• the Black Death

The programme begins by focusing on the Black Death and how it weakened Anglo-Norman power in Ireland. A reconstruction of a medieval town focuses attention on the conditions which allowed the disease to spread so rapidly. A visit to the reconstructed monastic herb garden at Greyabbey is used to describe the medicines used at the time and to highlight their failure to cure the disease. There is a reconstruction of a family suffering from the Black Death.

This programme explains who Walter de Burgh really was, and how he was starved to death in the dungeons of Northburgh Castle (Greencastle in Co. Donegal). Walter’s skeleton is featured on the coat of arms of Derry City.

Finally the schoolchildren are released and they rejoin their class on their visit to Dundrum Castle.

01.47: The Scottish invasion.
03.00: Living conditions in a medieval Irish town: Tralee.
06.55: The Black Death.
07.20: Herbal medicines: Greyabbey, County Down.
13.40: The fate of Walter de Burgh.
14.15: Northburg Castle, Donegal.
16.38: Review.
18.01: Return to reality.