Game of Thrones .

Teetering precariously on steep cliffs

overlooking the North Atlantic

stands the dramatic Dunluce Castle,

also known as the House of Greyjoy.

The castle was once the stronghold

of the Irish and Scottish clans McDonnell and MacDonald.

According to local legend, part of the kitchen collapsed

and fell into the sea, leaving one survivor --

a serving boy sitting in the only remaining corner

of the destroyed room.

♪ ♪

But of all the atmospheric locations in Northern Ireland,

one stands out.

As if tumbling into the sea on the rugged North Antrim coast,

the Giant’s Causeway,

formed after a period of intense volcanic activity,

is one of the most distinctive rock formations

anywhere on Earth.

Between 50 and 60 million years ago, lava

cooling and cracking like mud in the sun

formed some 40,000 interlocking hexagonal basalt columns.

Over eons, the columns have been weathered by the wind

and waves, creating distinctive towers and mounds of rock.

According to legend, the causeway is the ruin

of a land bridge to Scotland created by the Irish giant

Finn MacCool after being challenged to a fight

by the Scottish giant Benandonner.

A fight he gladly accepted, and won.

This old train, traveling along two miles

of narrow gauge track,

links the Giant’s Causeway with the historic town of Bushmills,

home to the oldest licensed whiskey distillery in the world,

founded in 1608.

Though the Scots and the Irish

both claim to have invented whiskey, most historians

maintain that its origins are actually Moorish or Arabic.

Throughout the 20th century, various factors,

from U.S. Prohibition to trade disputes,

left the Irish whiskey industry in decline.

By the 1970s, Bushmills

was one of only two surviving distilleries.

These days there are 12, and the future looks safe.

Of course, the Irish hold no grudge

against their American cousins. How could they?

The links between the two countries

are stronger than the fieriest malt.

♪ ♪

The game of hurling is one of Ireland’s

most popular national sports.

Played on a 100-by-160-yard field, opposing teams

pass and strike a leather ball called a sliotar

with flattened sticks called hurls, scoring points

above and below the cross bar of the goalposts at either end.

Played on the frozen ponds of Nova Scotia by Irish immigrants

in the 18th century, the game would one day evolve

into the modern sport of ice hockey.

♪ ♪

Welcome to the other Holywood --

famous for entirely different reasons.

This is Holywood Golf Club in County Down,

the first training ground of former world number one golfer,

Rory McIlroy.

Introduced to the game by his father at age 7,

Rory was the youngest member of the club,

and could once be seen practicing here every day.

Twenty years on, McIlroy is a four-time Majors champion,

winning the 2011 US Open

with a tournament record-beating score.

♪ ♪

Derry, in the northwest of Ulster,

is Ireland’s fourth-largest city.

At its heart stands one of the most impressive city walls

in Europe.

26 feet high and 30 feet wide, the battlements --

built in 1618 -- have never been breached.

Hence, the nickname, Maiden City.

Derry has had a troubled history.

On January 30th, 1972, British troops opened fire

on a peaceful civil rights march in the city’s Bogside area,

killing fourteen civilians.

The atrocity inspired one of U2’s most famous songs,

"Sunday Bloody Sunday."

Since the end of the troubles in 1998,

the mood here has changed.

Completed in 2011, the sinuous walkway of the Peace Bridge

has unified a city whose name is a legacy of old divisions.

To the mainly protestant population of the waterside,

it’s Londonderry, after the London trade guilds

who founded the walled town.

To Catholics on the city side, it’s simply Derry.

♪ ♪

The Peace Bridge, linking both communities,

is a symbol of renewed hope.

♪ ♪

In 2013, the County Antrim town of Ballymena

honored its most famous son, the actor Liam Neeson,

star of Schindler’s List and Star Wars .

Neeson was born and raised here,

attending St. Patrick’s College, the high school that inspired

his love of drama and gave him his first acting role --

a school play in which he played the lead

at the tender age of 11.

Jedi master Qui Gon Jinn

may not have survived The Phantom Menace ,

but the Star Wars franchise would return to Ireland.

♪ ♪

Rising 700 feet above the Atlantic,

seven and a half miles west of County Kerry,

stands the towering sea crag of Skellig Michael -- once home

to a community of monks who founded a settlement here

in the 6th century.

Uninhabited since medieval times, Skellig Michael

is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

A strictly limited number of visitors are admitted

during the summer months.

A winding path of 618 stone steps leads to the summit

and the perfectly formed beehive huts

where the monks lived a life of quiet contemplation.

In 2014, this became the extraordinary climactic location

of Star Wars: The Force Awakens .

And from the air, you can see why.

The jagged pinnacle, hemmed in by the ocean,

is like nowhere else on earth.

Visiting Skellig in 1910, the Dublin-born playwright

George Bernard Shaw described it as

an incredible, impossible, mad place,

and part of our dream world.

Ireland:

an ancient landscape inscribed with 10,000 years

of human history and culture --

an illustrated manuscript like no other.