Participants in the Pedal Project and Dublin cycling enthusiasts gathered in the DCTV studio to review DCTV’s recent use of the documentary format to instigate a city wide discussion on cycling.

When you go out onto the streets of Dublin looking for bikes, bring the footage you find back into the edit suite and re-mix it with some important words of advice from the past and good tunes this is what you get. Part snapshot of the zeitgeist part cycling agit-prop this is one of the best developed examples of Irish alternative television production.

Despite being fast paced and entertaining One Less Car doesn’t shy away from complex topics and, sometimes ambiguous or contradictory viewpoints. What emerges is the feel of a groundswell, of a phase transition as the act of re-imagining our city starts to see actual impact and gain critical mass. If anything convinces you that cycling is todays most relevant transport issue, it’ll be One Less Car.

The Dublin Council of Trade Unions, in conjunction with the Youth Committee of the ICTU and in co-operation with the Health trade unions, inaugurated a ‘Campaign for a Decent Public Health Service’ some time last year.

The Campaign hoped to bring together those who work in the Health Service and their trade unions, with patients’ advocates, Health and Hospital campaigners, concerned Health professionals, community and voluntary organisations, the trade union movement in general and the general public to demand a civilised Health Service.

DCTV recorded the meeting as part of our The Document series.

The background to the Symphysiotomy practice in Ireland.

This program tells the horrifying story of how hundreds of women in Ireland were subjected to a mutilating childbirth operation driven by religious fanaticism rather than medical necessity. From 1944-84, fundamentalist Catholic doctors boycotted Caesarean section because they were opposed to birth control: they opted instead for a barbaric 18th century operation that severed the pelvis.

This program is a recording of a meeting held by the Feminist Open Forum in Dublin Thursday 29 October 2009 with speakers including: Marie O’Connor Health Analyst and Author, Jackie Morrissey Researcher and Lecturer, Colm McGeehin, a solicitor who represents over 100 women who are casualties of this horrible childbirth operation.

Anyone directly affected by the issues raised in this programme may phone 086 86 98 373 for information and advice.

The Climate Camp is a place where anyone who cares about climate change or social justice can meet, live, learn and take direct action together. It happened last August 15th-23rd, in Co. Offaly, Ireland. This documentary by Near TV volunteers sought to capture some of it’s spirit.

Climate Camp: Part I from Dave Donnellan on Vimeo.

In this Neat TV production, Dave Donnellan and other volunteers bring viewers a glimpse into the recent Climate Camp in Shannonbridge, Co. Offaly. The protest camp highlighted the urgent need to address the issue of peat bogs in Ireland and the dangerous effect their exploitation by Bord na Mona and the ESB has on Climate Change.

Originally a video installation that ran in the Project Arts Centre, this recreation of the planning hearing for the Corrib Gas Project looks at the 10 year struggle between two cultures in the West of Ireland. On one side, a small community defends the safety of its people and rights of its farmers and fishermen, On the other the consortium of Shell Oil, the Norwegian state company Statoil and Marathon, plan to bring to market the valuable gas deposit of the Corrib gas field, off the North-West coast of Ireland. To achieve this, a production pipeline is being laid to carry the high pressure gas inland, to a processing plant in Mayo, exiting the Atlantic Ocean and reaching the Irish Coast at Glengad and Rossport.

You can read an interview with the artist that made the piece, Seamas Nolan over here.

We’re going to be showing a version of Seamus Nolan’s Corrib Project that exhibited in the project last month through out November. We’ll fill you in more when it’s closer to a broadcast date, but expect it to play out as part of our Independent Media block. You can read about the exhibition in Totally Dublin over here.

Irish artist and activist, Ian Clotworthy, has also completed a documentary about the first ever Irish Climate Camp that we’ll be playing out on the station at some stage too.

The Development Media Workshop looks at the life of a street kid in Western Kenya.